Foundational Understanding to Reveal New Opportunities

Clarifying the Care Pathway for Lung Cancer Visually

Objectives

Define the care pathway for lung cancer in the US and Asia to help identify pivotal informational/decision points.

  • This will be a tool in identifying new opportunities to apply existing or innovative technologies.
  • Gather mainstream thoracic surgeon feedback on KOL thoughts about innovations for lung cancer treatment.

Challenges

The pathways proved more complex than expected, including many “if…then…” data points where pathways could pivot.

  • Complexity required drilling down to a granular level to fully understand the decision points and subsequent action options.
  • It was fairly straightforward to understand reactions to innovation ideas from KOL’s, especially as our understanding of the care path improved.

How We Did It

We evolved the US discussion guide over the course of interviews to drill down into the fine points of the care path. Then we used the US path as a grounding point to identify similarities and differences in China and Japan.

  • Our network of skilled moderators in Asia was key to achieving the same level of granularity across all countries.
  • We synthesized granular analyses and created a detailed pathway chart that highlights key moments, using iconography and other visual devices to make it easier to quickly grasp both the big picture and the fine points.

RESULTS

The care pathway chart proved to be a valuable tool to both understand and communicate about the pathway going forward.