PAE News
Patient Summit
The Grünenthal first Patient Summit took place at the Steigenberger Hotel in Amsterdam on the 17-18 March.
The first Patient Summit brought together patient advocates, clinicians and
Grünenthal researchers to define ways to bring the patient voice to the research and development process. The meeting focused on identifying joint initiatives and partnerships to further our understanding of three chronic pain areas (vulvodynia, bladder pain, and stump/amputee pain). The meeting programme and format were guided by a patient steering committee and included an overview of the research and development process, and three workshops that were specific to the disease areas.
The workshops of the event include discussions on:
• Vulvodynia:
o Continue development of a new PRO using advice from the steering
committee
• Bladder pain:
o Define and standardise pain descriptors to improve diagnosis
• Stump/amputee pain:
o Address the communication challenges throughout the patient journey,
and explore the need for patient community website
The key aims and discussions of the meeting, as well as the desired outcomes, were also captured by live illustrators.
The conclusions of the summit highlighted Grünenthal’s commitment to continue involving patients in their research and development processes, concretising the ideas and outcomes of the workshops and debates; this means including in their processes the patient’s view on the complexity of treatment and the challenge of a diagnosis that is common to all cases presented during the event, but also exploring other aspects of early research and development such as the design of protocols for clinical trials.
