HIV Patient Research

Qual­i­ta­tive patient research to under­stand how patients suf­fer­ing from HIV think and feel about using our client’s drug in order to con­tribute to the devel­op­ment of a new global posi­tion­ing strategy.

Our Approach

Patients are likely to pro­vide much more can­did and illu­mi­nat­ing insights of their every­day life if they are given the free­dom to record every­day events.  For this assign­ment there­fore, patient were pro­vided with the means to record such events and instructed to col­lect images and pho­tographs rep­re­sent­ing their thoughts and feel­ings.  This served to illu­mi­nate their every­day expe­ri­ences and emo­tions and also, engaged them through­out the research process.  Fol­low­ing com­ple­tion of the diary, patients were vis­ited at home, inter­viewed in-depth and, in the UK only, video-recorded.

This in-depth, sen­si­tive approach was designed not only to elicit feel­ings and expe­ri­ences about their ill­ness and our client’s drug, but to develop an under­stand­ing of the ‘per­son’ rather than sim­ply the patient.

The Results

By engag­ing with patients and giv­ing them the time and oppor­tu­nity to share their own sto­ries – going beyond the struc­tures of ‘tra­di­tional’ in-depth dis­cus­sion – we were able to pro­vide our client with real, per­sonal insight.

Video-clips, pho­tographs (both of the respon­dent and those selected by the respon­dent) in addi­tion to hand­writ­ten diary entries, formed part of the deliv­er­ables. Cap­tur­ing insight from real human sto­ries held much more rel­e­vance and impact for our client and has served to fur­ther their under­stand­ing of patients’ emo­tional con­nec­tion with their product.