On February 2nd, HRW attended the first ever European Pharmaceutical Market Research Association (EphMRA) Local Chapter Meeting in the UK. The programme covered a variety of topics, with the morning half of the day focussed on patient centricity and how the pharmaceutical industry can be truly patient centric; as well as how immersive, well-conducted market research can help in this endeavour. As part of this session, our own Emma Owen (research manager) and Katy Irving (research director) presented a paper titled ‘Wearables: How technology can open the door to patient centricity’. In the session they covered three types of wearable technology (life-logging cameras, smartwatches, and heads-up displays); reviewing each technology, what it does, benefits and limitations, example outputs (including some from a ‘live demo’) and case studies from HRW self-funded research as well as client projects. They discussed how these technologies can help overcome common limitations of ‘traditional’ patient research (such as context effect and memory fallibility) and also generate engaging digital outputs that help clients deeply understand the patient experience. The paper generated lots of interest from the 60+ delegates. The afternoon session included more diverse topics, including how to better consider the ‘respondent experience’ and minimise declining response rates by better cooperation between client, agency, and fieldwork partner. The end of the day brought a presentation on ‘system 1 and system 2’ in brand building. Overall it was a very engaging day and we were delighted to have been invited to be a part of the programme. For more information, please get in touch. Apply Now!