Improving Insights into the Hypertension Patient Experience Across Major Global Markets

Client Problem

A leading pharmaceutical company sought to deepen its understanding of the hypertension patient journey across multiple markets : the US, UK, Japan, Switzerland, Italy, and France. The goal was to create a comprehensive, localized patient journey map to identify unmet needs, workflow differences, and key challenges at each stage of care. This insight was critical to designing effective drug commercialization strategies that align with market-specific healthcare environments and patient behaviors.

Background

Hypertension affects a large portion of the global population and is a major contributor to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Despite widespread availability of treatment options, many patients remain undiagnosed, untreated, or poorly controlled due to complex care pathways, inconsistent screening, and comorbidity management challenges. These issues vary significantly between countries due to differences in healthcare systems, country/region specific clinical guidelines, patient demographics, and access to care.

The client recognized that without a detailed, country-specific understanding of the patient journey, commercial efforts risked misalignment with real-world patient and provider needs, potentially limiting market penetration and treatment adherence.

Objective

• Map the hypertension patient journey stages and workflows in each target market.
• To get insights into Hypertension market insights
• Identify patient demographics at risk and common comorbidities and epidemiology forecasts until 2030. Hypertension prevalence data and epidemiology forecast.
• Understand roles of healthcare providers and referral patterns.
• Highlight key challenges at each stage of care.
• Review treatment options and management practices.
• Examine and analyse other comorbidities in the hypertensive patients
• Assess risk monitoring processes and outcomes.
• Recommend targeted solutions to improve patient outcomes and support drug commercialization.

Solutions Offered

1. Comprehensive Patient Journey Mapping:

   Developed detailed workflows for each country’s hypertension care pathway; from initial screening through long-term management to incorporating local healthcare structures and clinical guidelines.

2. Demographic & Risk Profiling:

   Analyzed country-specific patient populations and their forecasts, identifying % of high-risk groups and comorbid conditions such as diabetes and chronic kidney disease to tailor intervention points.

3. Stakeholder Analysis:

   Mapped the involvement of primary care physicians, specialists, and referral systems to identify influence points for education and engagement.

4. Challenge Identification:

   Pinpointed barriers including low awareness, diagnostic delays, treatment adherence issues, monitoring gaps, and fragmented care coordination.

5. Treatment Landscape Review:

   Assessed pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic treatment options, highlighting the growing role of digital health tools and fixed-dose combinations. Market opportunities for hypertension therapies.

6. Integration of Glycemic Management:

   Emphasized the importance of managing diabetes alongside hypertension, especially in markets with high comorbidity rates.

7. Risk Monitoring & Outcome Assessment:

   Evaluated HCP monitoring practices and patient outcomes to guide evidence-based recommendations.

8. Strategic Recommendations:

   Proposed solutions including expanded screening programs, reimbursement support for home monitoring devices, digital adherence tools, integrated care models, and targeted educational initiatives for HCPs and patients

9. Patient journey analysis in pharma

Impact

The client gained actionable, market-specific insights that enabled:

• Enhanced alignment of commercialization strategies with real-world patient and healthcare provider needs.
• Identification of high-impact intervention points to improve patient awareness, hypertension screening and diagnosis pathways, and management.
• Development of tailored educational and digital engagement programs to boost treatment adherence and outcomes.
• Optimized market entry planning and pricing strategies aligned with local guidelines and reimbursement pathways.
• Patient journey analysis in pharmaz