Press Release: Disease Management and Patient Adherence: 41% of Program Budgets are Outsourced

Disease Management and Patient Adherence: 41% of Program Budgets are Outsourced

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., Jan. 3 -- According to a recent report by business intelligence firm Cutting Edge Information, participating companies spend an average 41% of their overall disease management and patient adherence budgets on outsourcing activities. Outsourcing specific program activities allows for companies to more effectively manage several key steps in program development (http://www.PharmaPatientAdherence.com).

According to "Pharmaceutical Patient Adherence and Disease Management," 61% of companies surveyed outsource at least part of their material development activities. Other highly outsourced program activities include call centers (50%), market research (50%), and communication with program users (44%).

Outsourcing can eliminate costs of maintaining the infrastructure needed to support some specific activities as well as the difficulty in managing these tasks. Patient confidentiality issues also encourage companies to outsource specific portions of a program. Doctors and patients are more comfortable with outside vendors handling patient records than allowing pharmaceutical companies to manage it. This also eliminates the perception that pharma companies could place their own interests over those of the patient

"Outsourcing specific patient adherence and disease management program activities provides several advantages for pharmaceutical companies," said Amanda Zuniga, research analyst at Cutting Edge Information. "Outsourcing can reduce infrastructure cost as well as improve task efficiency. Companies often develop long-term relationships with vendors who provide quality service and are able to leverage the vendors' expertise to create effective programs."

"Pharmaceutical Patient Adherence and Disease Management: Program Development, Management and Improvement," available at http://www.PharmaPatientAdherence.com, contains budget and staffing metrics for 18 different patient adherence/disease management programs. Budget benchmarks include cost to attain a new patient versus cost to retain an existing patient, annual program maintenance budgets, outsourced budgets, and specific activity budget breakdowns. Case studies, best practices and tactics for addressing key program challenges are utilized to give executives a guide to managing their own programs with success.

Visit http://www.PharmaPatientAdherence.com to download a summary of the report, or contact Amanda Zuniga at Amanda_Zuniga@cuttingedgeinfo.com or 919-433-0210.