Patient engagement isn’t just a buzzword—it's a business imperative reshaping healthcare’s future. With rising payer pressures, more complex patient needs, and mounting demands for health equity, the question on every executive’s mind is: How can we move beyond the “checkbox” approach and make patient engagement both real and profitable?
That’s exactly what we unpacked in a recent episode of The American Journal of Healthcare Strategy podcast, featuring Dyan Bryson, MBA, Vice President of Diversity Services at TOTAL Diversity Clinical Trial Management and founder of Inspired Health Strategies. With three decades in pharmaceutical leadership, Dyan has seen the industry from every vantage point—launching blockbuster brands, pioneering diversity initiatives, and, most importantly, learning where organizations fail and how they can succeed.
This conversation isn’t about generic advice. It’s about what actually works, what fails, and how you—whether you’re leading a hospital, running clinical trials, or managing a biotech startup—can operationalize engagement for impact and ROI. Dyan’s hard-won insights, from million-dollar failures to industry-wide transformations, will challenge your assumptions and point the way to sustainable change.
Patient engagement often lags because it’s historically been underfunded, undervalued, and hard to measure. But that’s changing—thanks to both financial proof and culture shifts at the executive level.
Dyan Bryson opens with honesty about her early career: “I was a typical sales, marketing, sales leadership person launching brands… and sad to say as I look back, I really didn’t do much for patients.” For decades, engagement initiatives in pharma and health systems were “about checking the box,” not delivering results.
So, why weren’t organizations investing seriously in patient-centric approaches? Dyan breaks it down:
Measurement Difficulty: “It’s easy to see whether or not the prescription is filled. We don’t have any way to measure what happens with the patient once that prescription gets filled.” Traditional ROI tracking focuses on script volume, not real outcomes.
Cultural Inertia: Most companies were stuck in an old paradigm. “The industry wants to put the prescription at the center and not the patient.”
But the turning point came when real investment—*“$3.4 million”—*was put behind a patient-centered program. The results? “We returned more than a hundred million. We helped to improve relationships between patients and physicians.” This proved that engagement isn’t just ethical; it’s lucrative. Now, post-COVID, Dyan notes, “Everything I’ve done has become important to my clients or potential clients.” The market finally sees the value of engagement done right.
Genuine patient-centricity requires executive champions, continuous feedback, and alignment with both business and patient outcomes—not just policy statements.
Dyan describes the pattern she’s witnessed: organizations think they’re patient-centered, but “those things that you perceive... are not helping with patients.” She references Estellis, a Japanese pharmaceutical company, which hired a physician consultant to audit their patient engagement efforts. The findings? Initiatives meant to support patients were really supporting internal engagement or compliance metrics—not true impact.
The key ingredients for meaningful change:
Internal Champions: “It usually takes champions within a company to really decide they want to fight for it.” True change agents influence at the executive and board levels.
Cultural Wake-up Calls: Dyan highlights a story where a pharma CEO’s hospital stay prompted a total company pivot: “He came back to his company and he changed it… That’s what it really takes: a real change in mindset, a change in culture.”
Metrics That Matter: Traditional patient adherence is often misunderstood. “The patient support team is telling the C-suite, ‘We have great patient adherence,’ and they said, ‘We know that we do because we have delivered the drug to the patient’s house.’ No—you have no idea if the package was even opened.” Real engagement measures are two-way, not transactional.
Measuring patient engagement requires a mix of adherence tracking, real-world feedback loops, and willingness to accept imperfect but actionable data.
Bryson outlines the challenge: “We depend on companies like IMS or now IQVIA to give us data... what the prescription behavior is like. That process is not as clear for patient data.” Even claims data has blind spots.
How are leaders closing the gap?
Adherence Rates: The closest proxy is adherence, but only if you track it meaningfully—“Ask people: Did you open the package? What was your experience?” Digital apps, nurse outreach, and even pill counts in the exam room can give directional data.
Two-Way Communication: “If you have a two-way conversation with people and ask… and stay engaged with them instead of just throwing the drug at them and just waiting for them to get another refill… that’s where most patient support programs are right now, unfortunately.”
Patient Support Centers: Organizations with support centers who actively follow up—by text, phone, or app—see better adherence and experience metrics.
Qualitative and Quantitative Mix: Executive teams need to look beyond the data dashboard. As Dyan says, “It comes down to actually listening and understanding what works for the patient, not just what is easiest to measure.”
Pro tip: The more you engage in real conversations, the richer your qualitative data becomes—which often uncovers root-cause barriers quantitative data misses.What Actually Works: Designing and Delivering Effective Patient Engagement
Effective patient engagement strategies are built on three pillars: ask questions, listen actively, and personalize by channel—without making ageist or technocentric assumptions.
Bryson doesn’t mince words: “The first thing is to ask a question and listen—and actually listen. The patients are the experts.” Too often, healthcare professionals assume they know what works, missing critical details about patient realities.
She calls out common engagement tactics—and their pitfalls:
Technology Isn’t One-Size-Fits-All: “Just because someone’s older doesn’t mean they won’t use technology; there are younger people who won’t use it too.”
Multi-Channel Is Essential: Mix nurse check-ins, apps, text reminders, and good old-fashioned face time to meet people where they are.
Ongoing Pulse Checks: “For initiatives that don’t include platforms, it’s still asking people along the way—taking a pulse check.” Never assume last year’s patient journey still fits.
Ask, Don’t Assume: Always start by asking the patient what works for them.
Support Social Determinants: Dyan lauds the field’s recognition of “social determinants of health.” Housing, work, and family all affect adherence and engagement.
Iterate Based on Feedback: Patient journeys shift—sometimes overnight. Build flexibility into every engagement plan.
Patient-centric programs don’t guarantee financial success, but when designed collaboratively, they dramatically reduce the risk of costly missteps and unlock hidden value.
Bryson is clear-eyed about risk: “I think there are times when there are losses—usually those are the times when we are not engaging with people and asking them what works for them, that we are making assumptions.” The antidote? Engage directly with patients and caregivers before you invest heavily in solutions.
She shares a case where a small biotech was about to launch a new drug for an ultra-rare disease. The plan was to make the drug “hard and enteric-coated, could not be crushed”—to mask a bad taste and smell. Through a simple, technology-enabled focus group (costing nothing but time), they discovered “80% of our potential audience has a feeding tube. Smell and taste mean nothing.” Without that direct feedback, the company would have wasted millions on an unusable product.
Lessons for Executives:
Engage early, even on a shoestring budget.
Leverage advocacy groups and direct patient input, not just provider proxies.
The right listening session can be more valuable than a year of data modeling.
Even organizations with limited resources can drive world-class engagement by rethinking workflow, leveraging volunteers, and making every interaction count.
Dyan offers concrete, no-excuses advice for small organizations:
Human Touch Matters: In community clinics, “the intake person’s eyes are on the iPad, not on the person, and they feel shut out.” Simple fixes—such as employing scribes or splitting intake and engagement roles—can make a big difference.
Volunteer Engagement: Leverage scribes, interns, or even volunteers to free clinicians for real patient connection.
Creative Research: Technology allows for low-cost virtual focus groups with advocacy groups and caregivers, bringing invaluable insights at little cost.
“Just that small time, an hour of listening to patients and understanding where they really are, what their lives are really like… if they didn’t do that, they would have completely missed the boat for both the business needs and the patient needs.”
If you’re early in your career or seeking to pivot into patient engagement, start by building empathy, learning directly from patient communities, and investing in practical training.
Dyan’s advice is grounded and actionable:
Get Certified: “Look up this organization called the Patient Program at the University of Maryland… it’s about a five-week certificate program, but it’s an eyeopener.” Programs like this offer real tools and community connections.
Volunteer with Purpose: “A lot of this is going to be volunteer, and that’s what I did. I didn’t make a lot of money—I just found opportunities to learn and understand.”
Start with Small Advocacy Groups: Especially in rare diseases, these organizations are eager for help and offer hands-on experience.
Join Industry Networks: Groups like Global Genes offer education and connections across the rare disease landscape.
“It does pay off. And I’ll tell you, Cole, I never remember that until someone like you says that to me… all I’m doing is what I think is the right thing to do.”
In a post-pandemic world, U.S. healthcare organizations cannot afford to treat patient engagement as an afterthought. The leaders who win will be those who embrace humility, invest in listening, and build programs that respond in real-time to patient realities—not just metrics.
Action Step:
Audit your organization’s engagement strategy today. Ask not just what you’re measuring, but how you’re listening. Find one process where you can insert a feedback loop, focus group, or patient survey this quarter—and commit to acting on what you learn. That’s where transformation begins.
For more leadership insights and real-world case studies, subscribe to The American Journal of Healthcare Strategy’s podcast or newsletter. Together, let’s move the needle on what patient engagement really means—and make it a strategic, measurable advantage.
