The infographic below popped up in my Twitter feed when an e-patient colleague from the multiple sclerosis community tagged me with a “what the HELL is this!?!” … and the excrescence below.
Let me set the scene for you – this is digital collateral from a software company, Medrio, that on its website landing page says it provides “simple, fast, and affordable tools for the collection of data in clinical trials.” It appears that the company is all about the cartoon animals, since they’ve got a cartoon cat in a lab coat welcoming you to their digital litter box domain. It also appears that Medrio is happy to think of clinical trial subjects – you know, the ones called “patients,” or, alternatively, “people” – as sus scrofa. If you don’t speak Latin, that’s the species classification for … PIGS.
This points up a pernicious, perpetual problem in too many precincts in healthcare. People/patients are seen either as dumb – possibly even dumb animals – and treated with the same level of respect. It’s not often, though, that an organization that actually thinks of patients this way fully uncloaks, and shows their wrong-headedness in full color.
OK, you’ve waited long enough. The infographic I’m talking about is pasted below. PLEASE make some very loud noise online, show the world that this jerkbaggery will not stand.
to clarify, the author of the infograph is a silicon valley based software company that sells tech to the clinical research community. Calling them “Pharma” is a little misleading in this particular case. All your other points are on target of course.
This is why patients ALWAYS should be included AT EVERY LEVEL. If you’re doing/creating anything involving patients, include patients in your development process.
Updated the wording – thanks for pressing for clarity =)
Joe, in my experience, few Pharma companies would be this clueless in the first place anymore. Silicon Valley software companies that have anything remotely to do with clinical research, healthcare or real live patients should seriously consider getting a clue…