20/05/2026
Today, on World Clinical Trial Day, it’s the perfect occasion to reflect on the difference meaningful patient engagement in research can make for both research and patient outcomes.
Decisions on the design, conduct, and a**lysis of clinical trials should be based on robust evidence, not on beliefs or testimonies. That is why, at Patvocates, we are determined to ensure those decisions are informed by a deep understanding of patients’ needs, experiences, and expectations. This is also why we launched the Patvocates Patient Evidence & Research Unit (PERU), dedicated to generating robust patient evidence that helps inform and shape more relevant, inclusive, and impactful decisions.
Clinical outcomes are essential, but they do not tell the full story. Patient experience data matters just as much. Patient involvement in the early stages of research is key to ensuring trial designs meet not only regulatory expectations, but also inform downstream decisions on HTA and reimbursement. Too often, trial designs focus primarily on clinical endpoints, lack evidence on unmet needs and patient preferences, and fail to adequately measure patient-reported outcomes. Yet all of these are essential to understanding patient reality and reflecting the true patient value of an intervention.
Patients should not only serve as data sources by participating in research - they should help shape it. In addition, many decisions require evidence generated independently by the patient community, including data on burden of disease, unmet needs, patient preferences, quality of life, treatment experience and satisfaction, patient pathways, and barriers to care.
That’s why, on World Clinical Trial Day, we should also recognise the complementary evidence that clinical trials and clinical outcomes alone cannot provide.
Within our PERU team, we help clients (NGOs, and companies) generate patient evidence, conduct lived-experience research, map patient pathways, run surveys, and carry out preference studies. PERU works to ensure healthcare stakeholders better understand what matters most to patients and caregivers, and use those insights to improve research, policy, care, and access.
Collaborating strategically with communities on evidence generation - not simply collecting patient evidence from individuals - is just as important as scientific rigour in research. That’s what we do in Patvocates, day by day.