What BioPharma Can Do to Conquer the “Compassion Crisis”

While clinical excellence is the ultimate driver of positive outcomes, compassion can add significant value. Most scientists agree that compassion is the emotional response to another’s pain or suffering, involving an authentic desire to help. According to the American Medical Association’s Principles of Medical Ethics, “A physician shall be dedicated to providing competent medical care with compassion.”¹

While observing patient advisory boards, I’ve heard how many patients struggle to get diagnosed and treated for certain rare diseases. Several claimed that physicians have brushed off clear metabolic signs as simply psychological. They endured years of frustration seeing more than 15 doctors before they were properly diagnosed and treated.

This made me wonder: How many patients are never accurately diagnosed or don’t comply with treatment because they don’t feel a sense of compassion from their Healthcare Professionals (HCPs)?

Researchers from a Harvard Medical School asked 1,300 patients and physicians “Is the U.S. health care system compassionate?” The answer: almost half of Americans believe that the U.S. health care system and health care providers (HCPs) are not compassionate.²

Physicians also routinely miss emotional cues from their patients. Researchers sought to understand the association between doctors’ emotional intelligence, patient trust, and the physician-patient relationship. They found that how the doctors self-rated on emotional intelligence didn’t correlate with how their patients viewed them. Physicians actually miss 60% to 90% of opportunities to respond to patients with compassion.³

While patients feel they receive less compassion, exhausted and burned-out physicians believe they can provide limited compassionate care due to the current system. It seems that we have a compassion crisis in medicine.

Not only is exhibiting compassion morally the right thing to do, but studies demonstrate that compassion heals.

A University of Colorado study—supported by a research grant from the National Institutes of Health—showed that in 85% of the outcomes measured across 34 controlled experimental studies of patients recovering from a heart attack or surgery, psychological and emotional support received from HCPs was associated with an improvement in patient recovery.⁴ 

Additional studies have proven other conditions can be clinically improved with compassionate care. For example:

• Compassion significantly reduced pain in irritable bowel syndrome⁵
• Among patients with diabetes, the odds of optimal blood sugar control were 80% higher with highly compassionate physicians⁶
• Patients with breast cancer had  higher adherence to tamoxifen 4 years after their cancer diagnosis when they perceived receiving “the right amount” of emotional support⁷

Treating obesity is another area where compassion makes a real difference. Mike AbouAssaly, MD, who built a world-class obesity center in Burlington, IA, explains: “The stigma of obesity is real; nobody wakes up wanting to be heavy. They’re embarrassed because they blame themselves. I help my patients understand what it takes to get a healthy lifestyle back. Just a subtle 5% to 7% weight loss makes a dramatic impact, so we set realistic goals. We start there and take it week-by-week, month-by-month. We meet the patient where they are by modifying the diet that they already know. We see them as a person, not as an obese person.”

The result: 87% of his patients reach the 15% weight loss goal in 6 months, and 92% reach the goal after 12 months.

What can BioPharma marketers do to improve clinical excellence for doctors and patients with peer-to-peer education? Consider these ideas:

1. Coach your speakers encouraging clinicians to spend 40 seconds displaying compassion and actively listening to patient concerns. The median amount of time before a doctor typically interrupts a patient when they’re discussing their chief complaint is 11 seconds. Extending the time up to 40 seconds of expressed compassion helps patients feel heard and that the doctor cares.⁸
2. Build tools and training to ensure that physicians make eye contact with the patient. When physicians are discussing treatment while they’re busy looking at a computer screen, patients feel disconnected and are less likely to follow the orders.
3. Teach HCP speakers why tone of voice and mimicking patient expressions help patients feel valued, appreciated, and connected.
4. Ask Advisory Board meeting participants how they believe compassionate care influences treatment for patients within the disease state and your brand.
5. Remember that medicine is always for the patient. When communicating to physicians, remind them that compassion improves treatment adherence.
6. Sales representatives can encourage compassion. Compassion is contagious; commend office staff when you see them offer support and empathy to patients as soon as they walk in.

Compassion matters, and you can make an impact. In health care—just as in life—people caring for people make the world a better place.

¹American Medical Association. AMA principals of medical ethics. Accessed June 20, 2023. 

² Lown, B. A., J. Rosen, and J. Marttila. “An Agenda for Improving Compassionate Care: A Survey Shows about Half of Patients Say Such Care is Missing.” Health Affairs 30, no. 9 (September 2011) 

³ Weng, Hui-Ching, Hung-Chi Chen, Han-Jung Chen, Kang Lu, and Shin-Yuan Hung. “Doctor’s Emotional Intelligence and the Patient-Doctor Relationship.” Medical Education 42, no. 7 (July 2008) 

⁴ Mumford, E., H. J. Schlesinger, and G. V. Glass. “The Effect of Psychological Intervention on Recovery from Surgery and Heart Attacks: An Analysis of the Literature.” American Journal of Public Health 72, no. 2 (February 1982) 

⁵ Kaptchuk, Ted J., John M. Kelley, Lisa A. Conboy, Roger B. Davis, Catherine E. Kerr, Eric E. Jacobson, Iriving Kirsch, et al. “Components of Placebo Effect: Randomised Controlled Trial in Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome.” BMJ 336, no. 7651 (May 3, 2008) 

⁶ Hojat, Mohammadreza, Daniel Z. Louis, Fred W. Markham, Richard Wender, Carol Rabinowitz, and Joseph S. Gonnella. “Physicians’ Empathy and Clinical Outcomes for Diabetic Patients.” Academic Medicine 86, no. 3 (March 2011) 

⁷ Kahn, Katherine L., Eric C. Schneider, Jennifer L. Malin, John L. Adams, and Arnold M. Epstein. “Patient Centered Experiences in Breast Cancer: Predicting Long-Term Adherence to Tamoxifen Use.” Medical Care 45, no. 5 (May 2007) 

⁸ Fogarty, L. A., B. A. Curbow, J. R. Wingard, K. McDonnell, and M. R. Somerfield. “Can 40 Seconds of Compassion Reduce Patient Anxiety?” Journal of Clinical Oncology 17, no. 1 (January 1999)