Medical Anthropology

Is the healthcare system truly patient-centric?

“There’s a huge gap between the perception of professionals and the perception of patients.”

Dr. Josep Comín-Colet

Director of the Cardiovascular Diseases Research Group, Bellvitge Hospital (Barcelona)

Medical Anthropology complements clinical evidence by providing a deeper understanding of the genuine limitations of patients' conditions and their impact on quality of life.

By considering patients' cultural and individual contexts and their emotions, we can better comprehend how these factors influence health outcomes. Our approach not only generates new evidence regarding patients' experiences within the care process but also informs the development of improved interventions, drives new research avenues, amplifies the patient voice, and enhances overall patient experience.

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Medical Anthropology - The Missing Piece

According to Dr. Comin-Colet, "We've been talking about patient-centric medicine for a long time, but we're still using the questions from a medical-centric system". Medical Anthropology serves as a bridge to achieve a holistic perspective that genuinely fosters patient centricity.

Clinical Trials: objective (usually quantitative) evaluation of safety and effectiveness of treatments -- WHAT is the biological impact
PROMs: subjective (yet quantitative) evaluation of patients' symptoms, experiences and perceptions -- WHAT is the emotional impact
Medical Anthropology: subjective (qualitative) understanding of what drives patients' perceptions and behaviors -- the WHY.

Clinical Trials

PROMs

Medical Anthropology

Evaluate safety and effectiveness of treatments

Understand symptoms, experiences and perceptions related to the health condition or treatment

Understand which outcomes matter the most to patients and what drives their behaviors

Objective insights

Subjective insights

Predominantly quantitative

Predominantly qualitative

WHAT - biological impact

WHAT - emotional impact

WHY - holistic impact

What's in it for me?

Medical Affairs: Generate patient-based evidence that strengthens evidence strategies and connects clinical development with real-world patient impact.
Market Access & HEOR: Translate lived experience into structured, robust evidence that supports patient-centered value narratives for HTA and payer discussions.
Real-World Evidence & Evidence Generation: Identify unmet needs, treatment burden and real-world patient impacts that inform RWE strategies, evidence gap assessments and new scientific narratives.
Brand & Product Strategy: Build stronger differentiation strategies by understanding what patients truly value across symptoms, functioning, treatment experience and daily-life impact.
Patient Engagement & Advocacy: Ensure patient perspectives are not only heard, but translated into actionable evidence that can inform access and healthcare decision-making.
Healthcare Professionals: Reveal the practical, emotional and social dimensions of disease and treatment, enabling more patient-centered care, communication and shared decision-making.

Key tools we use

Clinical Ethnography: Medical Anthropology helps us generate robust context-sensitive evidence that can be published in relevant scientific journals.
Observational Studies : Medical Anthropology helps us generate robust context-sensitive evidence that can be published in relevant scientific journals. The presence of IPs and the existence of a protocol approved by a MREC strengthens the publication outcomes.‍
Advisory board: Ensuring that AB discussions and decisions are based on important patient outcomes with deep understanding of the patient’s experience.‍
Business Unit/Product/Brand Leaders: Medical Anthropology helps to unearth contradictions and tensions between patient profiles, situating them in their context and contributing, among others, to the DE&I conversation.

Clinical Ethnography

Observational Studies

Advisory board

Patient Focus group

Medical Anthropology helps us generate robust context-sensitive evidence that can be published in relevant scientific journals.

The presence of IPs and the existence of a protocol approved by a MREC strengthens the publication outcomes.

Ensuring that AB discussions and decisions are based on important patient outcomes with deep understanding of the patient’s experience.

Medical Anthropology helps to unearth contradictions and tensions between patient profiles, situating them in their context and contributing, among others, to the DE&I conversation.

Discover how our insights, inspired by medical anthropology, can transform healthcare and lead to more effective interventions.

Case studies

Assessing the Quality of Life of patients with Chronic Heart Failure (CHF) under a multidisciplinary care model (published in BMJ Open).
Lack of awareness of systemic lupus erythematosus and its consequences in a cohort of moderate and severe patients in Spain: The LupusVoice study (published in Lupus).‍
Do patients with HER2+ MBC and their HCPs speak the same language? Perceptions and uses of chronic disease and metastatic treatment arising from the EtnobreastHER2 study (published in Patient Educ Couns).

See more Case Studies

Want to know more?
Contact Us

Medical Anthropology

Is the healthcare system truly patient-centric?

Medical Anthropology - The Missing Piece

Clinical Trials

PROMs

Medical Anthropology

What's in it for me?

Key tools we use

Clinical Ethnography

Observational Studies

Advisory board

Patient Focus group

Case studies

Want to know more? Contact Us

Want to know more?
Contact Us