Patient experience & voice

Sustainability report

Edwards Lifesciences’ work to improve Patient Experience and Voice supports our aspiration of transforming patient lives with breakthrough medical technologies.

Definition

Continuously improving the patient experience with products developed with feedback and input from patients while empowering patients to support and aid each other. Additionally, develop innovations that allow Edwards’ products to improve efficiency, safety and effectiveness of healthcare processes.

Management approach
Annual performance

Management approach

Edwards Lifesciences focuses on providing patient-centric innovations that save and enhance patient lives. We understand that too often patients do not have influence over the diagnosis of their condition, the type of treatment they receive or how their care is delivered. As part of our research and development, we work to incorporate patients’ input into the development of our products throughout the total product lifecycle. By listening to patients and capturing their input through both qualitative and quantitative methods, we can provide care that meets individual needs and preferences.

The Vice President of Patient Engagement is responsible for ensuring that all patient engagement activities are in alignment with our aspirations to transform patient care through innovative technologies and attract and engage talented employees.

Growing the patient voice through partnerships

When patients use their voices, they do more than advocate for themselves—they inspire others to speak up and support each other toward healthier outcomes. Edwards Lifesciences Foundation provides charitable grants to the American Heart Association for their Heart Valve Ambassador Program, a group of dedicated individuals who offer resources and support to heart valve patients, as well as the American Heart Association’s Heart Valve Education Center, where patients can connect with and learn from other patients. Our Foundation also supports Heart Valve Voice—a patient-focused advocacy organization that collects and shares patient stories and advocates on behalf of patients’ interests. This global program reaches patients in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland, Italy and France. Other patient advocacy programs the Foundation has supported include:

Mended Hearts Trained Accredited Patient Visitor Program
Mended Hearts Peer Advocate program
WomenHeart: National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease and Heart Champions program
Patient Advocate Foundation’s Heart Valve CareLine and Financial Aid Fund

The Patient Experience

Our annual “Patient Experience” (formerly referred to as “Patient Day”) brings together patients and caregivers at our corporate headquarters in Irvine, California, and our facility in Draper, Utah. These events give our heart valve recipients and critical care patients an opportunity to connect with our employees and other patients, and to share their experiences. At the Patient Experience, attendees have the opportunity to:

Learn about heart valve and critical care innovations;
Meet Edwards leaders and employees dedicated to serving patients;
Participate in discussions and surveys to help improve the patient-caregiver experience;
Tour our manufacturing facility; and
Meet employees who designed or handcrafted their technology.

The experience for those suffering from cardiovascular disease remains complex and filled with obstacles. The treatment process can be inconsistent from one patient to the next. Through our Patient Experience program, Edwards gains important insights into the patient journey, from symptoms and diagnosis through recovery, including patient-defined concerns. These learnings help us identify opportunities to address these gaps, and to prioritize tools, support resources and programs we develop to improve patient access, experience and outcomes.

Evidence indicates that empowered, engaged patients experience better clinical outcomes. For this reason, Edwards’ Patient Engagement function develops and maintains an approach to listening to patients, including sponsoring patient listening sessions, conducting Science of Patient Input (SPI) studies, supporting patient advocacy groups that represent the patient’s voice and helping patients exercise their voices to improve the healthcare system. In 2018, we introduced a new goal to ensure that our therapies are addressing the needs of patients through an increasingly collaborative patient engagement process. This goal aligns to SDG 3: Good Health & Well-Being.

Addressing patient needs and connection along the journey to heart health

Edwards strives to ensure all patients have a voice in shaping their treatment experience, and many patients benefit from minimally invasive procedures. Edwards has responded by driving innovation in Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) technology. TAVR allows physicians to replace heart valves with a catheter instead of surgically opening the chest. To learn more about patient experiences with Edwards’ heart valves, browse our collection of patient stories.

Our industry-leading Edwards PatientConnect program offers dedicated care managers and peer ambassadors who support and help patients navigate through what can be an overwhelming, arduous pathway from pre-treatment through recovery. Additionally, our TAVR patient community program supports patients post-procedure with educational updates, resources and opportunities to participate in Edwards and partner programs for peer support, outreach and advocacy. This unique program helps support TAVR patients along their journey to heart health and enables them to connect with other patients and get involved in improving the experience for future valve patients.

Edwards places a priority on gathering patient insights across the total product lifecycle, so we invest in patient preference studies among various patient groups to determine patient benefit-risk tolerance for new therapies. Using qualitative and quantitative methods, Edwards ensures the patient voice is heard from development to commercialization of new technologies.

Patient resources

Edwards believes informed patients have a more successful treatment experience. Our website offers information on heart valve disease and treatment, as well as FAQs and a glossary of terminology. Additionally, our NewHeartValve.com microsite provides comprehensive information on aortic stenosis and options for treatment. Our Foundation also invests in educational resources for patients with Mended Hearts, the American Heart Association and with the Alliance for Aging Research Foundation.

Annual performance

Patient engagement and events

Listening to patients inspires us and continues to improve our patient engagement initiatives. In 2018, Edwards initiated a number of opportunities in offices around the world to increase employee engagement with patients. Edwards held Patient Experiences where as many as 100 patients visited various Edwards locations, including Irvine, California; Draper, Utah; Sydney, Australia; Singapore; and Milan. Additional Edwards meetings (e.g. sales meetings, regional leadership summits, etc.) included patient speakers and other opportunities for employees to meet with a patient. Edwards grew employee direct-to-patient connections 100 percent from approximately 1,000 employees in 2017 to 2,000 employees in 2018. Edwards Patient Engagement plans to hold annual patient interactions in all offices with more than 50 employees around the world. This goal aligns with SDG 3: Good Health & Well-Being.

Science of patient input studies

In 2018, Edwards conducted our first quantitative patient benefit-risk tolerance study among patients with aortic stenosis. This rigorously-designed patient treatment preference study determined patients’ willingness to tolerate potential risks associated with TAVR to obtain the benefits of the procedure compared to the impacts associated with open heart surgical replacement of the aortic valve. Recently published results illustrate the assessment of patient priorities.

Two additional patient preference studies, one on mitral and one on tricuspid patients, were initiated in 2018 and are ongoing. These studies will collect both qualitative and quantitative patient benefit-risk tolerance and treatment preference information that can be used in a variety of ways for the benefit of patients. For example, learnings can be used by physicians in the shared decision-making process between them and their patients; by Edwards to help support our products throughout the product lifecycle; and payors or regulators when evaluating health technology assessments and other submissions.

Our aspirations

Transforming patient lives with breakthrough medical technologies

Fostering an inclusive culture where all employees grow and thrive

Highlight story

2018 Patient Experience Yields Deep Learnings

In 2018, we held Patient Experiences at several of our campuses around the world, including Switzerland, Utah and California. These events brought together patient communities who have benefited from Edwards technologies to enable us to learn from them how to improve our products and the healthcare journey for future patients.

In Irvine, a large, cross-functional team worked together for months to organize an agenda that provided a positive experience for patients and care advocates, while providing Edwards' employees the opportunity to gain valuable insights from attendees. We conducted Patient Listening Sessions (PLS) designed to elicit in-depth experiential data from patients using guided discussion. For the patients, participating in the PLS offers an opportunity to share their story and connect with fellow patients. Patient story-telling can provide us with an invaluable understanding of how patients navigate their treatment journey.

For each PLS, we gathered two or three patients together with their care advocates. During the 90-minute session, patients shared their experience on topics related to their disease and treatment journey, gaining access to care, and their experience making treatment decisions with their doctor. Patients also shared their greatest challenges prior to treatment and their gratitude for successful recovery. We analyzed notes from the PLS program using qualitative analysis software to identify common themes around the discussion topics. Results from the PLS analysis produced important insights for Edwards leadership, and serve as another means by which Edwards ensures the patient voice is heard.

In a post-event survey, the majority of attendees said the experience was “Excellent” and said they would recommend the program to others. Participants appreciated the opportunity to connect with other patients and care partners, to learn about ways to get involved in helping others and about the lifesaving technologies they received. Participants described the day as “wonderful,” “fascinating,” “very enjoyable” and “a blessing.” Edwards is proud of these results and intends to extend the program to more patients in the future.