An OVID Health article by Shamilah Nyiramukwaya
I spent two days at the Patient Centricity and Collaboration World Conference Europe in London last week. Brilliant conversations, engaging speakers, and a lot to sit with. But the thing I keep returning to is not a session or a statistic. It’s who was not in the room.
A few things that stayed with me:
- The language is shifting. From “return on investment” to “return on engagement.” From one-off consultations to long-term partnerships. Investors are now evaluating companies on the strength of their patient engagement as a risk-mitigation measure, not just an ESG one. That framing matters.
- Patients are decision-makers, not consultees. The ask is structural, not tokenistic. We need to embed the thinking into our structures and systems, and not simply an add-on.
- Dignity is the foundation, not a detail. Without it, engagement is transactional. With it, it can be transformational. It shows up in how we listen, how we value lived experience, and how we design systems that actually work for the people who need them.
- Nine in ten people cannot understand standard health information. I did not realise the figure was that high. We have to do better.
- Rare disease families are trawling blogs, crossing borders, and piecing together hope from social media just to find a trial. The sacrifice is extraordinary. The system’s response too often is not.
- And on technology, the phrase that kept coming back was simple. People need people. We must use technology where it makes sense to do so.
But here is the thing. The people who most needed to hear these conversations were not there. The colleagues who shape how treatments actually reach patients and those who hold the money. We were, as more than one person put it, preaching to the converted.
So I am taking these conversations to where those colleagues are. I will be at the EPA conference this week because if we believe in finding patients where they are, we should do exactly the same with the colleagues we need to bring along. Patient centricity cannot live in one conference room. It has to travel.
A note on language: I use “patient” here to reflect a defined role within the healthcare system, such as an “HCP” or “researcher,” not as an identity label. In other contexts, I use person-first language.
Article originally published on LinkedIn on 2nd March 2026
Image credit: https://www.patientcentricityworld.com/
