Finding the Human Touch in a Wired World

According to Jen Butler, CCO at Pleio, researchers are beginning to connect emotional well-being to medication behavior, finding that loneliness can directly undermine treatment consistency and overall outcomes. In one study of over 2,000 chronically ill patients, those who reported feelings of loneliness were significantly more likely to experience poor adherence. Two-thirds said their diagnosis made them feel lonelier than before, highlighting how chronic illness often intensifies emotional isolation.

This growing awareness points to the need for a more holistic, patient-centered approach that goes beyond traditional access solutions. Addressing loneliness, enhancing emotional connection, and streamlining provider workflows are becoming integral to improving adherence and outcomes. Experts suggest that fostering trust and communication, both between patients and providers and within broader care ecosystems, will be key to reducing barriers and achieving meaningful health improvements in an increasingly complex specialty drug landscape.

A transcript of her conversation with PC can be found below.

PC: Looking ahead, how do you see pharma companies balancing technology-driven engagement with the need for more human, emotionally resonant patient support?

Butler: You need someone to be there to support you and explain what you need and why it's relevant. I think technology has incredible scalability and support for patients, but it's only as good as they're willing to use it, and so if you can explain why you need a digital drug companion, or why you need a digital health coach, or why these programs are important, then you get the sustainability in using those programs.

There's also the technology reach as well. So they could maybe get reminders, but the reminders are great for maybe some early maintenance, but long term, you really need to understand, it's not nagging. You need to understand really more what's going on underneath the routines, the fear of injections, or the misunderstanding of what's happening to me. It's not just sending a quick text reminder.

I totally appreciate that we live in a wired world, and we're all used to looking at our phone, and that's part of our daily routine and habits, and sure, that should be part of our medication routine. But we also need to realize that a wired world with technology has a lot of noise, and there's other ways to cut through the noise by just having a conversation around it as well. So it truly is a balance that's needed, and there's probably also a balance around different segmentations of patients, like patients or consumers. Consumers has segmentations or behaviors. Not everyone wants to be called, not everyone wants a text, so we’ve got to kind of figure out that balance there.