When I received a phone call from Ailsa Bosworth MBE from National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society (NRAS) asking if I’d be interested in being involved in “a very important piece of work” with British Society for Rheumatology (BSR), little could I have imagined the significance in my reply.
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Now some two years later, I'm proud to lead the patient involvement in the National Early Inflammatory Arthritis Audit (NEIAA), especially as this work was recently rewarded with the Richard Driscoll Memorial Award, recognising outstanding work in patient and public involvement. In this blog, I wanted to highlight the importance of the Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) element of the NEIAA from a patient perspective.

PROMs are questionnaires about health and quality of life which help to understand how patients’ conditions change and this affects day-to-day activities. Historically, rheumatology departments collected this information at the time of appointments using paper forms. Due to COVID-19, rheumatology departments have had to adapt to new ways of working. Many appointments now happen by telephone, which means teams cannot collect paper questionnaires.

In August 2020, BSR launched a new ePROMs platform, available for free to rheumatology departments. The platform sends out questionnaires to patients by email and shares the information back with the clinical teams. This switch to online has the benefit of allowing patients more time to reflect on their condition away from the clinics, where perhaps there's a tendency to put a brave face on, play down symptoms, or gloss over issues such as low mood.

One of the questionnaires you might be asked to complete is the self-reported DAS (disease activity score) and NRAS has produced a helpful information pack to help complete this questionnaire. Other questionnaires ask about how severe your symptoms are, how much your disease impacts on your ability to do tasks and work, and questions about your mood.

To date, the participation levels of patients in this work has been good, although we continue to explore ways of making it better. At baseline, covering some 5,000 participants to date, patients reported a high impact of the disease, with significant levels of functional and work impairment, depression and anxiety. Improvements however were seen across all domains after three and again after 12 months.

As somebody recently diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, I feel it is vital that PROMs are continued to be used to provide the 'qualitative' element to the assessment of patient welfare, as the disease can have such a negative impact on mental health and the ability to work. The process of PROMs can also help facilitate patients to become more pro-active in the self-management of their condition

Paul Amlani-Hatcher is Chair of the Patient Panel and also sits of the Project Working Group of the NEIAA. He was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in 2015.

https://www.rheumatology.org.uk/Portals/0/Documents/Practice_Quality/Audit/NEIA/2021/NEIAA_Patient_Public_Second_Annual_Report.pdf?ver=2021-01-13-170233-337
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With the opening of the polling stations in hours not days now, I have been reflecting on how the political candidates have been targeting me in Richmond Park and North Kingston. As the photograph above shows I have been bombarded with a range of leaflets over the last few weeks, and from all the candidates, as I am sure most of you have. This tactic is very much a traditional marketing approach, but what else could the parties have done, using alternative marketing channels, to influence my vote?

I am aware that some of the parties have also knocked on our door, but I have been away working for the last few weeks, and in any case the visits have mainly been during the daytime and so would have missed me. Doorstep politics is used, as I understand it, to target marginal wards. So I guess there is some logic to continuing this - but there are other ways that the parties could have used their limited resources in more effective channels. We are after all in the digital age!

Saying that, I have received personalised mailings from the Conservative and Lib Dem candidates, the former due to the fact that I joined Zac Goldsmiths email list to follow what he was up to, as my existing MP. I have also received emails from the LibDem candidate. These two parties are effectively the only runners in my area - so I guess the other parties may just not bother, but are they missing a trick?

I am fairly active on social media but I have not been "reached" by any of the political parties on this channel. This is somewhat surprising as we have seen how whole movements of political change have been started and co-ordinated through this platform. 

Anyhow maybe all of this is academic, as do people really change their mind at the last minute?

In my view the the parties, like brands and services, would be better working on their longer term brand and loyalty building, rather than just relying on short-term tactical interventions.

So in answer to my own question, "would smarter marketing affect the election result?" I would probably say "yes" but maybe not this time round!

Thank you for reading this post. If you find it interesting please share it or post a comment.

My business, www.pamah.org, is a new and exciting strategic marketing consultancy, based in Kingston upon Thames, which exists to help individuals and organisations reach new heights. 

With over 20 years of experience in marketing we want to help you "spread your wings" and achieve your targets in a fun and dynamic way.

Paul Amlani-Hatcher

When I told people that I was going to get the coach from London to Folkestone, to visit my parents, the reaction was generally one of surprise. First I was asked if I was feeling okay and then I was reminded that "coaches are for old people and students". I was even offered the use of a Lexus for three days by some well meaning relatives.

Now to be fair for the last 30 years or so I have always driven down to the coast, but I decided that I would give the coach a chance, and at £5 for a single journey it seemed like an attractive alternative - at least financially!

So how did the coach fair? Well I was promised leather seats, wifi (on some journeys) a toilet and an electrical charge point for my gadgets. Unfortunately only the first of these was actually available. However I did have some additional items thrown in that were not really journey enhancing, including pigeons at Victoria coach station and a 15 minute delay. On the positive side the booking process online was seamless, the driver was both courteous and helpful (even loading and unloading baggage for those of us brave enough to be separated from our possessions). Time-wise the driver did manage to catch up a few minutes but at just under three hours from our scheduled departure I decided to check out the competition for the return journey.

So here I am sitting on the hi-speed train and I only have 55 minutes to write this blog - a huge saving of over two hours in terms of journey time! This is a major plus but obviously comes at a cost financially - after online booking fees it's a shade under £30 for a super off-peak single. Also there's still no sign of wifi or an electrical socket and I'm not up for looking for a toilet for fear of losing my table seat. 

So I will revert to driving for my next visit, especially as my wife will be with me and so the car will once again win on time and price. A shame really as I'm sure that more people would use "public transport" more for leisure trips if it better met customer needs in terms of price, time and additional services. 

How about train journeys at coach prices? Now that would be interesting!

Thank you for reading this post. If you find it interesting please share it or post a comment.

My business, www.pamah.org, is a new and exciting strategic marketing consultancy, based in Kingston upon Thames, which exists to help individuals and organisations reach new heights. 

With over 20 years of experience in marketing we want to help you "spread your wings" and achieve your targets in a fun and dynamic way.

Paul Amlani-Hatcher

I read today, in the Guardian, that a Japanese bank is to introduce robots to deal with customers in branches. 

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/04/japanese-bank-introduces-robot-workers-to-deal-with-customers-in-branches

Yesterday I saw on the news that London Underground has started the closure of ticket halls, due largely to the fact that less than 3% of customers were interacting with staff for their ticket purchase.

http://www.itv.com/news/london/2015-02-02/london-underground-ticket-office-closures-begin-today/

Now while these two stories at first seem quite unrelated, they are both about the replacement of customer service by either machines or robots. Although in the case of London Underground it is fair to report that more staff will be available for other customer service duties across the stations.

Now assuming, in the case of the Japanese bank, that this is more than just a PR stunt to get some brand coverage, can machines and robots really do a better job than people in providing customer service?

Well yes, if the company in question has lousy customer service, take note nPower and Ryan Air, voted two of the worst companies for customer service in the UK, in a Which? survey of 3,600 consumers in 2014.

http://www.londonlovesbusiness.com/business-news/business/and-the-award-for-the-worst-company-in-the-uk-for-customer-service-goes-to/8865.article

But a big fat no for those companies providing excellent customer service through people. My favourite at the moment is The National Trust staff at Ham House, who all are truly fantastic at making your visit a memorable one, irrespective of whether they are paid staff or volunteers.

I for one don't want a robot selling me tickets, pouring my flat white, nor for that matter asking me if I'd like to sample a beer brewed to the recipe used in the 1700's!

Robots are cool but humans surely still need to be the answer!

Thank you for reading this post. If you find it interesting please share it or post a comment.