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Case Study: The Emotional Side of Pediatric Infusion

At Pharmapack 2019, a human factors study highlighted anxiety and other delivery issues, offering insights into the real-world challenges of managing pediatric drug delivery.

Chris Franzese, Clinical Leader at Matchstick, manages a team of clinicians supporting client projects related to combination product and medical device development and usability testing.
Chris Franzese, Clinical Leader at Matchstick, manages a team of clinicians supporting client projects related to combination product and medical device development and usability testing.

The study of human factors in healthcare is a rapidly evolving space. The focus is shifting from summative studies (to prove what’s been developed) to formative studies earlier in the development. These formative studies that can help developers understand user context, extend user understanding and illuminate challenges in the user’s treatment experience.

In a case study presented at Pharmapack 2019, Chris Franzese, Lead Clinical Analyst at Matchstick, and Adam Kalbermatten, Director of Marketing at Terumo Pharmaceutical Solutions, shared some of the observed real-world challenges of managing pediatric drug delivery.

“When you’re thinking about new products to develop, pre-formative studies help manufacturers understand users and the context in which the products are used,” said Kalbermatten, whose company makes infusion sets that are combined with hemophilia medication from a separate manufacturer.

Hemophilia affects many children, typically males more often than females. If the disease state is severe, the patient may need infusions several times a week (either from a parent or from themselves, depending on age). “It can be quite a heavy disease burden,” he noted.

Terumo partnered with Matchstick to study patient and caregiver experiences. Though they didn’t begin with a set idea of how they would segment the study, they observed clear trends between the adults using the products on themselves and pediatric patients.

Patient age makes a difference

By time the time a person with hemophilia reaches adulthood, infusion is typically a part of life—finding veins, reconstituting medication. Kalbermatten explained, “They are like pharmacy techs how fluidly they perform the infusion. These patients consider this a part of their routine.”

The study with Matchstick involved filming the patients during drug delivery. One patient was clear in his message that he is not fragile, and that when he infuses, it makes him 100% normal.

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