Educating Patients & Caring for Mental Health
- For cancer drug developer BeiGene, getting patients access to good, solid medical information and tending to their mental health needs, as well as their physical needs, are top priorities.
- Josh Neiman, SVP, Chief Commercial Officer at BeiGene, says making sure online AI tools pull accurate information is an important part of that education, since some patients turn to them for information about their disease.
- Clear communication is also important when addressing patients’ mental health needs, Neiman tells SurvivorNet.
- BeiGene has created a “Talk About It” program to address these needs. Neiman stresses that patients are inspired by “authentic” hope, not false promises.
Cancer is hard to endure and sometimes even more difficult to fully comprehend and explain to others. That’s why patient and physician education is a never-ending endeavor for
Josh Neiman , SVP, Chief Commercial Officer for drug developer BeiGene. “I think we’re in a different era,” Neiman tells SurvivorNet. Neiman, who has a marketing background, devises ways to explain the complexities of cancer and emerging cancer treatments to physicians and patients. He realizes that today, people, even older people, go online for information first. Thus, the healthcare industry, in all its facets, must be ready to meet patients’ digital appetite for medical information online. “Most people are going online. They’re looking at other sources of information,” he adds. Artificial intelligence (AI) and language modeling programs like
ChatGPT are becoming increasingly utilized by people wanting to learn more about their diagnosis or that of their loved ones. “Artificial intelligence solutions are sort of accurate or are actively trying to curate answers, but they’re not always looking in the right places. They’re not always pulling the right information, and we’re not always aware until we see it,” Neiman explains. Neiman says a recent focus has been placed on getting the “right information in the right places” so AI programs display helpful and accurate information.
RELATED: We Asked AI-Powered ChatGPT to Answer Your Top Questions on Breast Cancer. Here’s What It Got Right and How It Fell Short Addressing Unmet Mental Health Needs
Speaking of effective communication in cancer care, Nieman says it’s important to be sincere, honest, and hopeful when sharing information with patients battling cancer. “What I’ve observed is patients are inspired by authentic hope, not by false hope. They don’t want to be told, ‘It’ll be okay.’ They need to sort of be convinced. They need to hear from others [patients who’ve been through a similar experience],” Neiman said.
RELATED: Mental Health: A Guided Breathing Exercise to Help Manage Anxiety Neiman says mental health has emerged in recent decades to be just as important to the oncology field as combatting the cancer itself. He says BeiGene is helping lead the way with its “Talk About It” program, helping meet the unmet mental health needs of patients who can sometimes feel hopeless.
Mental Health Resources for Cancer Survivors
“We’re working with leading experts in the field to try to help understand what the unique needs [are] from a mental health perspective for patients dealing with cancer, and how we can better partner with them,” Neiman said. Despite cancer care's immense challenges for patients and oncologists, Neiman remains hopeful. “We have so much information to guide treatment interventions and science and really better understand the tumors and what’s driving the disease,” Neiman said.
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