Optio conducts social worker and caregiver focus group research at a neurological rare disease meeting – Chicago, IL.

June 2017 – This is not the first time Optio has conducted research with atypical key stakeholders like social workers. Optio is a pioneer of innovative approaches to rare disease market research to include one-on-one interviews or focus groups with social workers, geneticists, home healthcare nurses and other allied healthcare professionals. One example is a recent project designed to uncover opportunities to reduce “patient loss” (e.g. misdiagnosis, delay of treatment, disengagement from the healthcare system). Optio published a white paper at the 2014 World Orphan Drug Congress featuring a “triangulation” approach to improve market understanding in rare disease. The white paper described Optio’s use of three primary stakeholder groups to optimally “estimate a negative” market segment of Huntington’s disease (HD) patients who were almost entirely outside the healthcare system. By surveying an adequate number of thought leaders, high prescribing physicians, and social workers specializing in HD, Optio obtained the best estimate to-date on this market segment. Validation of this approach included all three key stakeholders arriving at similar estimates of the market segment.