The Courier Health 2nd annual Patient Innovators Summit brought together commercial leaders across life sciences to explore how people, process, and technology are reshaping the patient experience. What started as a request from clients to facilitate candid conversations and share best practices has evolved into a growing community of market access, field reimbursement, commercial operations, and patient innovators committed to improving the patient experience to drive better patient outcomes.

This year’s event kicked off with opening remarks from CEO Danny Sigurdson around the intersection of industry and technology trends and what it means for enabling the AI-driven patient experience, followed by a keynote from Avadel COO Susan Rodriguez. The morning wrapped with an off-the-record fireside chat featuring experts from Ionis, Sanofi, and Verona. After lunch, the group broke into small-group facilitated breakout discussions around the FRM of the future, implementing innovation, HUB & SP partner management, and cross-functional coordination for patient success.

For those that couldn’t make it, this recap covers three major themes from the day.

1. Get the data right and everything will follow

Program success increasingly depends on how well teams connect and interpret their own data – particularly first-party, patient-level data.

When organizations align on how data is captured, defined, and shared – early, often, and no matter how time-consuming it may feel – every downstream process benefits. Access, Support & Field teams can be more efficient and effective in their day-to-day, insights gain credibility, and programs have a foundation to drive towards continuous iteration and improvement.

What was discussed:

• ‍Own the data, then design the platform. Teams that brought data mapping and management conversations into their strategic technology investment decisions early avoided months of rework later. Leaders are standardizing a shared data dictionary (mapping sources, definitions, etc.) and aligning on what good looks like early in the process across teams and functions.‍
• View every touchpoint to capture data insights. In our world of specialty medicines, there is tremendous value in high-touch, personalized human interactions. With the right technology foundation, innovators can automatically – and compliantly – capture those interactions into structured data insights to help inform what’s working across a program or piece of the patient journey. The most innovative programs are leaning into the first-party data advantage, recognizing it as a key and strategic differentiator for long-term, especially with the advancements of AI. ‍
• From activity to outcomes. Whether you’re a manufacturer or provider, you care about the bigger picture of getting qualified patients to start and stay on therapy, not how many calls are placed or emails are sent. With greater visibility into the end-to-end patient journey, innovators are shifting from activity metrics to a more holistic understanding of outcomes, focusing on what is needed to move patients or providers towards their next milestone.

2. AI is here to stay

AI was the topic of the day across keynotes, networking conversations, and facilitated breakout groups. While most were bullish on the potential of AI to streamline the patient experience, it must be embedded within day-to-day workflows and adopted with an emphasis on accuracy, reliability, and industry focus to add value.

What was discussed:

• ‍Bring everyone in early. Legal, compliance, data governance & analytics, patient services, and field leadership should co-design use cases and guardrails from day one, especially consent and data sharing language.‍
• Start small to go big. Prove value in a limited cohort, then scale. Several teams even frame efforts as a “beta,” not a pilot, to set learning expectations while signaling momentum. Define clear scope, timeline, and success criteria before undertaking any effort and lean on your technology partners – the right ones will be a guide to filter the noise. ‍
• AI augments people, not replace them. Leaders are seeing value today in the automation of administrative tasks like eBV, ePA and gen AI patient summaries, which free case managers and FRMs from digging through files to focus on driving quality patient and provider/office interactions. In addition, AI-enabled insights (e.g. risk signals for nonstarts and discontinuations) and intelligent next best actions are enabling patient and account level prioritization that focuses team resources on the moments that actually drive impact.

The wins show up when you embed AI where your teams already work, constrain it with policy and process, and measure impact the same way you do any other operational change.

3. Models and roles are evolving

As treatment experience expectations evolve, so too are roles and processes. The definition of “field” is evolving, and we’re seeing the rise of highly specialized roles to increase the likelihood of patients starting and staying on therapy (e.g. dedicated patient education roles, pre-prescription support, dual access and patient services roles). Innovators are streamlining the patient and office experience while giving teams clearer goals.

What was discussed:

• ‍More efficient communications. Many are moving toward a single point of contact for HCPs and staff, with specialists working behind the scenes. Fewer handoffs; fewer “who do I call for X?” moments. In addition, hybrid access/reimbursement/support roles can provide more personalized support, develop future leaders, and smooth coverage challenges and spikes in demand. (Of course, this depends greatly on the patient population, with rare and ultra rare disease still requiring higher touch , often in-person  expertise.)‍
• Compliance by design. As roles evolve, training and cross-functional coordination remain non negotiable. Teams are using table reads and mock launches to surface misalignment early and get ahead of potential barriers to patients starting therapy. The most innovative companies are even running “day in the life” exercises to develop empathy for patients, caregivers, providers and loved ones, which helps develop more tailored and useful wraparound support services. ‍
• Aligning incentives with outcomes. As mentioned above, FRM performance evaluation is moving away from volume-based indicators toward impact-oriented KPIs that better reflect patient access outcomes. Modern compensation structures are also being redesigned to reward accuracy and outcomes over volume. This shift discourages inefficient or incomplete submissions and ensures incentives align with the organization’s broader patient access goals. FRMs are increasingly recognized for their ability to identify underperforming accounts and stabilize provider engagement, turning the role into a strategic driver of sustained access performance.

The Future is Now

This year’s Summit was about near-term innovation: how to turn first party data, coordinated teams, and production grade AI into measurable patient impact.

To close the Summit, we celebrated the individuals and organizations leading the way in patient innovation. These awards honor those who exemplify excellence in patient support, collaboration, and real-world impact — the true changemakers shaping the future of patient experience.

The most valuable moments were the candid discussions, the “this is how we actually do it” details, and the connections that can only be forged in person.

If you want to compare notes, explore how peers are operationalizing these ideas, or make sure you’re in the room next year, get in touch.