Partnering for Patients: Announcing a partnership between the Digital Medicine Society (DiMe) and Savvy Cooperative

Patient engagement can take many forms — from in-person workshops to virtual engagements, like surveys, interviews, discussion boards, UX testing, and beyond — but the driving force is the same: to learn directly from patients. It’s important to engage patients throughout a product lifecycle to get early feedback on concepts and ideas, gather input during product development, and get insights on marketing and commercial materials. By doing so, you’ll create the most meaningful product that patients will actually want to use!

At DiMe, we value the input and expertise of patients. This is why we intentionally include patients on our Strategic Advisory Board, Scientific Leadership Board, and Research Committee, and encourage patient groups and advocates to equally participate within DiMe. Our work benefits when we include patients, and we value the privilege of learning from them. Truly, we believe the field of digital medicine is made better when patients have the opportunity to fully participate as a valued stakeholder.

However, DiMe is not a patient organization. While we are grateful for the patient leaders on our teams, we are not equipped to — nor should we — speak on behalf of patients. We uphold the importance of digital medicine products being developed alongside patients, yet we are not positioned to drive the important work of patient engagement on our own.

That’s why, today, DiMe is proud to announce our partnership with Savvy Cooperative, the first and only patient-owned public benefit co-op. Savvy is a leader in the field of patient engagement, from identifying barriers, opportunities, and success stories arising from engaging patients in the pharmaceutical industry, to highlighting racial inequities that exist systemically across the healthcare ecosystem.

One of DiMe’s core values is that we are collaborative and embrace opportunities to work with colleagues with diverse backgrounds and expertise. We’ve partnered with Savvy to continue to learn from and leverage their already-established expertise on the intricacies of meaningful patient engagement.

Together, DiMe and Savvy are committed to working together as partners to champion meaningful patient engagement within the field of digital medicine by:

• Serving as subject matter experts on the topics of digital medicine and patient engagement, respectively;
• Connecting innovators and product development teams with diverse — yet targeted — patients and caregivers;
• Infusing best practices of patient engagement into the life cycle of connected health product development; and more.

It can be difficult for teams to know what patient engagement methods would work best, including which patients to reach and how to reach them. DiMe recommends any team grappling with these questions to reach out to Savvy, whose model is perfect for meeting the demands of product teams, all while making sure teams reach the right patient population. Savvy does the hard work of reaching targeted patients quickly using their innovative co-op model which is geared to access diverse patients in authentic and culturally sensitive ways.

We are thrilled to harness the power of Savvy to help us and the collective power of DiMe to better advocate for patients through meaningful engagement. Together and alongside all of you, we challenge the industry to #askpatients as we look forward to advancing digital medicine to optimize human health

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Savvy Cooperative is the first and only patient-owned public benefit co-op, and accelerates the development of patient-centered products and solutions by providing a marketplace for patient insights. Companies can connect directly with diverse patients to participate in market research, user-testing, advisory boards and co-design opportunities. Using a unique co-op model, Savvy empowers patients to use their health experiences to advance research and product development. Savvy’s award-winning co-op has been featured in FastCompany, TechCrunch, The Boston Globe, and named one of the 50 Most Daring Entrepreneurs of 2018 by Entrepreneur Magazine.