Understanding the Whole Patient I have trained to be a researcher. To methodically seek out the answers to research questions, to be objective, to be analytical, and to base my conclusions on scientific evidence. Unexpectedly, four years ago, I was required to change hats-from scientific researcher to that of patient. The transition was difficult for a number of reasons. I have always been the person in my family to whom others turn to for health advice. Being organized, plan

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The chance exists to engage patients directly through crowd research and patient journey mapping as well as indirectly through patient health information to seek new opportunities for drug repurposing. Case examples are used in this article to shed light on programs that have been initiated by a variety of stakeholders including patients themselves to elucidate drugs that potentially are candidates for drug repurposing. Drug repurposing involves finding new indications for ex

Abstract It is suggested in this article that patient engagement should occur further upstream during the drug discovery stage. 'Lead patients', namely those patients who are proactive with respect to their health, possess knowledge of their disease and resulting symptoms. They are also well informed about the conventional as well as non-conventional treatments for disease management; and so can provide a nuanced perspective to drug design. Understanding how patients view the