Beyond the Numbers: How Data Storytelling Is Reshaping Patient Support

At this year’s Hubs West conference, a standout session, “Proving Program Value: Leveraging Data as a Form of Story Telling to Achieve Strategic Objectives,” tackled a challenge the entire patient services space is wrestling with: how to prove program value in a landscape flooded with metrics, however without defined meaning.

Led by Rachel Thorpe, Executive Director at Otuska Patient Assistance Foundation, DeWayne Manning, Partner, Archbow Consulting, and Relay’s, Jay Lavin, the panel explored how organizations can turn data into strategic storytelling—measuring more than checkboxes and driving outcomes that actually matter.

One of the central themes: legacy KPIs are out of sync with modern realities. Metrics like “calls answered in five seconds” may have been useful 20 years ago—but today, they miss the mark.

DeWayne noted, “I think for the organizational perspective, really looking beyond the traditional ways of measuring these programs is going to be critical going forward and starting that very early in the process.”

Jay Lavin shared how Relay works with 50+ healthcare and biopharma partners, underscoring three core pillars of value measurement:

DeWayne and Rachel agreed on the need to start defining success before a program launches. Otherwise, you end up retrofitting data to outdated KPIs, missing the true value of the patient journey.

Jay echoed that sentiment. He shared, “If you try to start counting what’s important after you’re already launched, I think you’re doomed already because your data is fixed and you rely on old KPIs. So, one of the things that we always try to do with clients is find out, ‘What are you really trying to get out of this? What are the qualitative things? What are the human things that you’re trying to do?’ And even having that conversation opens them up a little bit. It’s interesting when you do it early.”

The panelists agreed: data is everywhere, but interpretation is scarce. The right metrics aren’t just quantitative—they’re behavioral, emotional, even empathetic.

Rachel posed the question of whether or not patients are contributing to measuring program success. DeWayne brought up the concept of traditional surveying as a way to understand patient sentiment.

“I think one of the things that we’re beginning to see is through technology, the ability to really capture the sentiment and what’s going on in that conversation and being able to pull that forward. I think the technology is allowing for that patient to have more input than they realize when they’re going through that conversation because as you’re able to read through the verbiage and you’re starting to understand the tone and the empathy and what’s going on there, I think they are beginning to contribute.”

On the other hand, Jay emphasized the power of “passive data” as a proxy for patient sentiment. Are they opening messages? Watching videos? Dropping off at certain points? That behavior tells a richer story than a post-journey survey ever could—and with tools like Relay’s scrolling feed and content-level analytics, that story becomes visible in real time.

Rachel underscored this point from the nonprofit side: the future of value storytelling is qualitative. Social drivers of health, program satisfaction, and overall well-being need to be measured—and counted—even if it’s still done manually today.

One of the more honest takeaways came when the conversation turned to partnerships. Rachel shared her process for vetting partners: it takes months, not weeks. And it’s not just about services—it’s about shared long-term vision and cultural alignment.

Jay’s blunt assessment: “The person who pays is in charge.” That means manufacturers can—and should—require partners to collaborate more seamlessly and treat data as a first-class citizen, not an afterthought.

At Relay, this resonates deeply. We’ve seen firsthand how silos between co-pay vendors, hubs, and SPs can fracture the patient journey. Our technology is purpose-built to connect those dots—driving behavior in real time, while sequestering and analyzing patient-level data securely and compliantly.

Naturally, the conversation turned to AI. The consensus? It’s early—but promising.

DeWayne noted the back-office gains already being made. Jay shared how Relay is using AI behind the scenes to identify next best actions, uncover drop-off patterns, and surface new qualitative insights—without putting manufacturers at legal risk or over-promising capabilities.

For both public-facing and internal use, the panel agreed AI will play a major role in helping support programs become more proactive, personalized, and efficient. But it has to be deployed responsibly, especially in regulated industries.

At Relay, we believe proving program value starts with respecting the customer experience—because that’s where value is created.

By combining SMS with our content delivery feed, we enable partners to:

Data isn’t just a spreadsheet. It’s proof that you delivered what you promised.

For more insights, tune into the entire webinar conversation here.

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