NHS · Medical Devices · Digital Health · Pharma
Trace diagnosis delays, treatment decisions, care transitions, and support needs through the eyes of real patients and caregivers. A clear, visual map of the pathway, with the pain points that matter identified and evidenced, not assumed.
Services get redesigned, products get built, and trials get planned around what teams assume the patient pathway looks like. The reality is usually messier: diagnosis delays that never show up in the data, treatment decisions shaped by fear or cost, care transitions where information gets lost, and support needs nobody asked about.
Journey mapping replaces assumption with evidence. We recruit real patients and caregivers, trace their experience stage by stage, and produce a visual map that shows exactly where the pathway works, where it breaks down, and what to prioritise.
Structured research methods that turn a patient's lived experience into a pathway your team can act on
Trace the route from first symptoms to confirmed diagnosis: GP visits, referrals, misdiagnoses, waiting periods, and the emotional toll of uncertainty along the way.
Understand how treatment decisions actually get made: what information patients had, who they trusted, what trade-offs they weighed, and where support was missing.
Follow patients across handovers between providers: primary to secondary care, hospital to home, paediatric to adult services. Transitions are where continuity most often fails.
Map the parallel journey caregivers and family members experience: coordination burden, emotional impact, and the support they needed but didn't receive.
For conditions managed across multiple organisations, we map the full pathway across every provider involved, surfacing where responsibility and information fall through the gaps.
Understand life after the acute pathway: medication routines, appointment burden, monitoring, and the practical and emotional support patients rely on day to day.
A structured process that turns individual patient stories into one clear, evidenced pathway
Which condition or service? Which stage of the pathway matters most: diagnosis, treatment, transition, or ongoing management? We scope to the decision you need to make.
Through patient organisations, condition-specific charities, clinical networks, and community routes, including hard-to-reach and rare disease populations.
Trauma-informed, semi-structured interviews that let patients tell their story in their own words, at their own pace, without leading questions.
We identify patterns across every account: common delays, decision points, transitions that fail, and needs that go unmet, weighted by how often and how severely they occur.
A clear, stage-by-stage map of the journey with pain points, emotional highs and lows, and touchpoints marked, built to be understood by clinicians and non-specialists alike.
A written report translating the map into concrete next steps: what to fix first, what to test further, and what evidence supports each recommendation.
Whenever a decision depends on understanding the full patient experience, not just one interaction
Understand where a pathway actually breaks down before you redesign it.
Best when An NHS trust or ICB is redesigning a care pathway and needs evidence of where patients experience delay, confusion, or drop-off.
What you get A visual map of the current pathway with pain points ranked by impact and frequency.
You leave with A prioritised list of what to redesign first, backed by patient evidence for governance and commissioning conversations.
Design trials and support programmes around the pathway patients actually experience.
Best when A pharma, biotech, or medical device company is planning a trial, treatment, or support programme for a condition and needs to understand real diagnosis and treatment pathways first.
What you get Evidence of diagnosis delays, treatment decision points, and unmet needs that inform protocol design and support materials.
You leave with A stronger case for regulatory submissions and a support programme designed around genuine patient need. Read more on our patient research for pharmaceutical companies page.
Credible patient pathway evidence to strengthen research and funding applications.
Best when You need documented evidence of patient experience and unmet need to support an NIHR bid or funding application.
What you get A rigorous, ethically-conducted study with a written report suitable for inclusion in bid documentation.
You leave with Independent, credible evidence that strengthens your case to funders and reviewers.
See across organisational boundaries that no single provider can see alone.
Best when A condition is managed across primary care, secondary care, social care, and third-sector organisations, and no single team has the full picture.
What you get A cross-provider pathway map that shows where handovers fail and responsibility gets lost.
You leave with A shared evidence base that multiple organisations can use to coordinate improvement.
From service redesign teams to pharma and medical device companies planning around real patient need
Transparent pricing that scales with the number of patient groups and pathway stages involved
Focused Study
A single patient group and one pathway stage, such as diagnosis or a specific care transition. Right for a defined question with a tight timeline.
End-to-End Study
Full pathway coverage from diagnosis through to ongoing management, with patients and caregivers. Depth for service redesign and bid evidence.
Regulatory-Ready
Cross-provider mapping across multiple patient groups, geographies, or organisations, with clinical review and regulatory-ready documentation.
All studies include: Recruitment through patient organisations and clinical networks, fair participant and caregiver payment, trauma-informed facilitation, thematic analysis, a visual pathway map, and a written report.
Rare disease and complex conditions: Studies covering ultra-rare conditions or multi-provider, long-term pathways typically add 25–35% to base pricing due to recruitment complexity.
Leeds-based, UK-wide: Delivered remotely as standard, with in-person interviews and workshops available across the UK.
We fully recognise the effort your team invested in recruitment, moderation, and analysis, and we genuinely appreciate the quality of the discussions and reporting.
Trusted PPI and PPIE delivery partner to the NIHR HealthTech Research Centre in Accelerated Surgical Care.
Tell us the condition, service, or decision behind the question, and we will confirm scope, timeline, and a clear quote.
Discuss a journey mapping studyWe usually respond within one working day.
Book a free 20-minute call. No obligation, no sales pitch. We'll tell you honestly whether research is worth it for your decision, and what it would cost.