DR ANKITA BATLA

Lead-Health Insights and Patient Partnerships, VMLY&Rx 

Ankita joined WPP’s Chief Medical Office as the lead of Health Insights and Patient partnerships in Jan 2019 after working as a Medical Director at System Analytic. Her previous roles have included medical strategic planning at McCann Health and Saarthak.
Ankita trained and worked as a medical doctor in India. After her transition to health communications, she has worked across a wide variety of therapy areas for the past 18 years.

With an MBA and a degree in training and development she has been instrumental in designing and running several medical education programs and public health awareness campaigns. She has been involved in developing training guides, patient information leaflets, MSL training decks, medical website content etc. She provides medical strategy input into client projects, also supporting the KOL and PAG relationships throughout the cycle of pre to post launch

Patient advocacy and health equity are her passions. She works very closely with a number of patient groups and organisations to further the cause of person-centred healthcare .She is often involved in projects that aim at removing the inequities in healthcare by reaching out to and empowering patients and patient groups that are in the ‘blindspot’ of health systems, HCPs , regulators and drug manufacturers. She is a EUPATI trained professional and provides consultation for upskilling PAGs and pharma teams on patient engagement. She leads WPP Health’s patient partnership initiative.

Her recent editorial in the European Journal for Person-Centred Healthcare shows that many leading pharma companies are pivoting from traditional ‘product-focused’ engagement – centred on prescribers or payers – to a broader focus on the entire patient experience. The shift is allowing them to support the whole person – rather than merely their medical condition – through both therapeutic and non-therapeutic means.

As medical director at System Analytic, Dr. Batla led KOL mapping projects across several oncology indications including bringing shape to scientific strategies and mindset mapping by analyzing clinical trial data and comparing it to physician beliefs and experience with various therapies.

In her leadership role with WPP’s Patient Partnership Initiative, she leads sessions with cancer patient groups to develop bespoke training program for their members.