The use of quality benchmarking deployment to achieve world-class performance in pharmaceutical services for rare diseases

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Department of Industrial Management, Faculty of Economics, Management and Administrative Sciences, University of Semnan, Semnan, Iran.

Abstract
Purpose: The pharmaceutical services sector is vital in all countries for two reasons. First, it concerns human lives, and in all societies, human capital is one of the most essential assets of a country. Second, it is due to the high financial turnover in this industry. In recent years, many advances have been made in the pharmaceutical industry. Still, the most essential problem is the lack of a clear, logical solution for identifying patients' needs, especially those with rare diseases. This research aims to identify the priorities of medical services for rare diseases in Iran, in comparison with the best in this field worldwide, and to achieve world-class standards and prioritize these needs.
Methodology: This study is an applied research that combines the approaches of quality function deployment and benchmarking under the title of quality benchmarking development. First, quality requirements are collected from patients, doctors, and pharmacists; then, by comparing top pharmaceutical companies, the relationship between requirements and quality elements is analyzed; and finally, the weighted importance of each element for improving pharmaceutical services is determined.
Findings: The results of the study showed that the five factors that have the highest priority in the field of pharmaceutical services in Iran are, respectively: improving the quality of drug production, empowering medical personnel, improving the quality of drug distribution, promoting medical services for rare diseases, and improving supervision of drug production.
Originality/Value:  This study presents a structured approach for identifying and prioritizing the needs of patients with rare diseases within Iran's pharmaceutical service system. The main innovation of this research lies in the simultaneous integration of the voice of the customer (patients, physicians, and pharmacists) with benchmarking against leading global pharmaceutical companies, enabling the identification of performance gaps and the determination of key factors for enhancing the quality of pharmaceutical services.

Keywords

Subjects

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