The next step for Taiwan's Patient Support Programs in 2026

Over the past few years, the Patient Support Program (PSP) market has grown rapidly in Taiwan. But looking back from 2026, it is clear the very nature of PSPs has fundamentally changed. They are no longer merely "patient care services"—not just medication reminders, health education follow-ups, or customer service mechanisms—but have formally crossed a key watershed into the era of value-based care.

What will make a PSP truly competitive in the future is not how many services it offers, but:
whether it can substantively improve patient outcomes, raise healthcare efficiency, and create quantifiable value for the health system.

Author: Nerrisa Kuo, Director, PatientsForce

PSPs are being redefined

Across the global pharmaceutical industry, the PSP has evolved from a support function into a core component of pharma strategy.

In oncology, rare disease, autoimmune disease, and specialty care in particular, PSPs now directly influence:

How quickly patients start treatment
Treatment persistence
Discontinuation and attrition rates
Clinical outcome tracking
Patient quality of life (QoL)

Pharmaceutical companies used to evaluate PSPs mostly on service volume—call counts, contact frequency, satisfaction scores. What the market cares about now is:

whether the PSP genuinely improves treatment outcomes. For example:

Has the 3-month medication persistence rate improved
Have follow-up visit rates improved
Have hospitalizations and ER visits declined
Are adverse events detected earlier

This shift from process KPIs to outcome KPIs will completely rewrite how PSPs are designed.

AI will be the biggest accelerator of PSP upgrades

Another key trend for 2026 is the rapid entry of AI into patient support workflows. AI's role in a PSP is not to replace people but to reallocate the value of professional staff. For example:
Low-risk, standardized tasks can be handled with AI assistance:

Preliminary symptom triage
Medication reminders
Follow-up appointment booking
FAQ health education
Early warning of emotional risk

High-risk patients, complex regimens, and psychological support, meanwhile, get deep involvement from professional nurses and case management teams. This is not just an efficiency gain—it is a care model redesign. With healthcare staffing shortages persisting, this will be the most important capability of the next three years.

The next stage for Taiwan's PSPs is not just in hospitals, but in patients' homes

Pharma giants currently hold more than US$1 trillion of investable capital, near an all-time high; yet more than half of biotech companies lack enough cash on hand to sustain operations beyond 18 months, tilting the entire M&A market toward buyers—though sellers can offset that disadvantage through milestone payments tied to late-stage drug development.

As a result, many biotechs are turning to the IPO market, private equity, and private credit. Compared with traditional M&A, this gives companies greater operational flexibility and more R&D funding while retaining control of key drug development.

Challenges posed by regulators

Taiwan has a highly accessible national health insurance system, but it also faces an aging population, chronic disease burden, and pressure on the healthcare workforce. The most important direction for PSPs going forward is the move from hospital-based support to home-based continuous care.

In oncology and specialty medicines especially, the setting where patients truly struggle is often not the consultation room but after they return home. This includes:

Side effect management
Treatment adherence
Family caregiver strain
Emotional and anxiety support
Remote monitoring of physiological data

This is precisely where PatientsForce has been investing in recent years: extending patient support from the hospital into everyday life.

PSPs will become key to real-world evidence

The future value of a PSP is by no means limited to services.

More importantly, it will become a platform for generating Real-World Data (RWD) and Real-World Evidence (RWE). Through genuine interactions across the patient journey, it can continuously accumulate:

Medication persistence rates
Adverse reaction patterns
Symptom burden
Patient-reported outcomes
Quality of life measures

These data are valuable not only for care delivery, but also support:

HTA
Reimbursement negotiation
HEOR
Market access strategy
Lifecycle evidence generation

The winners will be those who can prove with data that they genuinely improve patient outcomes. That includes:

Higher treatment persistence
Lower hospitalization rates
Better patient experience
Stronger health economic outcomes

The PSP of the future is not just an extension of healthcare services. It will become the most important value platform connecting patients, pharmaceutical companies, healthcare institutions, and digital technology. And that is the most promising transformation ahead for Taiwan's healthcare industry.

Sources
IQVIA (2026). Four Forces Reshaping Patient Support in 2026.
Deloitte (2026). The 2026 Global Health Care Outlook.
WTW (2026). Global Medical Trends Survey Report – Asia Pacific Insights.
Taiwan Ministry of Health and Welfare (2025), announced revision of the "National Health Insurance Hospital-at-Home Acute Care Pilot Program"
National Science and Technology Council (2025), "Vision and Action for At-Home Healthcare Technology"