Why do you get up in the morning? What puts a smile on your face? Your kids doing something daft, a pint and a natter with a mate, the smell of bacon in the pan, the feel of a fresh breeze across your face. The feeling that your life is good and brings you pleasure.

It shouldn’t be any different if you’re unwell.

Leading surgeon and writer Dr Atul Gawande believes those of us who work in healthcare frequently get that bit wrong. ‘We think’, he says, ‘that our job is to ensure health and survival, but really it is larger than that. It is to enable wellbeing, and wellbeing is ultimately about sustaining the reasons one wishes to be alive.’

Enabling the wellbeing of a person, supporting their happiness whatever the state of their health, takes a lot more than just a pill. In this white paper, we look at the many different facets that make up a patient’s wellbeing; things like how much they understand about their condition, how in control they feel of what’s going on, their surroundings, and the people around them. We discuss the ways that pharma can go beyond the small time a person spends in a clinical setting, and support them in all of these other areas; helping them through the moments when they are most vulnerable; the moments that matter most in delivering positive outcomes for patients.

Read the Smiles That Save Lives whitepaper here.