aTTP is a rare blood disorder that disproportionately affects Black women and can kill up to 90% of patients if left untreated. Its rarity is both a blessing and a curse—few people develop aTTP, but when they do, most HCPs have little knowledge of it, making it a diagnosis that is easily missed. It’s hard for HCPs to treat a disease they’ve never seen. It’s even harder to recognize their own implicit biases that may delay a life-saving diagnosis.

How could we better help HCPs recognize a rare disease? How could we shed light on a common unconscious bias within healthcare?

We not only needed to help HCPs experience an aTTP emergency, but we also needed to evoke empathy. Pushing HCPs to look beyond data and feel. Tapping into emotion and building understanding, FROM VERY RARE TO VERY REAL drives change that leads to a potentially life-saving diagnosis.

FROM VERY RARE TO VERY REAL puts users at the center of an aTTP emergency from 3 perspectives—the patient’s, the ER physician’s, and the hematologist’s. It allows HCPs to practice medicine outside of the rare emergency and highlights the dismissive care people of color often face.

As the patient, you’re immersed in the world of a Black woman seeking medical attention. You feel dismissed by the nurses. You experience the sights and sounds of an aTTP crash.

As the ER physician, you search for clues to identify this rare, deadly disease. But you learn more than the clinical facts—the mother’s desperation, the nurse’s indifference, the patient’s apprehension.

As the hematologist, you’re forced to pull it all together. To make diagnosis and treatment choices without the real, potentially deadly consequences.

Using live-action VR, FROM VERY RARE TO VERY REAL promotes empathetic and experiential learning to potentially help save lives.

Due to the sudden nature of aTTP and the range of its presentation, multiple HCPs see a patient before a hematologist ultimately makes a diagnosis. Data tell us that among these HCPS, only 66% are aware of approved treatment for aTTP, and 20% are using the wrong treatment.

Using a “learn by doing” approach, we offered HCPs a view into 3 different perspectives—those of a patient, an ER physician, and a hematologist. Throughout this decision-making journey, users are asked to review lab results, notice symptoms, and make key decisions along the way as the ER physician and hematologist.

To put HCPs in a patient’s shoes, the patient experience needed to feel authentic. We consulted a real patient treated with CABLIVI to understand how they were treated in the hospital, what they saw and overheard from the hospital staff, and how they felt from admission to treatment.

Creating a live-action virtual reality with interactive points to help drive the story forward is essentially 2 projects in 1: a live video production and a virtual reality experience. Starting in July 2021, we wrote a script and consulted diversity advocates, medical thought leaders, and our FDA review team to craft the most accurate story possible. In production, we cast several actors and used multiple sets. Shooting multi-perspective film in 360° required painstaking attention as everything was “in camera.” Through April 2022, we developed the interaction points and finalized the in-headset experience. Part of the rollout plan included reprogramming for web use, allowing more HCPs to interact with the experience, but requiring well-thought-out development.

Upon rollout, more than 40 sales representatives received headset cases, including charging accessories, a hand controller, earbuds, and sanitary wipes—everything they’d need to share the experience with HCPs and make a lasting impact on their customers.

A leading hematologist, James George, MD, noted, “aTTP can turn into a disaster in a minute—that’s why rapid differentiation of aTTP from other TMAs is critical.” FROM VERY RARE TO VERY REAL is answering the call to help HCPs understand the emergency of aTTP and the need to rapidly identify and treat it.

FROM VERY RARE TO VERY REAL was unveiled at Sanofi’s biannual company-wide conference to accolades from Sanofi sales representatives and leadership.

This experience will be featured at conventions nationwide through the end of 2022. It’s projected to be viewed by 500 HCPs by the end of the year.

“We are actually able to remove a good portion of this rarity around [aTTP]. We‘re actually able to make it part of the conversation today,” Josh Libbrecht, Director, Marketing, said. “This is the experience that you could be going through today—how would you respond to it?”