Our topical polls and independent studies provide free pharmaceutical and health industry insights from healthcare professionals and patient perspectives. The infographic accompanying each article can be downloaded and shared with attribution.
The COVID-19 crisis changed the way people work across industries including the pharma industry. MD Analytics teamed up with the professional association for women in the pharma industry Women Leaders in Pharma to conduct a study on the impact on of COVID-19 on women who work in the pharma industry.
As the COVID-19 vaccination campaign ramped up in the Spring, and rates of infection dropped, a return to normality appeared to be on the horizon. However, with widespread vaccine hesitancy paired with the virulent spread of the delta variant, we are once again left with an uncertain view of the future.
Throughout the past year, MD Analytics has been monitoring the effects of this uncertainty, and the pandemic in general, on the practices and perceptions of HCPs. Ongoing changes in workloads, patient assessments, and interactions with pharma have had direct and meaningful impact on the healthcare industry.
The COVID-19 vaccination campaign is underway in Canada. However, the pandemic has significantly altered HCPs’ practices to date. These changes have impacted workloads, patient assessments, and interactions with pharma. A year into the pandemic, a national COVID-19 vaccination campaign is underway. This begs the question, how are Canadian HCPs doing today? What do they foresee moving forward? Our latest short survey presents the current state of HCPs’ practices in Canada and their assessment of the government’s management of COVID-19.
Virtual medical conferences are on the rise, but are they here to stay?
As a result of the pandemic over the past year, conference organizers and medical brands were set scrambling to find a solution to limit cancelations of key medical conferences. Resulting virtual platforms advanced quickly to emulate the face-to-face conference experience through a digital means. While many virtual medical conferences were successful, in terms of strong participation levels to many key events both national and international, questions remained as to how well they met the needs of physicians, other healthcare providers and the pharmaceutical and medical device companies sponsoring these events.
The detailing of healthcare providers through virtual means has become a staple for pharmaceutical brands and is essential for any go-to-market strategy. When face-to-face detailing was put on hold this past year, healthcare providers began experiencing an even greater volume of requests for virtual interactions. For pharma brand teams, ensuring your approach to digital communications matches with the preferences of providers is important in helping your messages get through to your target prescribers.
In our latest quick poll, conducted in March 2021, MD Analytics sought to gain clarity around current remote detailing preferences and identify the components of an “ideal” remote interaction.
Each year, providers and health industry professionals travel from locations around the world to share and discuss the latest developments in medical care. For several years now, conferences have been experimenting with digital features that allow participants to engage remotely, avoiding the burdens of travel. However, the scope of content available to digital participants had often been limited and physician adoption was low.
Our 5-minute online survey conducted in the fall of 2020 sought to gain clarity around remote detailing. This study was conducted with 339 Canadian physicians who are members of the MD Analytics healthcare panel and the results provide actionable recommendations on how to form a more ‘ideal’ pharma remote detail.
Strong online advertising and messaging are key to maximizing impact of any marketing campaign. With recent restrictions on in-person interactions, online advertising and messaging play an even greater role in reaching physicians. Our findings from a survey of n=227 Canadian physicians show that 82% of Canadian physicians have increased their use of online platforms as a result of COVID-19, 48% significantly so.
Physicians recognize that new medications often can be quite valuable for their patients and are eager to add them to their armamentarium. However, they do not always end up prescribing these new medications as much as they initially plan or as early as they would like. There are many reasons that can explain this discrepancy.
Patients are an increasingly influential stakeholder within the healthcare industry as more medical information becomes available online than ever before. This independent market research study conducted by MD Analytics takes a closer look at patients in order to better understand their motivations and predict their behaviours within this complex landscape.
Physicians are using social media in their personal and professional lives, especially younger physicians. However, the pharma industry should be aware of barriers to using social media as a means of interacting professionally with physicians, such as the perceived reliability of online information.
Measuring customer engagement in pharmaceutical market research can be challenging as physicians usually prefer to not be seen as “associated” with any given pharmaceutical company. However, as demonstrated by our customer engagement syndicated study, it is undeniable that stronger levels of physician engagement exist among pharmaceutical companies which can lead to more positive outcomes for their associated brands.
Qualitative research can provide a greater understanding of physicians’ attitudes and behaviours than quantitative methodologies, however increased demands on physician time may cause some to refuse participating. Determining the optimal study design and appropriate recruitment techniques can help make physicians more willing to participate.
Dental professionals turn to traditional information channels most often when sourcing information on manufacturer products and continuing education. However, more innovative tools such as online and digital offerings continue to grow in importance, especially among newer dental professionals. Find out how to make sure your future outreach efforts are ready for the next generation of dental professionals.
The relationship between healthcare providers and sales reps is a balancing act. Managed well they can add value to a physicians’ or pharmacist’s practice ultimately impacting product use. However HCPs are often overwhelmed by the demand on their time and as a result may restrict access to their practices to sales reps.