Topical Data

Since its initial onset, COVID-19 has had a significant impact on how physicians interact with pharmaceutical companies. Government restrictions forced companies to quickly adapt and move to more remote forms of interactions. While in-person interactions are once again a viable option for communication, will they return to pre-pandemic levels? MD Analytics has been monitoring these trends over the past few years and we have recently interviewed 50 Canadian GPs and 90 Canadian specialists in our latest survey on the topic.

With COVID-19 about to enter its 3rd year, it continues to significantly impact the lives of Canadians and the practices of HCPs in the country. Even though it has not been easy, physicians have continuously adapted how they manage their patients and how they interact with key healthcare stakeholders during the pandemic. MD Analytics has been monitoring these trends over the past few years and we have recently interviewed 140 physicians in our latest survey on the topic.

Market research plays a fundamental role in helping those involved in the healthcare market answer key questions about their brands. Gaining insights from healthcare practitioners is central to market research. However, engaging physicians to participate in research can be a challenge. While most of the surveyed physicians say they enjoy participating in market research studies, in practice, physicians self-report participating in less than half of the number of studies they are invited to participate in. Real-world experience from our panel says the response rate is even lower. With this in mind, we asked Canadian physicians to help us understand what motivates them to do market research.

Physicians feel positive about how Patient Support Programs (PSPs) have evolved in the past two years – especially in terms of responsiveness and the expertise of individuals working on PSPs. The main unmet needs at this time remain the range of service hours and the availabilityof nurses remotely (either by phone or virtually). Many specialists believe that biosimilar PSP providers have struggled more than originator drug PSPs since the onset of the pandemic – mainly because of they do not have as many employees and offer a smaller range of services.

Patient Support Programs (PSPs) play a significant role in ensuring that patients have the best possible experience during their journey – especially in specialty therapeutic areas where treatments tend to be more expensive. The COVID-19 pandemic has made it more challenging for patients to access support and services for their medical conditions. This has put additional pressure on company-sponsored PSPs to further enhance their offerings to help patients in the best way possible. PSPs have become increasingly important for patients since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and as a result now have an even more significant influence on physicians’ treatment selection process.

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.

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.