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The new standard: Physicians and pharma companies now meet in-person and remotely
By Mary Dominiecki, SVP, US Country Lead
January 10, 2023
COVID-19 caused significant shift in interactions between physicians and pharmaceutical companies. Most hospitals and medical offices limited visitors to patients, personnel, and caregivers when necessary. This made it necessary for pharmaceutical companies to focus more on virtual and digital interactions to continue outreach to their key stakeholders. At MD Analytics, we have been monitoring these trends. In our latest poll, we surveyed 50 US-based PCPs and 109 specialists on the topic.
Before the pandemic, roughly 3 in 4 interactions between physicians and pharma companies were in-person. Once the pandemic hit, in person interactions were drastically reduced, with only about 1 in 7 interactions being in person. As you might expect, this decrease in in person interactions was replaced with an increase in virtual and digital interactions including web-assisted interactions, phone calls and emails. Pharma companies wanted to maintain those connections with their key stakeholders and ensure they could continue to support patient care.
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In our latest poll, we see that the total number of physician interactions is back to pre-pandemic levels but the number of in-person interactions is still much lower than pre-pandemic levels with roughly half of physician-pharma interactions taking place in-person. In addition, physicians do not anticipate things changing in the near future – they seem to have adapted to this new mix of interaction formats and appreciate the benefits of these different channels.
If it were completely up to them, physicians would prefer to have a little more than half of their interactions with pharma in-person moving forward. There is quite a bit of variation in this area though – some physicians would prefer mainly in-person, others would prefer mainly remote, and most are somewhere in the middle. This reinforces the importance of maintaining an updated CRM database with as much information as possible about physician preferences.
Key takeaways
- Is the total number of physician-pharma interactions back to pre-COVID levels?
- How has the format of physician-pharma interactions changed since COVID?
- Will physicians want to go back to more in-person interactions in the foreseeable future?
- How would physicians prefer to interact with pharma companies moving forward?
Infographics may contain select findings from our Independent Studies. Contact us to find out if your organization qualifies for a complimentary presentation with access to the full report.
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