Patients have access to a wealth of online information to help facilitate a better dialogue with their doctors. But who solicits and listens to physicians to understand what they want in their medical education and which resources they need? Does the rate at which new physician practice tools are developed and distributed to HCPs match what clinicians actually need? And how is the effectiveness of the tool or education resource measured?
The pandemic initiated a seismic shift not only in the way clinical visits were performed, but how medical information was and continues to be obtained and used. As social media gained a significantly larger role in everyone’s life, whether they worked in healthcare or not, it also became an important tool for HCPs to seek communication with peers, colleagues, and the broader medical community, and for self-education. Pharmaceutical companies discovered they had to pivot quickly to understand their target audiences, grab the attention of that population, and direct messaging to them in such a way that the HCPs would integrate the material into clinical practice.
HCP Channel Trends: A Survey
A brief survey was created and launched to all physicians, physician assistants, and residents in the United States in September 2022. The survey was active for two weeks and generated 1,220 responses. Of those, 227 did not qualify (these HCPs did not see patients, enough patients per week, were in research only, or were no longer in practice), leaving a total of 993 respondents. Slightly more men completed the survey as compared to women. The majority of respondents were between 41 and 60 years of age and were represented in all therapeutic areas.
In 2022, 70% of respondents noted using primarily gated sites compared to public social media sites. This was not surprising given gated sites can be more specific to clinician preference and are often used as a resource in clinical practice to keep up with current literature and trends in pharmaceutical development. Gated site resources can include e-books, tools, white papers, webinars, training videos, or continuing medical education (CME) modules. For the marketer, gated sites are ideal because they can capture physician-level data, user experience and feedback, and content preferences in a way social media cannot. Companies can then use that data to develop and disseminate valuable content that resonates most with their audience.
Peer-to-peer Networking
The survey results also pointed out the value of peer-to-peer HCP influence. HCPs are accustomed to learning from their peers in traditional formats, including journal clubs, hospital grand rounds, lunch and learns, dinner meetings, and local chapter and annual medical association meetings. As peer-to-peer learning moved to the digital space, close to 70% of HCPs in this survey noted the importance of learning from their respected colleagues; 90% of the resources they accessed were from peers, colleagues, and physician-only portals. The peer-to-peer resources were favored by this audience over journal publishers, gated social media sites, pharma portals, and even small group interactions with pharma reps and medical science liaisons (MSLs).
Respondents noted that peer-to-peer networking remains a high priority and they prefer to interact with colleagues at their annual specialty-focused medical congresses. By and large, peer-led online clinical resources elicited the highest responses (see Figure 1 below).
In the digital environment, HCPs reported accessing physician portals daily (39%) and peer-to-peer communications, gated portals, and journal publishers weekly (39%-44%). Medical information distributed by text messaging and chats ranked very low on the physician usage scale, however, 75% of clinicians reported they were more likely to open and read text messages if they came from a peer/colleague or publisher (63%). Of note, respondents did not believe their preferences would change in 2023 in the way they access digital and live education forums.
Live Meeting Forecast
While association meetings have returned to the live setting, most associations are not seeing attendance rates as high as they were pre-pandemic. Many variations have consequently been integrated with some success, notably hybrid events, virtual-only events, and more frequent and smaller association meetings. In fact, nearly 50% of clinicians reported that they learned new medical information online and hybrid medical was as effective as “offline” (in-person) events. In their estimation, 68% of them believe that most medical events will offer hybrid attendance in 2023. Regarding attendance at live association meetings for 2023, clinicians in this survey reported:
- HCPs expect to spend about 41% of their time in 2023 at online-only events (N=993)
- HCPs expect to spend about 29% of their time in 2023 at offline-only events (N=991)
- HCPs expect to spend about 26% of their time in 2023 at hybrid events (N=990)
Although the respondents stated that virtual events are as effective (for learning) as live or in-person meetings, for networking purposes 61% of them do not believe they are effective as compared to in-person events. Respondents also offered recommendations for companies producing live events including quality of speaker presenting materials, COVID and safety recommendations, recorded lectures available online for a period of time following the live event, keeping the costs of meetings down, and providing attractive settings and locations.
“Give Me What I Want and Need”
There is room to provide better and more customized education for clinicians. Asked whether they would use an integrated social media feed on a portal with curated clinical content created by a pharma company, a small number of respondents reported they were extremely likely to use it while the majority were firmly in the middle, between extremely likely and extremely not likely.
HCPs in this survey did not feel their needs were adequately addressed or understood by pharma and that content could be more personalized. Respondents noted they wanted new medical/scientific information that is relevant to their clinical practice and geographical location, delivered in modular content formats they could access over time to build on foundational knowledge, and in context to their patient population, emerging trends, and guidelines (see Figure 2 below). As HCPs are people first, they too appreciate short and engaging digital content they can access from their phones. While they want the ability to interact with their colleagues on these digital platforms, the industry hasn’t yet figured out the best way to allow for open communication on funded, proprietary content.
Pharma could also do a better job of coordinating, integrating, and delivering their content sources to their targeted HCP audiences. What that looks like right now will take further investigation, bringing HCPs, pharma, and agencies together to discuss how that can be achieved, making sure the modality is compliant within current pharma laws. There is no doubt that HCPs like omnichannel education given by their peers in ways that meet their lifestyles. HCPs want to share their viewpoints as noted in the large sample size of this survey and the opt-in choice of the respondents to volunteer to be contacted in the future for additional surveys related to medical education delivery.
Looking forward to 2023, we are eager to see what trends continue, evolve, or fall by the wayside.
