Pharma needs to engage more with hcps in the digital space
The Pharma industry needs to engage in the digital space with HCPs and provide clear, concise brand and product messages which can be easily shared across digital channels – that is one of the major conclusions of a new report from global healthcare research specialist Cello Health Insight.
The report, entitled ‘The Digital Health Debate’ comes from a major piece of research carried out amongst physicians across the UK, including 300 GPs. The study did find, however, that whilst the use of digital resources has grown substantially amongst HCPs over the past five years, face to face interactions still carry the biggest weight.
The research aimed to demonstrate the extent to which digital media and technology are important in influencing conversations around pharmaceutical and healthcare brands.
It found that two thirds (67%) of UK physicians are active users of general consumer social media sites such as Facebook (8%), Twitter (8%), Linkedin (19%), Wikipedia (49%) and YouTube (23%).
There has also been an enormous growth of specialist healthcare websites over the past five years, with three quarters (75%) of UK physicians having used Doctors.net.uk within the last month. Of those who use it, 61% now do so on a daily basis, with the main reason for using such sites being to receive information from peers (74%).
Well over two thirds (70%) of UK physicians use Patient.co.uk, and this is in fact their preferred digital source of information. Over half (52%) of UK doctors now agree that pharma brands should factor social media into their public relations and communication programs with healthcare professionals.
However, although digital usage is on the increase, traditional sources are still the most trusted and, most importantly, have the highest ability to influence a prescribing decision.
Of all major channels/touch-points, face to face information from peers was the most trusted (43%), followed by face to face information from opinion leaders (40%), sponsored conferences/events (30%), with just over one in five (21%) of UK doctors trusting pharma rep visits. The most trusted digital touch-point was information from peers via social media (15%).
Again, when it comes to prescribing decisions, face to face interactions are top (40% from peers and 36% from opinion leaders) followed by conferences (29%), with 16% of doctors agreeing that pharmaceutical company representatives have an influence on their prescribing behaviour. Interestingly, this is closely followed by 13% of doctors citing social media having a direct influence on their prescribing decisions.
Dan Brilot, Cello Health Insight’s Digital Director responsible for the research and accompanying ‘Digital Health Debate’ report, said: “As we know from similar consumer research, face to face interactions whether from peers, patients or indeed brands (through sales reps) always carry more weight in terms of trust and their ability to influence prescribing decisions. However, digital channels are increasingly being used, especially general consumer sites such as Twitter and FB, and are acting as platforms to enable conversations amongst and in-between doctors and patients.”
He added: “The opportunity for brands is to try and provide clear, concise brand and product messages which can be easily shared across digital channels and eventually translated into those more influential face to face conversations amongst peers, patients and opinion leaders.”
Note
330 interviews were conducted across a range of different physician types across the UK including 300 GP’s. The interviews were of 15 minutes length and conducted online in conjunction with online panel provider ‘M3 Global Research’. All respondents were verified as being qualified health care professionals. The final sample was un-weighted. Fieldwork was conducted between 17th July and 20th August 2014.