7 Tips for Writing a Winning Needs Assessment

If you work in medical communications, you may have been asked to write something called a needs assessment – the science-focused part of a grant proposal sent to supporters in order to garner financial support for a medical education program.?

It’s important to write this needs assessment effectively to show a potential supporter (usually a pharmaceutical company) that 1) your company understands the therapeutic landscape; 2) your company knows where the supporter’s agent fits within that landscape and the messaging they would like to put out; and 3) your proposed educational program will likely deliver effective and appropriate training content (because the needs assessment was so well written).?

Pharmaceutical companies are not allowed to provide input into educational programs once they have provided funding, so it’s important to get this needs assessment right or your proposal won’t be funded. The proposed educational program may be exactly what the supporter is looking for, but a badly written needs assessment will have them moving on to the next proposal.?

Here are some tips to consider when writing needs assessments. There's also a checklist below:

1. Keep the supporter in mind

Keeping the supporter in mind means considering why a pharmaceutical company wants to fork out such a large amount of money (often >$250,000) to support an educational program. Is there a new agent about to be approved? Are there novel adverse events with which clinicians need to be made familiar? Is this a new class of therapeutic agents??

A helpful first step is to review the messaging on the supporter’s website, including any press releases and referenced studies. These studies need to make it into the needs assessment. It’s also a good idea to do a Google News search (ie, not just a general search) of the company and the therapeutic area. That will bring up the pending and recent US Food and Drug Administration approvals, complete response letters, and other aspects that will be important to mention. Once in a while, a writer may forget to mention the supporter’s agent, which would likely mean instant rejection of a proposal. You wouldn’t think that a writer would do that, but it can happen, so make sure that doesn’t happen to you.

2. Keep the RFP in mind

The needs assessment should also parallel what is requested in the request for proposals (RFP). If the RFP describes various educational needs or “gaps,” then your learning objectives should correspond to those stated educational needs. When reviewing the RFP, make sure that you use the most recent and most relevant references. Many RFPs often include boilerplate text pulled together by the company and sometimes the references are old. So make sure your needs assessment includes whatever is important from the RFP but is also up to date and rewritten so as not to directly copy the RFP.?

3. Get the science right

In most cases, potential supporters who are considering funding your proposal will be extremely familiar with the therapeutic area and will be able to detect when a writer has inadequately researched a topic and/or is unfamiliar with it. At Nascent Medical we provide the advantage of matching the writer’s specific background to the therapeutic area of a needs assessment. If you are writing one of these as an employee of a medical communications company, you may need to spend a couple of hours getting up to date unless you happen to be familiar with the topic. Reading a few recent review papers and the latest guidelines will be a good start. Additionally, make sure that you include all the agents that are relevant to the disease state so that your needs assessment demonstrates “fair balance.” It’s important that the actual educational program shows fair balance also so that it meets continuing education standards.

4. Use the latest references

Again, do check and make sure that you're using the latest references. For example, you may read a review article that references an abstract presentation at a conference, which was all that was available at the time, but more recently the study has been published in a peer-reviewed journal. You would need to reference the journal version. Of course, always use primary references. For example, don't reference a review article for a study result; cite the actual study. The same is true for epidemiologic data. Don't reference websites such as Wikipedia or news articles, etc. A company press release may be a reasonable source, but only if a published study reference isn’t available. Format the references in AMA style.?

5. Get the writing right

A potential supporter isn't looking for a literary work of art, but the needs assessment should be organized, easy to read (use headings and avoid very long blocks of text), and free of errors, including grammar and spelling errors. If a drug name is misspelled, they're going to think you won’t do a careful job on the educational program, and they may not fund your grant. It also shouldn't include a so-called “data dump,” in which a writer goes on and on describing studies rather than providing a document that substantiates an educational need (see next point). The document should, of course, meet all formatting requirements, including word limits. Typically, 2500 to 3000 words should be enough.?

6. Substantiate, substantiate, substantiate

The word substantiate in this context means the quotes and information within the needs assessment that show that there is an actual educational need for the program. Some educational needs are obvious; for example, when a new set of guidelines has just been issued, and clinicians need to be made aware of them. Others need to be backed up with statistics. For instance, if a condition is often associated with a delayed diagnosis but patient outcomes can be improved with earlier treatment, you would need to find a paper stating that “the average time to diagnosis of X condition is about X years.” Other ways to substantiate the educational need include using editorials and quotes from news pieces from key opinion leaders. These can be hard to find, but they carry a lot of weight when included in a needs assessment. At the end of the needs assessment, tie everything together with a concluding paragraph stating something to the effect of “this educational effort will help build awareness among clinicians and ultimately improve patient outcomes.”?

7. Create compelling learning objectives

Use verbs listed in Bloom’s Taxonomy (figure) and try to use verbs listed toward the top of the pyramid, which are more action-oriented on the part of the learner than ones at the bottom. Avoid using the verb “understand,” and use a different verb for each learning objectives. “Discuss” and “describe” are overused and low-down in the pyramid.?

Checklist for Needs Assessments

Consider following this checklist, the next time you have to write a needs assessment:

• You know who the supporter is and why they want to fund an educational program at this time.
• You have reviewed the RFP and continue to review it as you write the needs assessment.
• You have searched the supporter’s website and Google News on the topic and agent(s)
• You have included a discussion of the pivotal trials for each agent without going into too much detail.
• You have used the most up-to-date references available and only primary references. Everything that needs to be referenced is referenced.?
• References are formatted correctly.
• You have not intentionally or unintentionally copied wording from the RFP or any sources used.
• Your needs assessment discusses all the therapeutic agents for a given disease state, not just the supporter’s agent. The supporter’s agent may be discussed first, but the document displays fair balance.?
• The document is free of grammatical and spelling errors, especially the drug names.?
• The document is the right length and meets all other specifications.?
• You have substantiated all the educational needs as far as possible with thought leader quotes, references, and statistics.
• Your learning objectives correlate with the educational needs (gaps) and use the most action-oriented verbs possible (see figure).
• You have included a compelling concluding paragraph that mentions improved patient outcomes.?

If this seems like a lot (and it is), reach out to us at Nascent Medical. We have excellent writers with scientific backgrounds in various therapeutic areas that we can match with your specific needs assessment. You’ll save hours of time, and we can get the needs assessment back to you within 7-10 days. Just email us at?[email protected]. We’ll respond within minutes during business hours.?

Here's a link to an identical PDF version if you'd like to download and share this.