Information and Choices - a Pharma perspective
Salil Kallianpur
Health tech and Digital Enthusiast | Professor | Pharma Industry Observer
A new study published in July '18 shows that for diagnostics (MRI scan), despite paying out of pocket, patients (in the US) stuck to their doctors' recommended scan centres. They passed 6 cheaper options on their way to that place recommended by their doctor. How would this result work on doctor recommendations for cheaper medicines, better services and better information? Is pharma thinking seriously about this?
Does pharma provide the right information to doctors to ensure that those doctors recommend their product/service/company to patients? NB: this is slightly different from "obliging" a doctor to Rx. A 'recommendation' is a few notches higher. Do evaluate that nuance.
This paper is significant because it is thought that physician influence over patient choices is on a wane. New research shows it isn't. Also shows how insurance companies, by not being customer-friendly enough to help patients evaluate cheaper options, are directly eroding profit. Which explains the rise of services such as Practo and 1MG which are making it easy for patients to choose cheaper medicines and services. For those in pharma who think they still control information flow, this is a rude wake up call.
More areas that pharma takes for granted as theirs (information, product knowledge etc.) are slowly being taken away by non-traditional players. Because: customer-centricity (your life, your choice, your decision). As opposed to your product-centricity (my brand, my Rx, my share). Always remember the 3 rules of the digital economy.
You can access the NBER study here.
#customer #obsession #digital #pharmaceuticals #3rulesofdigital
Marketer|Healthcare|Strategist
6 年Our LBL's ,Fliers, so called digital folders ( Tab, Ipad) are all filled with product centricity. I have seen that many companies vision is such that they directly have an impact on patient health improvement but when it comes down to actual care all we know is product centric approach. I wish I had the money to travel to bangalore for your Digistorm 2018.? Sir? would there be any hard copy for the said program in future. If you are planning to do, I am ready to buy it. In fact there are people like me who want to attend but somehow due to one reason or another they cannot. It would be great if you can launch digistorm just like Medicinman (which is monthly though) but it would be a great help.?
Business Unit Manager - Vaccines at GSK
6 年I as a marketer think physician’s influence over patient’s choice is on the wane and when my doctor Rxd with certain class of antibiotic different to my expectation, I didn’t have a second thought in not just buying the molecule he rxd but the brand as well! That was indeed a wake up call to the marketeer in me
Associate Director & Head - Marketing - Sayre Therapeutics Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore
6 年That's great! I would really like to understand it better! I myself think it is very important to upskill oneself in this age of digitalization. Otherwise you can become redundant!!
Associate Director & Head - Marketing - Sayre Therapeutics Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore
6 年Hi, Salil, it's an eye-opener. But I wonder if and when pharma companies can come out of this slumber!!?? And how can they adopt the digital technology to engage their customers better. They haven't changed even one bit in the way they do their promotions for more than 50 years!!!
Executive Coach and Consultant at Deep Bhandari
6 年Interesting thought Salil, considering almost every Pharma company today claims patients are at the center of everything they do or similar statements, how do you achieve this without empowering patients to have choice and transparent information freely shared. No wonder Pharma have lowest reputation and public image - a mismatch what they say and what they do !!??