A thorough understanding of your pharmaceutical company’s target audience is crucial when piecing together a marketable claim. The “one-size-fits-all” approach with physicians may have unfavorable effects on the pharma-physician relationship in an era where doctors are short on time, while being flooded with massive amounts of data. As many promotional activities and messaging by the pharmaceutical industry do not resonate with their potential customers, it is essential to plan effective methods for approaching physicians in a changing era of medical practice.
This course introduces participants to the basic communication skills required to efficiently and effectively address complex clinical or experimental data with physicians. The expectations of the target audience, good data understanding and analysis of the clinical trials, and factors influencing treatment choice by physicians will be thoroughly discussed.
Special emphasis will be placed on the most common physician profiles a pharmaceutical representative may interact with as well as potential challenges these profiles pose.
Course Methodology
This course uses a number of different training methods including presentations, group discussions, videos, question and answer sessions, case studies, and role plays.
Course Objectives
By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
Implement impactful communication skills while adapting to the projections of their target audience
Acquire an understanding of physician profiles based on educational and cultural backgrounds, medical approaches, and thinking patterns
Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of statistical data from a clinical trial
Create marketing material and promotional events for pharmaceutical products
Target Audience
This course is specifically designed for individuals responsible for medical/pharmaceutical affairs, marketing, and the field sales forces, as well as anyone involved in implementing effective communication techniques tailored to the different profiles of healthcare professionals.
Target Competencies
Practical Statistical Reasoning
Communication Skills
Customer Psychology
Creating Sales Strategies
Creating Marketing Strategies
Course Outline
Statistics for doctors - what they want to know
Overview of a scientific article
The question and the evidence based answer
Different study designs in practice:
Reviews and meta-analyses
Retrospective analyses
Sub-group analyses
Observational studies
Clinical trials
Dissecting a trial
Presenting the data
Statistics for the doctor
Research to practice applications
Communicating with doctors
Basics of communication
Different communication styles
Discovering the doctor’s communication style
Breaking the “one-size-fits-all” approach
Differentiating between the promotional message and the medical message
Different physician profiles and challenges
The art of observation
Getting the message across
Making a big impact in little time
Building a foundation
Addressing concerns
Answering different questions and their purpose
What to say and when to say it
Factors influencing the treatment choice
Different physician perspectives
Different physician profiles
Addressing the concerns
Presenting the data
Challenging questions and suggestions
Facilitating access
Marketing and promotional events
Different types of events and their intended purposes
Choosing the target audience
Working with speakers and attendees
Assuring the scientific benefit
Relaying the message while preserving ethical and high educational standards