New Quantia and Capgemini Consulting Survey Reveals the Need for New Ways for Pharmaceutical Companies to Engage with Organized Physicians

New York, N.Y., and Waltham, Mass., October 27, 2014 – Quantia Inc., a pioneer in physician engagement and alignment, and Capgemini Consulting, the global strategy and transformation consulting arm of the Capgemini Group, today announced key findings from a new joint study that shows an increasing difficulty for pharmaceutical companies to engage with physicians via traditional methods due to their increasing affiliation with health systems. The study, “Working the System: New Opportunities for Engaging Physicians in Organized Provider Systems,” assessed the effectiveness of pharmaceutical (pharma) marketing and engagement strategies geared toward physicians, revealing an increased need for pharma companies to employ new strategies for effectively engaging hard-to-reach physicians, who now rely even more heavily on digital programs and online communities.
 
Now in its third year, the survey found that increasingly, physicians are affiliated with health systems, such as integrated delivery networks, integrated health networks, and accountable care organizations. Of the approximately 3,000 U.S. physician respondents, more than half (57 percent) are employed by health systems, which rises to 70 percent for newer physicians (those who attained their medical degree within the last 10 years). These respondents cite that due to these affiliations with health systems, their prescribing behaviors are carefully controlled. Moreover, they now have limited direct contact with pharma sales representatives – a long-standing and easily accessible source of product information and disease-state education for physicians. As a result, the survey found that physicians increasingly turn to digital sources for drug education and guidance on prescribing practices.
 
Specifically, the study found that within organized provider systems, roughly 2 in 5 physicians never see a pharma sales representative, with 80 percent citing organizational policies that restrict such contact. Of note, however, is the expanding opportunity to utilize digital resources. Affiliated physicians showed an increasing preference for information to be delivered digitally (76 percent for all respondents, and 83 percent for newer physicians). The study also shows that engaging the physician alone is not enough, as more than half of the respondents cited organizational limitations to prescribing medications that are not on an approved list.
 
These findings suggest the need for pharma companies to engage health systems at both the executive and physician level, suggesting that the changing provider landscape is driving demand for pharma companies to partner with, and provide resources to, health system decision makers to help engage these organized physicians while supporting health systems’ overall performance goals.
 
“As provider consolidation and restrictive policies reduce access for traditional selling efforts, opportunities exist for pharmaceutical companies to help address the needs of these organized providers through innovative initiatives and programs,” said Doug Moore, Organized Provider Solutions Leader, Capgemini Consulting. “Executive decision makers at health systems can benefit from an array of digital tools offered by pharmaceutical companies, which have the potential to help drive consistency of care and make health systems more efficient. Clearly demonstrating an intent and ability to engage around the organized provider’s challenges and opportunities helps lay the foundation for robust organizational partnerships between pharma and provider.”
 
 “There is a perfect storm occurring in healthcare as more physicians are being employed by health systems and thereby less accessible to pharmaceutical reps, more constrained in their prescribing behaviors, and increasingly beholden to performance metrics. Yet the survey findings indicate that despite this increasingly consolidated environment, physicians overwhelmingly believe that pharmaceutical companies willing to adapt their physician engagement strategies have the potential to add real value to their organized networks,” said Dan Malloy, Executive Vice President, Quantia. “Introducing physician engagement strategies such as credible online communities and digital content sharing gives pharmaceutical firms the opportunity to promote the latest, critical drug information to these organized physicians while aligning with the performance objectives of the health systems in which they work– a true push/pull approach that will drive success for all constituents.”