COVID-19 ONE YEAR ON: PHYSICIANS ATTITUDES AND NEEDS IN EU

One year on, for the healthcare industry much has changed, and some of those alterations may be permanent: channel interactions mix, new contact channels, contents, projects such as “home drug delivery”, telemedicine etc. On the other hand, hospital staff have faced unprecedented levels of stress and burnout, most primary care providers have largely recovered from the pandemic financially, but are increasingly frustrated with a lack of access to coronavirus vaccines to give to their patients, many of whom report worsening chronic medical conditions.

According to leading analysts such as McKinsey and IQVIA, patient remote engagement has increased greatly month by month, now having promoters who were detractors in the past; the same is happening with HCP engagement, with less difference country by country, so let us look at these in order.

HCPs ENGAGEMENT THROUGH G5 (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and UK)

Face-to- face interactions with pharma Sales Rep fell by 75% vs. pre-crisis levels, and many physicians expect to not see reps regularly again in the following months. As I mentioned previously, we cannot suppose to return to the previous situation: this is the new way of working and lasts for a while, and then it changes back again.

To respond to the lack of contacts, pharma companies have totally reinvented the way they reach out to customers, fostering remote engagement, which has increased by >2x compared to pre-crisis levels, and yet physicians report a poorer remote experience vs. in-person, stating a lack of personal exchange and technical challenges as the most common drivers for dissatisfaction

Physician feedback points to the great chance to improve engagement in three main areas:

Concerning the attitude of the physicians in the G5, the UK followed by Spain and Italy report the strongest shift from in-person to remote patient consultations, while Germany and France remain closer to pre-pandemic practice activity. Looking at primary and secondary care; on average there are a higher share of remote interactions in primary care (~70%) versus secondary care (40-50%), while overall in volume of interactions within the industry, only 15% of them are currently in-person (vs. 58% pre-crisis).

Considering the future, we need to keep in mind some pain points that companies could face, as the fact that few physicians are accepting regular visits from pharma representatives now compared to September 2020 –likely driven by the second COVID-19 wave that emerged in Q4-2020, or up to 20% of physicians may no longer be reachable F2F, and around 50% expect at least another 4-6 months before receiving a sales rep in person.

Adoption of most remote channels for pharma engagement continued to increase across most channels and countries, and following this aspect many pharmaceutical companies have started to invest in customer engagement innovation, especially in high quality content which may contribute to stronger remote engagement.

Nevertheless, remote interactions typically frustrate HCPs owing to the absence of personal interactions, the dedicated time required for it (vs. patient consultations) and the technical issues. Therefore, the New Sales Rep will have to have new skills and competencies to ensure successful interactions (relating and listening above all), to be able to keep high HCP engagement through different channels in different situations, but mostly in a fast-changing competitive environments.

PATIENTS ENGAGEMENT AND CONSULTATION IN G5

While the total volume of physician-patient interactions is pretty much the same to pre-crisis levels and stable since September, almost 50% of consultations are now remote (vs. 15% pre-crisis); generally, physicians declare that they have adjusted their prescribing habits: around 40-60% of them have adjusted their prescribing habits during the last year (exception: France where only 22% of physicians report such prescribing changes).

For those adjusting treatments, the main changes include: 

- Self-administered treatments are preferred

- Treatments that require less monitoring of the patient are preferred

Covid-19 issues are impacting on patients that are struggling most with obtaining access to care and especially to isolation, while physicians detect a lack of education and peer exchange opportunities. Furthermore, HCPs (Oncologists) complain that the ability to take care of cancer patients is being negatively impacted and 60% of them said that diagnosis issues and treatment delays adversely affected cancer patient care in pandemic times. Unfortunately, these are the main reasons why cancer patients are more affected by the outbreak:

- cancellation/delays in getting a doctor’s appointment

- Patients experiencing logistical challenge because of the new way of working

- Patients experiencing financial hardship

• Many of the changes made in pharma environments will be permanent, especially for HCPs engagement and patients’ way of treatment

• Remote interactions are and will be protagonists in the coming months, but sometimes they are seen as frustrating by HCPs; so to have successful interactions, Companies’ Representatives will have to relate and listen to the HCPs in the best way

• The big pain point is the delay of the diseases diagnoses due to the Covid impact on the patient’s management, who are not able anymore to reach out the HCPs to be visited as once

What do you think about that?

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