How pharma marketers can advertise patient services to physicians

Patient services can significantly help patient populations see better health outcomes. However, the majority of patients don't know that these services exist. By improving physician awareness of the patient services offered by pharmaceutical companies, patients could see better outcomes.

Raising physician awareness of patient services is a benefit for all

Awareness of patient services is low.

Patient services are typically well-received by patient populations - when those patients are aware of the services. More often than not, however, patients are left in the dark. According to Fierce Pharma, citing data from an Accenture report, only 19 percent of patients know about available patient services.

However, patients who are aware of these services tend to take advantage of them. According to the source, 79 percent of patients who use these services rate them as highly valuable resources.

Part of the reason why these services go unnoticed is that pharma marketers have trouble working them into the conversation when speaking with physicians. In-person meetings tend to be short, and pharmaceutical representatives need to focus on more lucrative parts of the product line.

Increasing physician awareness will likely improve patient awareness, in turn. Patients who leverage these resources - from prescription assistance to nurse visits - likely have higher satisfaction levels and may even see better health results.

Only 19 percent of patients are aware of services offered by pharmaceutical companies.

Patient services can benefit physicians in the quality payment program

Physicians stand to benefit from patient services, as well. Life Science Leader reported that 67 percent of patient services representatives say the main goal of their offerings is to improve patient outcomes. That's also the goal of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act and the Quality Payment Program (QPP). Within the QPP, physicians could see their reimbursements from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services rise - if they can prove they're improving patient experiences and outcomes.

By utilizing patient services from pharma companies, physicians may see more traction on their efforts to improve processes and help patients. This could be a major point of interest for physicians, if pharma reps can get enough time to explain their offerings.

Some of the most desirable patient services include:

• Prescription adherence programs.
• Medication delivery.
• Remote monitoring.
• Health counselors.
• Nurse home visits.

Physician awareness needs improvement, too

If in-person visits with physicians don't offer pharma reps enough opportunities to tout their patient services, they need to leverage other channels of communication. According to data from another Accenture report, 75 percent of physicians would like to be made aware of patient services via a pharma sales representative, and if that doesn't work, they'd rather be made aware via conferences, colleagues or email campaigns.

But what physicians want and what actually works aren't necessarily the same thing. Emails sometimes have a low open and click-through rate, and conferences don't offer a channel wide enough to reach a significant portion of the healthcare community.

There is another way. Advertisements in peer-reviewed content, print or digital, can reach a high percentage of targeted audience. Nearly every currently practicing physician reads peer-reviewed content. Kantar Media reported that 96 percent of physicians read current issues of medical journals.

By utilizing a multi-channel approach that remains targeted on the medical community, pharma marketers stand a better chance of spreading awareness of their patient services. Peer-reviewed journals represent an accessible port of entry for delivering this sort of targeted message.

To learn more about how you can leverage peer-reviewed content to spread awareness of your patient services, visit ELSMediaKits.com today.