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Authentic PAtient Voice
on Call
PAtient RelAtions/heAlthcARe communicAtions
It’s Time to Rethink the Doctor
Discussion Guide
By Phil Storer
After decades of producing sterile “information,” biopharma marketers today find their biggest opportunities in the field of personal communication.
One of our health educators recently shared a true story with me that in my mind really drives home the importance of personal communication in patient engagement. She was on the phone with a patient who is legally blind and faced frustration: Apparently, he requested an audio brochure but never heard back. As the conversation went on, the health educator probed to find out more about the patient’s care situation and cross-referenced our own shipping and communication records. Soon it became evident that this seemingly innocent problem that at first looked like an honest mistake was in fact caused by a shocking reality on the patient’s end: His caregiver was stealing all of his mail! This vulnerable individual was being cruelly taken advantage of.
In a world of automated communication, inconsistent web content, and bot- powered phone calls, it is becoming increasingly difficult for patients to find the help they need from a trusted source. But in this case, with a human on each end of the line, it was possible to resolve a serious issue that would have otherwise prevented the patient from receiving the healthcare solutions he wanted and needed. While this may be an example for best practice in the biopharma industry, it’s not what patients are typically offered.
The Doctor Discussion Guide: A Great Idea—In Theory
The holy grail of consumer strategy is to get a patient to talk to their doctor. It’s hard to quantify how many patient- doctor conversations are started thanks to a company’s efforts, and it’s even
harder to tell if these conversations are even productive at all. We know there are often communication gaps between patients and HCPs, so in theory, closing those gaps would be a good way to help patients take control of their healthcare. That’s where doctor discussion guides come in. They are the industry standard— almost every brand hopes patients will print out their guides, read them, and bring them to their doctor’s appointment.
But from a strategic point of view, doctor discussion guides are to medicine what steam-powered cars are to transportation: An idea that technically “works” but that doesn’t get adopted due to its drawbacks. If you Google “doctor discussion guide,” the results page is flooded with “helpful” tools that patients can use to start conversations with their healthcare team, track symptoms, and make informed decisions about their care. But are they effective? And are they actually guiding discussions with doctors?
The short answer? No. The engagement metrics for doctor discussion guides are low. For starters, patients are not downloading them, and even if they do, many of these guides are not designed to be viewed or used in mobile. Few patients print hard copies, and even fewer actually bring their guide to a doctor’s appointment. The issue is not outright objection to discussion guides—one recent study in fact found that the majority of doctors would welcome the use of guides. But there’s very little uptake.
Get Closer to the Actual Conversation
So why is that? How can there still be a
doctor discussion guide on almost every branded pharmaceutical website when we know they hardly ever make it in front of an HCP? And why, of all things, is the number of PDF downloads still so often the main key performance indicator to gauge the success of direct-to-patient marketing efforts?
Part of the explanation is simply we can’t be with the patient during the doctor’s visit to check if they’re having a productive conversation. So we just measure the next best thing: How many times people downloaded our PDF. But shouldn’t we be able to get a step closer to actually attending the visit? We should. And we can. Here’s why and how.
Relationships in Healthcare
Communication is rooted in relationships. The closer those relationships are, the more personal the communication is. Personal communication drives recall, motivation, understanding, and ultimately behavior. That’s why, as marketers, we should always think about adding a human touch to the brand experience. In biopharma, this is as true as in any industry.
Healthcare, too, is defined by relationships. It stands and falls with the quality of the relationship patients have with their HCP, their caregivers, their treatment, and even themselves. The degree to which patients feel ownership over their disease is dependent on those relationships. They have to have mutual trust and understanding with their HCP. They have to have commitment to and from their caregivers. They require information
26 pm360 magazine / September 2020
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