Regions
MAIN/REGIONS
regions/
Regions
  1. Americas
  2. Asia & Oceania
  3. Europe
  4. Middle East & Africa
  1. Solutions
  2. Products
  3. Insights
  4. About
  5. Careers
  6. Contact Us
MAIN/search
MAIN/Solutions
Solutions/
SOLUTIONS
  • Research & Development
  • Real World Evidence
  • Commercialization
  • Safety & Regulatory Compliance
  • Technologies
LIFE SCIENCE SEGMENTS
HEALTHCARE SEGMENTS
THERAPEUTIC AREAS

Impacting People's Lives

"We strive to help improve outcomes and create a healthier, more sustainable world for people everywhere.

LEARN MORE
Harness the power to transform clinical development

Reimagine clinical development by intelligently connecting data, technology, and analytics to optimize your trials. The result? Faster decision making and reduced risk so you can deliver life-changing therapies faster.

Research & Development Overview
Research & Development Quick Links
Real World Evidence. Real Confidence. Real Results.

Generate and disseminate evidence that answers crucial clinical, regulatory and commercial questions, enabling you to drive smarter decisions and meet your stakeholder needs with confidence.

REAL WORLD EVIDENCE OVERVIEW
Real World Evidence Quick Links
See markets more clearly. Opportunities more often.

Elevate commercial models with precision and speed using AI-driven analytics and technology that illuminate hidden insights in data.

COMMERCIALIZATION OVERVIEW
Commercialization Quick Links
Service driven. Tech-enabled. Integrated compliance.

Orchestrate your success across the complete compliance lifecycle with best-in-class services and solutions for safety, regulatory, quality and medical information.

COMPLIANCE OVERVIEW
Safety & Regulatory Compliance Quick Links
Intelligence that transforms life sciences end-to-end.

When your destination is a healthier world, making intelligent connections between data, technology, and services is your roadmap.

TECHNOLOGIES OVERVIEW
Technology Quick Links
MAIN/Products
Products/
CLINICAL PRODUCTS
COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS
COMPLIANCE, SAFETY, REG PRODUCTS
REAL WORLD PRODUCTS

CASE STUDY

"Data in a Day

LEARN MORE
MAIN/Insights
Insights/
BLOGS, WHITE PAPERS & CASE STUDIES

Explore our library of insights, thought leadership, and the latest topics & trends in healthcare.

DISCOVER INSIGHTS
THE IQVIA INSTITUTE

An in-depth exploration of the global healthcare ecosystem with timely research, insightful analysis, and scientific expertise.

SEE LATEST REPORTS

INSTITUTE REPORT

"Global Trends in R&D 2024

READ MORE

EMEA Insights

"IQVIA thought leadership with a focus on EMEA.

Learn more

WHITE PAPER

"DCTs Deliver Big ROI

LEARN MORE

WHITE PAPER

"Capturing value at scale: The $4 billion RWE imperative

LEARN MORE
MAIN/About
About/
FEATURED INNOVATIONS
  • IQVIA Connected Intelligence™
  • IQVIA Healthcare-grade AI™
  • Human Data Science Cloud
  • IQVIA Innovation Hub
  • Decentralized Trials
  • Patient Experience powered by Apple
WHO WE ARE
NEWS & RESOURCES

INVESTOR RELATIONS

"Visit our investor relations site for more information.

LEARN MORE
Unlock your potential to drive healthcare forward

By making intelligent connections between your needs, our capabilities, and the healthcare ecosystem, we can help you be more agile, accelerate results, and improve patient outcomes.

LEARN MORE
IQVIA AI is Healthcare-grade AI

Building on a rich history of developing AI for healthcare, IQVIA AI connects the right data, technology, and expertise to address the unique needs of healthcare. It's what we call Healthcare-grade AI.

LEARN MORE
Your healthcare data deserves more than just a cloud.

The IQVIA Human Data Science Cloud is our unique capability designed to enable healthcare-grade analytics, tools, and data management solutions to deliver fit-for-purpose global data at scale.

LEARN MORE
Innovations make an impact when bold ideas meet powerful partnerships

The IQVIA Innovation Hub connects start-ups with the extensive IQVIA network of assets, resources, clients, and partners. Together, we can help lead the future of healthcare with the extensive IQVIA network of assets, resources, clients, and partners.

LEARN MORE
Proven, faster DCT solutions

IQVIA Decentralized Trials deliver purpose-built clinical services and technologies that engage the right patients wherever they are. Our hybrid and fully virtual solutions have been used more than any others.

LEARN MORE
IQVIA Patient Experience Solutions powered by Apple

Empowering patients to personalize their healthcare and connecting them to caregivers has the potential to change the care delivery paradigm. IQVIA and Apple are collaborating to bring this exciting future of personalized care directly to devices patients already have and use.

LEARN MORE
MAIN/Careers
Careers/
WORKING AT IQVIA

Our mission is to accelerate innovation for a healthier world. Together, we can solve customer challenges and improve patient lives.

LEARN MORE
LIFE AT IQVIA

Careers, culture and everything in between. Find out what’s going on right here, right now.

LEARN MORE

WE’RE HIRING

"Improving human health requires brave thinkers who are willing to explore new ideas and build on successes. Unleash your potential with us.

SEARCH JOBS
MAIN/Contact Us
Contact Us/
Blog
Navigating new realities for medical affairs engagement
Markus Gores, Vice President, EMEA Thought Leadership
Reinhard Berkels, Senior Director, Head of Medical Affairs Strategy, IQVIA
Jan 09, 2024

Much has been written about how the pandemic impacted the way pharmaceutical companies engaged with healthcare professionals (HCPs), for example physical access restrictions accelerating the rise of remote and digital channels. During the pandemic, this trend was observed across all interactions a company has with HCPs, including both commercial teams and medical affairs.

IQVIA’s latest proprietary primary research, conducted with HCPs in EU4/UK and the U.S. in October and November 2023, explores the extent to which pandemic-induced changes have a lasting impact on medical engagement and HCP preferences.

In this blog we present highlights from our research and discuss the implications for pharmaceutical companies.

I. MSL-HCP interaction volume has yet to fully recover

As expected, contact volumes declined dramatically as the pandemic hit, from an average of 19 MSL interactions per HCP for a six-month period to just 5 across the six countries in scope of our survey.

While post-pandemic contact volumes for MSL engagement have bounced back to an average of 16 per HCP for a six-month period, these are still below pre-pandemic levels in each of the six countries, including EU4/UK and the U.S., ranging from 82% to 92%, with the U.S. having seen the highest rate of recovery (see Figure 1).

For context, interactive contacts between sales reps and HCPs, based on IQVIA Channel Dynamics data as at Q3/2023, are also still below pre-pandemic levels in EU4/UK, ranging from 64% in Germany to 94% in the UK. As an outlier, in the U.S. interactive contacts by sales reps now exceed pre-pandemic levels, reaching 121%, according to IQVIA Channel Dynamics.

Important caveat: We are comparing two different data sources here, a one-off survey of just over 800 HCPs focused on MSL trends vs. IQVIA Channel Dynamics, a regular survey instrument with a much larger sample size measuring pharma-HCP engagements.

The overall recovery in interactive HCP engagement, including both commercial and medical contacts, has played out very unevenly across the six countries in focus. Relative to interactions by sales reps, the rebound in MSL engagement has been considerably stronger in Germany, France and Italy, whereas in Spain, the UK and the U.S. the opposite is true (see Figure 2).

The latter three countries saw the most significant pivot to remote, interactive channels for sales detailing during the pandemic, which they continued at higher levels than other countries even after access restrictions eased. This explains their stronger, post-pandemic recovery for interactive sales rep contacts compared to Germany, France and Italy.

In most countries, healthcare systems still grapple with the hangover from the pandemic. As another IQVIA study found, across EU4/UK and the U.S., the majority of healthcare professionals (53-74%) were still reporting that understaffing due to resignation and burnout remains a significant problem in 2023 [1], while patient backlogs continue to exacerbate pressures.

In such an environment, with HCPs’ available time to engage at a premium, it is critical for pharmaceutical companies to make every contact count. This means delivering relevant, tailored and compelling content but also looking beyond in-person engagement and embracing an orchestrated, HCP preference-led omnichannel approach [2]. Companies also needs to recognise that HCPs ultimately value information that helps them optimise patient care.

Our survey results reflect this sentiment, with 7 in 10 HCPs saying they would like more personalised medical interactions based on their individual needs, which applies to both content and the format and channel of its delivery.

On a positive note, HCPs in all six countries indicated that they are likely to increase interactions with MSLs in the future.

II. A hybrid model for medical engagement is here to stay

During the pandemic we saw a steep increase in the use of remote and digital channels in medical engagement, especially video calls and email, which significantly grew their share of all HCP medical contacts from 5% and 14% pre-pandemic to 36% and 34%, respectively.

After we emerged from the pandemic, video calls and email have retained a significant share of medical contacts, at 14% and 18%, respectively, with both above their pre-pandemic levels, even as the share of in-person MSL interactions bounced back from a pandemic low of 8% to 55% today (see Figure 3).

Respondents identified more frequent virtual and/or remote engagement and utilising real-time virtual educational events as the top changes they adopted permanently since the pandemic, with a majority of HCPs across the six countries confirming they are comfortable with virtual MSL interactions. At the same time, a majority of HCPs acknowledged that building relationships with MSLs virtually is challenging.  

When asked about the future, HCPs indicated they expect a hybrid model for medical engagement to continue, with a similar channel mix as observed today.

III. HCPs’ medical and scientific information needs are evolving

Information related to new indications and about a product’s efficacy and safety will continue to be top priorities, as identified by over 60% of HCPs. However, three information areas saw significant increases of around 10% between current and future importance as attributed by survey respondents (see Figure 4):

  • A product’s economic value
  • Managing patients remotely
  • Opportunities for publications and investigator-initiated studies (IIS)

The reported elevation in importance of the first two topics clearly reflects the post-pandemic pressures many HCPs are facing, in particular a budget- and resource/capacity constrained environment in which they have to operate. Therefore, it is not surprising that they see an increasing need to seek relevant information, including from pharmaceutical companies, to help them (better) manage those challenges, e.g., by exploring home care or remote treatment to overcome capacity bottlenecks and alleviate persistent patient backlogs.

HCPs also expressed a clear preference for engagement with MSL vs. sales reps on specific information needs, including:

  • Balanced, unbiased information on a disease area
  • In-depth discussions on disease, treatment landscape, patient unmet needs and latest data/evidence

These findings highlight how medical affairs is uniquely placed to engage with HCPs in ways that deliver differentiated value. As a non-promotional function, with a deep understanding of disease, the underlying science behind innovation, clinical practice and patient needs, medical affairs can build trust-based relationships that are free of potential commercial conflicts of interest or perceived bias. Furthermore, only medical affairs is allowed to respond to off-label questions, upon unsolicited request.

This positions medical affairs at the heart of efforts to rebuild HCP interactive engagement post-pandemic which, as we discussed earlier, is still below pre-pandemic contact levels across both commercial and medical in most countries (see Figure 2).

Our research also shows that rebuilding post-pandemic medical engagement requires a different approach, as there will be no return to the pre-pandemic model. Successful medical engagement now requires much more than simply providing relevant scientific or medical information to HCPs. How, when and where such information is provided is as important, with expectations of greater personalisation of content, its contextualisation and delivery to reflect HCP preferences.

To successfully navigate post-pandemic realities, it is therefore paramount for pharmaceutical companies to truly understand healthcare professionals’ needs and preferences to enable highly personalised, impactful medical engagement. Naturally, the same holds true for commercial.

References:

  1. Firestorm to Burnout: The Impact of the Pandemic on Healthcare Professionals; IQVIA white paper, 2023; https://www.iqvia.com/library/white-papers/firestorm-to-burnout-the-impact-of-the-pandemic-on-healthcare-professionals
  2. Medical Affairs’ Next Frontier: Unlocking Omnichannel Engagement; IQVIA white paper, 2022; https://www.iqvia.com/library/white-papers/medical-affairs-next-frontier-unlocking-omnichannel-engagement

Learn More

White Paper
Driving Growth with Omnichannel HCP Activation: New Models. New Value.

As the dust settles, one thing is clear — multi-channel engagement remains challenging but crucial to ensuring consumer health brand success.
Blog
Four Questions an Effective Digital Engagement Strategy Needs to Answer
By: Sofia Malay, Lucia Railean

Related solutions

Contact Us