January 22, 2008 — Nineteen percent of U.S. office-based physicians refuse to see sales representatives from the drug and device industry at any time, according to the recent study by SK&A Information Services Inc., a leading provider of healthcare information solutions and research.
Based on the telephone survey of 180,000 doctors, another 22.7 percent of doctors require the reps to set an appointment.
“The old days of walking into an office and bumping into the doctor are waning,” said Dave Escalante, president of SK&A. “Today’s industry sales reps will have more success with product detail efforts if they understand and adhere to these new physician access protocols and visitation standards.”
About five percent of physicians will visit with reps only on specific days of the week and 3.2 percent have restricted their access to specific times of the day with lunchtime being the most popular. However, nearly 73 percent of physicians surveyed will take details from reps at any time of day or any day of the week.
The days of the week a physician will meet with a sales rep vary only slightly, with Tuesday edging out the other days by a slim margin. Friday afternoons and Monday mornings are the least popular times of day to get a physician’s attention.
The study was performed in the fourth quarter 2007. SK&A will continue the survey until it has called all 656,000 practicing physicians in its database. The first report covering all physicians is scheduled to be complete and available in the second quarter 2008. The report will break down physician access by specialty and geography, and custom reports will also be available, on request.
New physician access reports will be released every six months. The data is available for sale to assist pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device and other healthcare marketers in appointment setting and connecting with physicians through direct sales channels.
For more information: www.skainfo.com