Digital Communication is the # 1 Method for Pharma Field Forces When Interacting With External Stakeholders

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC--(Marketwired - August 08, 2017) - The majority of interactions between surveyed health economics (HE) field force teams and external stakeholders occur through email correspondence, rather than face-to-face and phone interactions, according to a new study by business intelligence provider Cutting Edge Information.

Data published in the study, Health Economics Field Forces: Shape World-Class HOL and MCL Teams to Deliver HEOR Data, revealed that email communication is the most common method for health economics field force teams for disseminating health economics information when targeting payers, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), and hospital systems.

The study found that after email correspondence, HE field forces typically favor face-to-face meetings, making phone interactions the least common method used when communicating with external stakeholders.

"Much of a health economics field force liaison's responsibility is interacting with key external stakeholders," said Natalie DeMasi, research team leader at Cutting Edge Information. "Communicating health economics data to healthcare stakeholders is critical for product and company success."

On average, interactions with payers occur 48% of the time via email, and 32% of the time via face-to-face communication, the study found. When communicating with hospital systems, email correspondence typically makes up 47% of field force interactions, with an another 35% for face-to-face communication.

Additional data from the study revealed that most health economics field force teams report that at least 63% of their interactions with pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) occur over email.

When digging deeper into the data, the study found that healthcare physicians are the only external stakeholder that field force teams prefer face-to-face interactions over digital communication. Most surveyed teams interact with physicians at least 44% of the time through face-to-face meetings and about 43% of the time through email.

Health Economics Field Forces: Shape World-Class HOL and MCL Teams to Deliver HEOR Data, available at https://www.cuttingedgeinfo.com/product/health-economics-field-forces/, includes benchmarks and innovative approaches for establishing and improving health economics (HE) field forces -- such as HOL teams, MCL teams or hybrid MSL roles. This report is a decision support tool for health economics teams and medical affairs executives seeking to implement or improve HE field forces' role in delivering data to healthcare stakeholders.

This report is designed to help executives:

• Discover industry trends and insights into new approaches for ideal HOL and MCL team structures
• Use real-life profiles to compare field force activities and strategies from other life science companies to help teams optimize their operations
• Benchmark hiring and training best practices for health economics field forces
• Determine resource allocation, such as team size and budget allocation

For more information on Cutting Edge Information's medical affairs research, please visit https://www.cuttingedgeinfo.com/product-category/medical-affairs/.

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