Providing Support and Communication for Field-Based Medical Specialists

Given the relatively small size and wide dispersion of the field-based medical force, three factors are critically important:

1)Program organization and coordination with other departments
2)Support staff and administration
3)Communication tools, particularly usage of the internet and other electronic communication

Pharmaceutical companies can use this detailed individual review of each key factor to create a supportive infrastructure, allowing for effective inter-departmental communication to enhance specialist's productivity. This 10-page report outlines the program director’s role to:

• Provide adequate channels for communication with other departments and leverage specialist’s work to support a wide range of objectives
• Work to reduce the amount of administrative work that field-based medical specialists must do so they can concentrate their time on the highest value activity – relationship development with thought leaders
• Promote an integrated communications platform to encourage the spread of best practices, creating a team-oriented culture and disseminating vital information and key strategies to the field force.

• Organization
• Support Staff Roles
• Role of the Internet and other Electric Communication

• Establish organizational independence from and collaborations with sales, marketing, and medical departments. One studied benchmark company’s field-based medical program works most closely with the sales, marketing and research & development programs, yet it reports to the vice president for scientific, professional and governmental affairs
• Reduce field-based medical administrative work as much as possible. Another benchmark company has eliminated all administrative work from its specialists’ duties so they can keep focused on thought leader relationship development.
• Share current information through Internet resources to keep field-based medical specialists up to date. One studied company has given its field-based medical specialists access to a full information database that contains articles, abstracts, clinical reports and other documents about products and current trends in different therapeutic areas.
  

If you purchase Best Practice Database document(s), you will have 30 days from the date of purchase to apply some or all of the cost of the document(s) toward the cost of a Full Access Individual, Pharma, Group or University Membership. Write us at DatabaseTeam@bestpracticesllc.com or call David Guinn at 919-767-9179 if you have any questions.