Healthcare professionals don’t trust your digital content. That is the stark conclusion of a survey of HCPs, which found 80% of consultants are skeptical of pharma content because of doubts about the cherry-picking of data and other concerns.
Graphite Digital uncovered the lack of trust by talking to consultant-level HCPs specializing in oncology and urology in the U.S., the U.K. and France. The conversations revealed suspicions about the objectivity of the data provided by pharma companies. HCPs accepted pharma companies won’t publish information that is completely inaccurate, but many believe their content requires interpretation and scrutiny.
“They will often provide clinical trial information, and although I think the data’s correct, it’s presented in a way that is maybe skewed. If there were endpoints that weren’t favorable to the drug, they may not be there,” a respondent said.
The lack of trust in the information provided by pharma companies feeds into a frustration expressed by the HCPs. Many HCPs spoke about the challenges created by the lack of a single location that contains all the information they need, explaining that pharma websites paint a partial picture of products, and it can be hard to round up the journal papers that contain a more comprehensive assessment of the results.
Graphite’s survey suggests the importance of digital content varies by geography. HCPs in the U.S. said visits by pharma reps have rebounded after the pandemic-enforced drop in in-person interactions, with some consultants reporting three or four lunchtime visits a week. However, direct interactions between the U.K. HCPs, who had the least favorable views of pharma, and reps are much rarer.
Some pharma reps visit HCPs at their hospitals, but Graphite found consultants can react negatively to those in-person visits, particularly when reps “come across as patronizing or dated—turning up with an iPad and running through a rehearsed script with basic medical information.” As such, the company said it is better “to give people the chance to view things online themselves.”