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Bridging the Rep-Doctor Gap

Stimulating and pithy information at conducive time to doctors help sales more than a pushy med-rep

Jan 15, 2021
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Over the last two decades the general love-hate rep-doctor relationship has been severely strained further. The pandemic has worsened the situation with a 30% drop in in-person visit. During this period with the advent of dime a dozen pharma companies, the competition has become severe and influence peddling all pervasive. From organizing all paid trips to fancy destinations in the name of attending conferences to doling out lavish gifts and treats have become rampant. Indeed, regulators are clamping down. Medical facilities have become out of bound for reps. Principled doctors avoid reps like the “Covid”. PLOS Journal, an open access publisher, concluded in an article on how reps make friends and influence doctors, “... every word, every courtesy, every gift, and every piece of information provided is carefully crafted, not to assist doctors or patients, but to increase market share for targeted drugs. In the interests of patients, doctors must reject the false friendship provided by reps.” Still timely and easily consumable information about drugs is an absolute necessity for doctors. The ill-effect of influence peddling is thus not limited to rep-doc dynamics, it takes toll on the entire eco-system of healthcare. It is time to bridge the gap and reestablish the trusted relationship between doctors and drug reps, a sine qua non for the well-being of patients and a properly functioning healthcare system.

Reps are an important source of information, yet doctors often find them not objective or unbiased and being too focused on sales than service. While the number of pharma reps are on rapid rise, cost efficiency of pharma sales force is in steady decline.

The challenges to reverse the trend are many:

Reps are restricted from accessing medical facilities
The paucity of time makes the rep-doc interaction mechanical
Doctors want briefs tailored to their profile and needs
Reps have less time to research and tailor their briefs to the needs of individual doctors
Unproductive time spent on travelling and waiting
Doctors often are not in the right listening mindset
While expecting prompt response to requests, doctors are wary of direct contacts