Engaging healthcare providers in live insight-gathering sessions at Specialty Summits

February 2019

Your product’s success can rely heavily on the perceptions, opinions and practices of healthcare providers. How well does the provider community understand treatment guideline updates that impact your product? How willing is an HCP to engage insurers to gain access to a prescribed medicine? What role does the practice manager play in this process?

HCPs and sites of care are becoming more directly involved with the supply chain as direct distribution of specialty pharmaceuticals continues to grow.  Many healthcare organizations do not have robust systems in place to handle new classes of precision medicines, meaning that alignment between pharma companies and sites of administration for these therapies is critical to channel strategy success, and ultimately, commercialization of new medicines.

However, access to physicians and the ability to engage in a candid exchange of ideas has become increasingly challenging, due to time constraints on healthcare providers and changing industry practices regarding market research and advisory boards.

Specialty Summits from Cardinal Health offer companies looking to build awareness of a product or disease state or educate providers about a new indication, guideline designation or national payer decisions an opportunity to engage directly with HCPs and gather valuable insights.

Driven by our own need and desire to integrate physician feedback into our business strategy, summits consist of multiple insight-gathering sessions that bring together a wide variety of healthcare stakeholders to discuss specialty healthcare topics that are important to the ability of Cardinal Health to service our customers’ needs in the practice of specialty healthcare.

Powered by our Specialty Provider Extended Networks, summit events can offer unique access to providers specializing in therapeutic areas such as oncology, rheumatology and ophthalmology. Events typically include 60-70 community physicians, practice managers, and other supporting healthcare providers to ensure robust participation and insight. In conjunction with these advisory sessions, you have an opportunity to discuss your own important topics with the group of healthcare providers.

Understanding how customers view and experience your brand can be invaluable. “The more pharma companies can collaborate with providers and sites of-care to pinpoint their challenges and pain points to inform their channel strategies, risk mitigation plans and standard operating procedures that reduce uncertainty and create clarity, the more successful they will be,” reflects Joel Wayment, Vice President of Operations Cardinal Health 3PL.

If healthcare provider feedback and education can enhance your business strategy and go-to-market plans, there are many opportunities to connect with your audience:

• Podium presentations – Share the latest clinical information on your product with the group of assembled healthcare practitioners.
• Audience Response System (ARS) sessions – Obtain qualitative and quantitative data and feedback about your product by polling our provider audience using interactive ARS devices in hour-long sessions.
• Tabletop displays – Engage with providers in our networking sessions and share relevant, product-specific information.
• Advisory boards, focus groups, roundtables - Engage leading healthcare professionals in live, invitation-only satellite meetings designed to share relevant product information and gather qualitative feedback to inform future marketing strategies.

Ask your Client Relationship Manager to put you in touch with our summits team to learn more about available opportunities.