Alan S. Klein with Sequella and Xavier Petit from Shire are talking about innovation’s effect on pharma marketing and sales.
Two conflicting trends are actually converging to create a lot of stress in the exam room: Patients are more empowered (and more demanding) than ever and payors are putting significant pressure on physicians to control costs. That’s changing the patient-doctor relationship. Not only are visits getting shorter (to cram more patients into a day), but docs are often having to say no.
We know a lot of the technology trends, but one we haven’t talked much about yet today is the fast uptake of the slate. According to Manhattan Research, as of this July, 12% of physicians had already purchased an iPad and another 30% were planning to purchase in the next 6 months. This is an entirely new tool set we’re already seeing enter that exam room conversation.
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Suzanne Sysko Clough, MD, says that many physicians miss the complexity of what really happens when they give a patient a prescription – 20% of patients never fill the first prescription. 50% discontinue in the first six months. It’s not as easy as recommendations or reminders.
The situation is even more challenging in some disease states: For example, up to 72% of asthma patients report that they take their controller medications less than prescribed. Taking that medicine can reduce hospital and emergency visits by 80%. It’s a huge impact on both patients and practitioners.
It’s not something physicians like Clough learn in med school. Docs assume some people are noncompliant. But the scope of the problem is something that’s hard to wrap our collective heads around. Physicians shake their fingers at noncompliance, but that’s not connecting with patients.
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