Healthcare Advertising

Developing Patient Profiles to Optimize Market Position

The Australian healthcare system will undergo significant changes over the next decade. The anticipated changes to its structure together with the health care reform initiatives and increased competition between providers of health care services will result in pharmaceutical and medical companies rethinking how they conduct their businesses. Fundamental to this is an understanding of the needs of the end-consumer in the market – the patient. Gathering complete and accurate information on the patient’s characteristics can be used as a strategic marketing tool. Companies are placing increased emphasis on leveraging the activities of their Medical departments to accomplish this.

It is recognised that during the clinical trial process valuable information is gained about:

• the psychographics of the patient groups by analysing: how patient’s best respond to recruitment strategies, what are the significant motivators for patient’s remaining in clinical trials, and the lifestyle characteristics that the patients value (from the Quality of Life instruments).
• the patients’ demographic spread, which can be extrapolated into either market assessments or as the basis for more detailed epidemiological surveys.

The information collected is valuable to the company because it can be used to develop Patient Profiles for disease states mentioned in their PIs. The Patient Profiles include detailed data on the patients’ disease characteristics including: epidemiology; clinical features; and current treatment, diagnostic and preventative approaches. Full and accurate Profiles provide the company with a significant strategic tool that can be used to optimize its position in the market place through the targeting of particular patient groups.

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