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"Not Another Boring Survey?"
Winning over HCPs… How to Increase Participant Engagement in Healthcare Market Research

The BHBIA Members’ Exchange Forum
towards the end of last year on Customer Engagement has given us some food
for thought. The Forum shared some strong views on what we need to consider
as an industry to improve the relationships we have with HCPs. With response
rates declining and apparent frustration amongst potential participants, we’ve
been thinking creatively about what can be done to help win over HCPs.
So what are some of the challenges we’re facing?
Dr Ameet Bakhai raised some of the main issues
during his presentation at the BHBIA Forum.
“I’m too busy”
Firstly HCPs lead busy lives – they
might not even have time to respond to emails from recruiters – never mind
actually give up their valuable time to take part.
“Why should I bother?”
There are also potential problems around
communicating the value of research projects to participants to gain their
understanding of the worth of their contribution. Are fieldwork agencies
reaching out to potential participants in the right way and what more can
pharma and researchers do to engage HCPs?
“It’s so boring - what’s the point?”
Are research materials being designed to
the highest standard and are they actually enjoyable for HCPs to engage with? Are
some questionnaires simply boring and unnecessarily long-winded? And do
participants ever get feedback on the findings/how the information has been
used?
How can we win over HCPs?

Gaining
participant buy-in
Let’s start thinking more carefully
about how we are reaching out to HCPs – are they for example:
Receiving too many emails? Are the invitations to take
part written and formatted in an interesting and engaging manner?
Are more innovative approaches to recruitment the
answer?
We are starting to take more of an
innovative approach to the recruitment process. Such as looking at if
gamification could be applied to further engage HCPs and also reaching out more
through text messages – for easier response on the go.
Can we foster better relations?
Another idea being implemented is to
undertake more pilot exercises with HCPs before going live, fostering relations
and demonstrating the value that they can provide in helping to shape the
materials. Can we do this without holding up approval processes and/or
requiring a second stage of approval?
Should we give something back?
Can we provide more information to HCPs
on the value of their input into the research? Should we for example share some
of the project findings to give something back?
This could help stimulate engagement in
future research and also demonstrate to those that didn’t take part that they
missed out on contributing but will have the opportunity to do so again in the
future.
Gathering and acting on feedback
We rarely ask participants what they
thought about the research and what could have been done improved. It could be
that some are simply too busy to respond but others might feel more involved
and considered for being asked. Key learnings could help us better shape future
participant experiences.
Responding on-the-go – via mobile

We’ve already considered how busy HCPs
are. Mobile research is a great solution to being able to respond on the go at
a time that suits them. With research published in the online journal BMJ
Innovations affirming that 99% of doctors own a smartphone and 94% of them use
them at work1 – mobile is an ideal option, either for the initial
contact or as a platform for the research itself.
Let’s get creative
We have lots of creative ideas and new
technologies at our finger tips. Should we be engaging participants more using
novel techniques?
We’ve found from previous
experience that participants can find gamification in questionnaires more
engaging and rewarding2.
Even simple tweaks to the way questions
are worded, supporting visuals and reward mechanisms can make a big difference.
Additionally the application of gamification for example drag and drop, sliding
scales, etc., can actually make questionnaires quicker to complete.

Where next?
We’ve mentioned some key steps that we
are currently implementing to enhance participants’ experiences from the
recruitment stage. Our goal is to further engage participants, yield higher
quality responses and demonstrate the value that we place on each individual contributor.
We don’t have to dramatically change the
way we are conducting research but tweaks here and there could make a real
difference. And as a leading supermarket chain likes to remind us, every little
helps…
Kris Barker,
Associate Director & Engagement Lead
1 Mohammad
H Mobasheri, Dominic King, Maximilian Johnston, Sanjay Gautama, Sanjay
Purkayastha, Ara Darzi. The
ownership and clinical use of smartphones by doctors and nurses in the UK: a
multicentre survey study. BMJ
Innovations, 2015; bmjinnov-2015-000062 DOI:10.1136/bmjinnov-2015-000062
2 Joanna Thompson (Adelphi Research UK), Paola Franco
(Janssen) and Jon Puleston (GMI/AllGlobal). What does gamification offer to
healthcare research? (BHBIA Best Conference Paper 2014. https://www.adelphiresearchuk.co.uk/gamification-healthcare-market-research/
Contact
Website
Address:
Adelphi Mill
Bollington
Macclesfield
Cheshire
SK10 5JB
United Kingdom