Networks in Health enables pharma companies to transcend international boundaries

Networks in Health – the unique international alliance of online physician networks – has added approximately 100,000 physicians and allied healthcare professionals in Canada and Australia to its membership following a new partnership with mdBriefCase Inc.

mdBriefCase Inc runs the largest multi-disciplinary healthcare community in Canada with 42,000 physician members, including family physicians, specialists and nurse practitioners; plus 31 pharmacists and 15,000 allied health care professionals. The company is also the largest private provider of accredited online learning in Australia where its network has more than 26,000 physicians.

The union with mdBriefCase follows the recent announcement of a partnership between Networks in Health and three communities in Belgium, Russia and Turkey. This added another 114,000 members to Networks in Health, which also closely links with physician communities in the US and Asia and Latin America as well as Europe.

So how are physicians using these networks and what key advantages does Networks in Health bring to pharma? Experience from the UK and other partner networks in the alliance, shows that physicians want to network with their peers on a national basis, rather than an international one. This means that pharma companies need to engage with physicians through their individual networks rather than adopt a blanket global approach. 

However, with reduced headcounts in sales and marketing in pharma, and increased pressure on resources engaging with physicians internationally as part of an integrated multi-channel approach can be time consuming, costly and difficult for pharma companies to implement.

Networks in Health was set up in May 2011 to address this problem by providing a single, co-ordinated point of access to over 1.6 million physicians across the globe. With access to experts in these individual countries, we have a clear understanding of how physicians' thinking and behaviour online varies according to their nationality, as well as their age and specialty. This helps ensure that messages are consistent, timely and well targeted as well as being in line with local culture and regulations. 

By using Networks in Health, pharma companies can also take advantage of these independent channels' extensive measurement and evaluation capability which enable them to measure awareness, interest, desire and action within target groups of doctors at any point in the programme and optimise their ongoing sales and marketing activities accordingly.

For more information on Doctors.net.uk, please call Simon Grime on +44 (0)1235 828400, or email Simon.Grime@mess.doctors.org.uk. You can also follow Doctors.net.uk on twitter: doctors_net_uk

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