Leveraging patient voices to transform health care provider insights into business impact

Uncovering authentic insights: Overcoming challenges in health care provider research

Editor’s note: Laura Bayzle is managing partner, and Jeff Whiteside is senior vice president, The Link Group, Durham, N.C.

Health care providers (HCPs) are often a primary lens for understanding treatment landscapes, patient needs and product potential. However, we often see a convergence of issues that can impact the authenticity of the insights collected:

• HCPs are often “frequent fliers,” which can lead to a participant vs. HCP mind-set. Many HCPs participate in research on an almost weekly basis, partly driven by the demand of research. And often, the questions we ask as researchers are predictable and don’t challenge HCPs’ thinking. As a result, HCPs can fall into a participant mind-set, leading to reduced engagement and surface-level answers to frequent research topics and questions.   
• HCPs are humans and susceptible to bias. Their memory can be clouded by the sheer volume of patient interactions. This may make it difficult for HCPs to recall specific dialogue or behaviors and they may inadvertently leave out critical details that give researchers insight into their reality. In addition, HCPs may have established beliefs about how they perceive and approach certain therapeutic areas, which may lead to missing – or subconsciously ignoring – information that provides important context. 

All of this impacts the depth and accuracy of insights and can lead to missing crucial nuances of the real-world clinical practice that ultimately drives business decision-making. 

So, how do we more effectively uncover authentic insights rather than practiced answers?

Increasing authenticity via the patient voice

Over the years, we’ve found that even the best projective techniques or innovative activities don’t always address the issues of disengagement, bias or predictability. These techniques can come across as gimmicky to the participant, creating an additional barrier that prevents us from uncovering authentic insights. 

We have found the most success by rooting the HCP in the patient and the patient experience. By leveraging approaches that bring the patient into research, we force the HCP to step outside of the interview context, back into their clinic and into an HCP mind-set.

Let’s look at four techniques designed to help better capture nuances and uncover more accurate insights. An overview of each of the techniques is shown in Figure 1. All four root the conversation in the patient voice and mentally drive HCPs back into the clinic.

A case study example using patient actors

We witnessed the impact and value that patient actors delivered on a recent study for a pharmaceutical client, whose oncology asset had been in the market for about a year. The medication had a unique side effect that required unconventional monitoring and management. The client team wanted to better understand the overall adverse event management experience – from the point it was discussed with the patient to when it was actively managed by the HCP – to help uncover barriers to prescribing. 

One hypothesized barrier was that HCPs were presenting the side effect profile in a way that dissuaded patients from wanting to try the product, and this was a key research question the team needed to address. 

A more traditional option would be to directly ask HCPs, “How do you discuss this product with your patients?” This likely would have led to valid answers, however:

• The low prevalence of the tumor type means there are overall few conversations about the medication, and HCPs may have struggled to remember exactly what they discuss with patients and the specific language they use. 
• They may unconsciously tell us what they think they should tell the patient, rather what they actually tell the patient. 

This was the perfect use case for using patient actors, as we wanted to understand actual, versus stated, behavior, and to hear the specific language used during the patient discussion. The technique integrates a role-playing exercise by leveraging a patient actor. We gave the HCP necessary background information about the patient and grounded them in the moment: their patient chart, demeanor and reason for being in the office that day. During the role-play, the HCP reviewed potential treatment options and explained them as they normally would to a patient and ultimately outlined next steps in the patient’s treatment plan.  

The technique pulled the HCP into the “HCP mind-set.” We observed what the HCP actually said, rather than relying on the HCP sharing what they think they say. We heard the natural language they use and picked up nuances in body language and tone. One quote from an HCP participant sums up the value of the exercise: “I said that? I didn’t realize I said that.” 

The research delivered a clear answer to the team’s hypothesized question, and ultimately shaped and prioritized marketing efforts for the brand. 

Authentic research insights 

All four techniques introduce the patient voice into HCP research. They help circumvent some of the human biases that can surface, such as recall bias and confirmation bias, which can diminish the authenticity of the research results. We’ve found these techniques help increase engagement from HCPs; they find the exercises exciting and interesting, leading to greater depth to their responses. Research teams are also energized by the techniques; they’re more actively involved during research sessions and debriefs, and they’re excited to socialize the insights across the organization. 

These results are not limited to the health care space. They can also be used outside of health care by replicating sales representative and customer interactions or further contextualizing target segments. The need for authentic insights is a core need of every research team in every industry. Finding ways to bring authenticity to the forefront creates more impactful and credible results.