With the world facing an unprecedented health crisis, one group is shouldering the brunt. The challenge is our healthcare workers, who are battling the threat from the front lines. Under the circumstances, pharma Sales Interactions representatives have naturally taken a back seat, with many healthcare providers closing down access. This reality is accelerating pharma firms’ shift toward a virtual sales organization, and not only for the short term. COVID-19 has shifted the daily operations of healthcare providers (HCPs) to more virtual interactions with both patients and pharma companies—and with lasting impact. HCPs see great value in more virtual interactions as do patients

So much has gone virtual due to Covid-19, but physicians still value in-person sales and service visits, according to Bain & Company’s latest survey of frontline providers, conducted with Dynata. Prior to Covid-19, about three-fourths of physicians preferred face-to-face engagement with medtech and pharmaceutical reps
Before COVID-19, 64% of meetings of the Pharma Sales Interactions were held in person. During the pandemic, this shifted to 65% of meetings held virtually. Many providers reported they expect restrictions in access to healthcare facilities will continue for some time – perhaps even permanently. Indeed, 43% said they are currently restricting who can enter the office for professional reasons (i.e. no pharmaceutical reps). Twenty-eight percent of those with restrictions said they believe it is something they may implement permanently, and another 44% said they would keep the restrictions “for the foreseeable future.”
But providers also said they still want to learn about new treatments and interact with pharma sales reps – they just want to do so in different ways. Eighty-eight percent of the providers surveyed said they want to hear about new treatments despite being in the middle of the pandemic. Four in 10 providers said the likelihood of starting a patient on a new treatment has increased, since they have a greater ability to monitor patient response, more access to information on new treatments and more time to learn about them.