13.05.2022 | Health Strategy

4 key considerations for healthcare market research

By Tomi Shobande

In April 2022, the CREATION.co team were live at the EphMRA’s UK One Day Meeting. It was a very exciting one for us as it was the first in-person meeting since pre-COVID-19. We had the opportunity to discuss and engage with other healthcare industry peers and learn about the current priorities and themes. 

EphMRA is the hub for excellence in research thinking to empower healthcare market researchers to provide consultancy to the business. The discussions and presentations were aimed at providing insights and encouraging best practices in healthcare market research, data, analytics and business insights. 

As we all know, the healthcare industry has witnessed a paradigm shift since the COVID-19 pandemic began. New trends in healthcare are developing and how the industry aligns with these rapid changes is of utmost importance. 

Here is a summary of the key topics discussed and my biggest takeaways:

1. The importance of online communities

Hannah Osborn and Alice Welch from Vox Bio highlighted the importance of online communities, QR codes, facial recognition, and virtual/augmented reality in obtaining research, insights and capturing the patient experience. We cannot ignore the importance of leveraging social media and IT in supporting and getting true-life insights 

2. Diversity in market research

Anne-Sophie Lenoir and Ranj Hayre from Just Worldwide captured the importance of diversity in market research. The importance of paying close attention to underrepresented characteristics and overrepresented characteristics.  Crucial downsides to a lack of diversity are degraded results, lack of comprehensive insights and blind spots.  

3. The importance of mixed methods in generating insights 

Carolyn Chamberlain, Mike Pepp from Blueprint Partnership and Yvonne Engler from Bayer discussed the usefulness of primary research in generating insights and data analytics. Two important facts were:

  • The importance of mixed methods in generating insights – primary research and digital insights 
  • The importance of providing actionable insights 

A Challenge Mike Pepp raised was:

“We all strive to deliver actionable insights, strategic recommendations and guidance; however, agencies are perceived to have good researchers but have few consultants” 

This was a very interesting takeaway for the CREATION team as  it very much aligned with our approach. We go beyond providing comprehensive reports for our clients and also provide strategic consulting in order to help them achieve their business objectives. 

4. The growing importance of behavioural science 

Rhiannon Philips and Katy Irving from HRW took us through the role of human behaviour in understanding why and how humans make decisions. Some key themes were: 

Satisficing: A decision-making strategy that aims for an ‘adequate’ outcome rather than an optimal one, so long as we are not actively ‘dissatisfied’. 

Social Proof: When people non-consciously follow the action of others, when something is the most popular or most common many will assume that it is better. 

Optimum bias: When people tend to overestimate the probability of positive events and underestimate the probability of negative events happening to them in the future. They are comforted by hope for the future and less likely to take preventive action.

If you would like to understand more about how CREATION.co is applying these considerations in their work with Top 20 pharmaceutical companies, please do get in touch, we’d love to chat.

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Meet the Author

Tomi Shobande

Tomi is passionate about building relationships with clients and helping them attain their business goals and objectives. With a background in law, international development and human rights, she is keen on bringing about a positive difference around healthcare inequities and shaping health outcomes for all groups.

Tomi enjoys spending good quality time with friends and family. She also is passionate about travel and learning different cultures and histories along the way.