Ludmila A. Lobuteva, Alisa V. Lobuteva, Oksana V. Zakharova, Sergey A. Krivosheev, ‎Oksana V. Kartashova

Abstract

Introduction. Direct contacts of doctors with pharmaceutical companies through medical representatives (MR) remain an efficient communication channel in Russia. At the same time, the dissatisfaction of doctors with MR’s visits is growing. In order to improve the loyalty of doctors, a customized approach to communicating with doctors depending on their experience has been offered. Materials and methods. The study has been carried out in cross section based on medical organizations of the Moscow Region (2018). The study results have been processed by using qualitative and quantitative methods of the sociological research and descriptive statistics. The representativeness of the data has been ensured by a sufficient size of the sample group (with a confidence probability of 0.95 and a confidence interval of ≤ 0.05) that included 347 doctors. Results. The doctors’ attitude to the visits of MR and their opinion about the frequency of achieving the visit goals considerably depend on the doctors’ experience. Nearly half (47.7 %) of the young specialists (whose experience is up to five years) have positive attitude to MR’s visits and believe that the MR often achieves the visit goals (46.9 %). Only almost each seventh experienced doctor who has the professional experience of more than five years (7.3 % and 6.8 %) adhere to the similar position. The doctors who have the professional experience of up to five years are three times more likely than the experienced doctors to allow MR’s daily visits (18.0 % and 6.4 %) that last from five to fifteen minutes (86.7 % of the young specialists and only 30.6 % of the experienced doctors). Considerable differences have been determined in the opinions of the doctors who have different professional experiences about the importance of the information provided by the MR on medical products (MP) and the MR’s preferred profile. Conclusion. A customized approach to communicating with doctors depending on their professional experience has been offered as one of the instruments to improve the doctors’ loyalty and satisfaction with the MR’s visits.