Listening in



Each of you intimately involved in pharmaceutical sales and marketing have probably thought at least a million times how nice it would be to be get inside the heads of physicians and patients and know exactly what they are thinking. Even better a crystal ball to watch how physicians and patients interact the proverbial fly on the wall view of physician-patient interaction.

Now, it seems, in the US, we have just that.

Verilogue, a Fort Washington, Pennsylvania start-up technology provider, is working with a growing network of doctors to capture examining room conversations with patients on small digital recorders. Physicians send the recordings via computer to the company, whose software analyzes the real-time patient-physician interactions, compiles a transcript of the conversation and saves the information in a database that the companys customers can use to study what doctors and patients are actually saying about diseases and medicines.

Verilogue keeps the dialogue data confidential and anonymous, removing even geographical tags to meet federal HIPAA privacy standards.

The companys founders, both former pharmaceutical market researchers, say Verilogue was started to fill a need not met by traditional recall methods, such as focus groups and post-visit interviews. Increasing access to information at the point of practice results in knowledge that can help build better support and communication materials for physicians and patients from their shared experiences, Verilogues president and chief executive, Jeff Kozloff, told the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Kozloff calls it marketing 101 listen to your customers, in their natural environment, without any outside influences. The recordings reveal glimpses of a patients state of mind, progression of the disease and what is said about prescription medications being used or considered.

Verilogue, which started in 2006, is growing fast. It now boasts nine large pharma clients and already has a database of thousands of patient-physician conversations recorded by more than 100 participating doctors during two days each month.

The company says its long-term goal is to make data available to the broader healthcare industry and to the physicians and patients who participate. And they hope that means long-term value for everyone in the healthcare continuum.

One things almost certain, though the industrys critics will likely be quick to pounce on this use of patient data as somehow sinister and manipulative despite its completely voluntary and anonymous nature. Verilogue and its customers (if they havent already) should be bracing for the wave of criticism and vows to put a stop to it that are sure to follow.

Naysayers aside, however, it certainly seems like just what the doctor ordered for pharmaceutical marketing research and the kind of birds-eye view the pharma industry has had on its wish-list for many years. It will be interesting to see how much value Verilogues pharma customers actually begin to report from this kind of first-hand physician-patient dialogue.

Wed of course love to hear from any of you anonymously or otherwise getting an opportunity to use the dialogue, so keep us in the loop.