3 Challenges in Healthcare Market Research

Market research is a comprehensive effort to collect, process, and interpret information to obtain insights that can be utilized to predict consumer behavior and future events or actions. It is an essential component of business strategies and the healthcare industry is no exception to it. Though there are more methodologies than ever before for targeting and reaching specific audiences and clients, any healthcare research company would find it difficult to break into the industry due to its conservative and traditional nature. Continuing on the topic, we are going to discuss three challenges faced by healthcare market research firms.

1. Lack of Trust

Credibility is an essential value proposition for a healthcare research company and keeping it intact is no mean feat. Trust is difficult to maintain in healthcare industries because of high regulation and confidentiality. Trust is built through transparent communications across all the stakeholders like HCP, patient/patient groups, payers and others. Healthcare market research agencies can establish and solidify their standing as a trusted and authoritative industry voice in the era of technology and self-diagnosis by carefully creating and disseminating reliable data about the use of healthcare products and services.

2. Tech-Reliant Patients

Increasing use of internet resources such as online articles and news to research diseases, symptoms, medications, and search healthcare providers have contributed to the rise of ‘self-diagnosis’. This has not only reflected in changing consumer patterns in seeking medical technology solutions but also in a dip in the sales graph of traditional healthcare solution companies. Additionally, the risks that come with self-diagnosis including factually incorrect information and emotionally-driven negative reviews are worrying for healthcare industry players and research in general. It is vital to collect, sift, and understand authentic healthcare related information in the context of technology. Investigating survey responses and community insights from the right set of audience, where they are active, is important to establish your authenticity in providing data for healthcare industry players. It will help them to develop a greater understanding of where these people are coming from and create strategic healthcare solutions for their betterment.

3. Difficulties in Personalized Marketing

Personalized marketing of products and services in the healthcare industry is very difficult to execute for various reasons such as the lack of access to detailed personal data, and complications due to region-specific privacy laws like HIPAA or GDPR. The healthcare industry will always face new challenges, and market researchers must strategise to devise ways for collecting rich information from the patients and healthcare providers while abiding by the ever-changing guidelines in the industry. A healthcare research company should ensure that research methodologies used not only follow guidelines that make the research projects regulation-compliant but also reveal important information useful to the players in the industry.

Conclusion

From integrating and finding a balance between data privacy and personalized marketing to establishing trust among the audience, the need for efficient and reliable quantitative and qualitative research in the healthcare sector can be felt undoubtedly by the industry players. If you are looking to upscale your healthcare business, hire a healthcare research company that has a panel of expert key opinion leaders from the industry experienced in your field. For instance, a pharma consulting firm would benefit from partnering with a pharma market research company that is capable of conducting extensive data research. Another good tip is to consult companies certified with ISO 20252 and ESOMAR.