Human working memory is limited, and doctors are no exception. Long and demanding work hours, unending patient queues, and high levels of emotional stress along with the additional burden of staying updated with the latest medical advancements add to an already overstretched schedule of health care professionals (HCPs). As a result, cognitive overload is a common issue among HCPs, particularly in this digital age where pharmaceutical and life sciences organizations inundate HCPs with promotional content. A survey revealed that 62% of HCPs felt overwhelmed by product-related promotional content they received from pharmaceutical companies, highlighting the need for better HCP engagement strategies.
Too many or ill-timed messages hinder HCP engagement instead of building it. Defined as ‘sludge’ by Thaler and Sunstein, sludge causes frustration and a total loss of interest in your brand messages, undermining the purpose and wasting your efforts, time, and money that went into curating messages for HCPs.
Let’s take a deeper look at cognitive scarcity, sludge marketing, the ensuing promotional fatigue in HCPs, along with how using the right kind of messaging - nudge, instead of sludge - can improve HCP engagement and go a long way toward building stronger relationships with them.
Cognitive Overload in HCPs
The healthcare professional’s occupation is extremely demanding and emotionally taxing. Apart from delivering patient care, HCPs keep themselves updated by reading medical journals, attending CME programs, medical conferences and seminars, and exchanging information with doctors on networking sites. Pharmaceutical organizations also share important updates through emails, newsletters, webinars, scientific articles, product catalogs and summaries and clinical trial results, making HCP engagement increasingly complex.
As the human brain has a limited capacity to process and retain information, the constant flux of content, whether educational or promotional, causes cognitive scarcity in HCPs. Imagine bombarding an already overburdened HCP with an overwhelming amount of promotional material on every channel - physical or digital - and they may experience mental exhaustion and disengagement - or what is called promotional fatigue, a situation where they might ignore all emails, messages, or calls from the medical representative of that brand.
Promotional fatigue - The double-edged sword!
Ads and promotional content for HCPs are meant to build engagement. However, when inundated with irrelevant promotional content HCPs may experience confusion, lack of interest, and disengagement. Additionally, it may lead to reduced ability to focus and make decisions.
Promotional fatigue due to information overload in HCPs causes:- Lower retention
- Lower brand recall
- Burnout
- Performance losses
- Decision fatigue
The most detrimental consequence of promotional fatigue is loss of trust and confidence in your brand, making HCPs skeptical and less receptive to your brand’s messages, irrespective of the accuracy and relevance of the information you share.
Thus, pharma marketing is a double-edged sword. While aimed at increasing awareness and engagement, it can instead lead to reduced engagement and distrust when messages are not sent judiciously considering the state HCPs operate in, their requirements and timings. Promotional fatigue reduces the effectiveness of pharma communication, acting as a sludge in engagement.
Sludge in healthcare marketing
Thaler and Sunstein described sludge as obstacles that delay or stall progress and hinder processes from reaching their desired outcomes. In healthcare marketing, sludge can be defined as excessive bombardment of irrelevant and ill-timed messages to HCPs. While intended to enhance engagement, they lead to diminished interest and wastage of valuable resources.
Promotional messaging can also act as sludge when the messages shared with HCPs are:
- Complex: Information shared is complex and difficult to comprehend
- Poorly designed: Text heavy, cluttered, or poorly structured content is shared
- Vague: Messages lack clarity or are ambiguous
- Excessive: Too many messages are shared
- Lacking personalization: Content is not relevant to HCPs interest, specialization, or prescribing behavior
- Contradictory: Inconsistent or contradictory information is shared from different sources
- Repetitive: Content has already been shared or is shared in different formats
- Time-taking: Lengthy presentations or redundant follow-ups
The challenge of pharma marketing is to be able to cut through the noise without adding to the cognitive burden of HCPs and still engage HCPs impactfully.
Since HCPs also need to stay updated with the latest guidelines and require the updates pharmaceuticals and life sciences organizations share on conditions, treatment, and drugs, the information must be presented in a way that helps them in delivering patient care. What HCPs need are timely messages that speak to them, are relevant to their specialization, needs, prescribing behaviors, and do not overwhelm them.
For effective engagement, pharma marketers need to move away from the sludge of promotional messages and embrace smart nudges that cut through the clutter, grab attention, and deliver a clear, concise, and personalized message.
Nudges – Solution to promotional fatigue in HCPs!
Thaler and Sunstein describe nudges as subtle interventions or small changes in an individual’s choice environment that increase the likelihood of a particular decision without restricting freedom of choice.
Adopting nudges in healthcare marketing entails taking into consideration the specialty and preferences of HCPs and incorporating patient-led information to deliver messages at the precise moment when HCPs are looking for them. We can call them “smart nudges” as contrary to promotional messages, smart nudges assist HCPs in their patient care and gently guide them without adding to their cognitive or emotional burden.
Evidence suggests that cognitive overload in HCPs can be easily reduced when the information presented is:
- Concise: Messages must be straightforward and without any unnecessary details
- Visual: Presenting information through images or charts improves comprehension and retention
- Relevant: Messages must be tailored to the specific needs of HCPs
- Timely: An ill-timed message risks being ignored. Messages must be delivered at the precise moment HCPs seek them to have maximum impact.
- Integrated within apps or tools: When messages are integrated within tools that HCPs are familiar with, messages can be easily noticed and acted upon.
Smart nudges incorporate all these characteristics to present messages to HCPs within the electronic health record (EHR) systems, causing fewer distractions and interruptions and reducing the extraneous cognitive load.
Doceree nudges
Doceree nudges are precise and actionable messages that are delivered at the precise moment they are required. Leveraging cutting-edge technology that combines AI and machine learning, Doceree nudges ensure that messages are based on patient’s and HCP’s data and are delivered during critical points of care.
Marketing and messages must neither interrupt nor obstruct work, but become an integral part of the physician’s workflow, enhancing their ability to care for patients while respecting their time and cognitive bandwidth. For a seamless integration of nudges, Doceree ensures that messages are delivered through a specially designed environment, such as personalized alerts, intuitive dashboards, and reminders, that naturally guides HCPs toward better decisions.
Nudge entails partnerships not promotions
Leveraging nudges to assist HCPs in decision making can help in the ultimate goals of improving lives. Nudge approach promises a more effective partnership between the pharmaceutical industry and HCPs, ultimately benefiting patient care. Smart nudges have the potential to act as a catalyst for better healthcare delivery.