How field teams can gain repeat access to HCPs

Every brand wants more time with HCPs. That time is harder to come by each year, so every conversation has to count. At Bionical Solutions, we help field teams make it count. Our platforms give the HCP an active part in the conversation and something useful to take back to their practice. The representative and the HCP move forward together, from the first call to the next, and the brand stays present through digital touches in between.

Access is already limited. In May 2024, Veeva reported that only 45% of HCPs were accessible to biopharma, and half of those limited their engagement to three companies or fewer.¹ Each meeting an HCP agrees to is a valuable opportunity to give them a reason to meet with your team again.

How does that work in practice? It starts inside the first interaction, where the HCP shapes a patient resource or chooses the information most relevant to their practice. Those choices give the representative something useful to act on, and technology carries that understanding into the next exchange.

Giving HCPs a reason to say yes

What would make a busy HCP welcome the conversation? A useful place to start is with something they need for their patients. When a representative offers to create customized patient education together, as they do with the Bionical Solutions MED Select® platform, the HCP can choose the content, imagery and language that fit the patients they see. They have a reason to participate and a resource they can put to use. The resource is personalized to that practice through the HCP’s own choices, and those choices show the representative what matters most to the patients they treat.

In one Bionical oncology program, 84% of participating HCPs said they were more likely to interact with representatives who offered that resource. The client also described the platform as one of its primary sources of access to nurse practitioners, physician assistants and nurse navigators.² For a field team trying to reach a busy oncology practice, that is a meaningful invitation to continue the conversation.

Connecting each interaction to the next

How do you keep that momentum going once the representative leaves? Most brand teams already have field activity, digital content and follow-up plans in place. The challenge is making sure the next contact reflects what the HCP found useful in the last one.

There is evidence that the connection matters. In a study reported by Veeva, a representative call was 30% more likely to result in a prescription when followed by digital exposure within 10 days. Yet Veeva also reported that 65% of HCP engagements were not synchronized with non-personal marketing activity.³ Bringing those activities together remains a practical opportunity for brands.

With MED Select, the HCP has helped create the resource, so there is already something to build on. Delivering the materials gives the representative a reason to return. The HCP’s content and language choices can inform a relevant follow-up, while digital resources remain available between visits. The next conversation can begin with what the practice has already shown it needs.

We see encouraging signs of that continued interest in our program data. In one dermatology program, 83% of HCPs who ordered resources placed repeat orders.⁴ They chose to come back for more, giving the field team another opportunity to engage around something useful.

MED Select is one of several Bionical Solutions platforms, and each one integrates with the brand’s digital ecosystem in its own way. With KOL Select®, the HCP chooses the topic and the thought leader they want to hear from, and the video reaches them by email from their representative, with a microsite they can return to. With MED Presenter®, the representative and the HCP build the visual aid together, and a post-call summary gives the HCP the full presentation to download. With Rep Select®, the HCP receives a personalized video message from their own representative that leads to that representative’s microsite. In every case, the choices the HCP makes in the call become the starting point for what follows.

Each of these touches also brings the HCP into the brand’s digital ecosystem. The resource they helped create keeps the brand present after the representative leaves. A follow-up shaped by their choices and digital content available between visits continue that connection. The representative builds the relationship, and the digital journey keeps it going between visits. Over time, the HCP’s choices show the brand which information matters most to that practice, so each touch, in person or digital, can be more relevant than the last.

Planning for continued engagement

As you look at your own engagement plan, it may help to follow one HCP’s experience from the first call, through the digital touches between visits, to the next contact. Three questions are worth asking:

Answering those questions consistently, across every representative and every practice, calls for a customer experience strategy built around the HCP, one that connects field, digital and educational engagement. That strategy gives HCPs something of value to take part in, follows up in ways that reflect what they chose, and keeps them connected between visits through the brand’s digital channels. It also creates a valuable source of data. Each choice an HCP makes shows the brand which information matters to that practice, and that insight can shape the next call, the next follow-up and the wider engagement plan.

This is where Bionical brings together technology, behavioral science and insight from HCP choices. We help brands offer HCPs tangible value that earns their time, connect each visit to the brand’s digital ecosystem, and use every choice an HCP makes to shape the next conversation. The result is repeat access and a continuous relationship that grows from the first call. If you are looking at how to build on the access your team has earned, we would welcome the conversation: bionical.com/last-mile.