Healthcare market research firm shares secrets of high physician response rate

On the 20th anniversary of sending the first text message, it’s nice to know the format is more pervasive than ever. One market research firm credits the approach as one factor behind its relatively high response rate. Some financial incentive doesn’t hurt either.

Rosina Samadani co-founded New York-based market research firm Truth On Call a few years ago after becoming disenchanted with the quality of market research data to be had in the healthcare and biotechnology space. With a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering, she set about solving what she and her co-founders viewed as some of the problems with generating good data. Samadani outlined some of those issues in an interview with MedCity News at the mHealth Summit in Washington, D.C. this week.

First of all, her firm verifies would-be survey participants when they sign up with their National Provider ID. And it doesn’t do it just the once — it verifies them on a monthly basis. “We’re also extremely fast — we provide [survey] responses [to clients] within 24 hours,” Samadani said. She also claims surveys carried out by the firm generate a 65 percent response rate compared with what she says is the industry’s typical response rate — 35 percent.

Its services get used by companies and organizations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to MSNBC — groups that want to know what healthcare professionals’ views are on issues from patient care to medical trends to what they think of a particular therapy.

In return for setting aside time and risking carpal tunnel syndrome from some overworked thumbs or index joints, participants are paid $10 per question, which they can either pocket or donate to charity. Most opt to keep it, Samadani said.

But who, you may well ask, is going to answer a text message survey with anything but the most briefly worded responses? To my surprise, Samadani said many questions are answered in some detail — some require three or four messages to provide a complete answer.

I have to admit, I’m a bit vexed by the whole compensation issue. I’d prefer to believe healthcare professionals would provide their valued insights in the name of improving healthcare. At the same time, companies benefit from their informed experience, and pharmaceuticals aren’t exactly nonprofits. And time is money.