Decentralized clinical trials have become the new normal during Covid times, and many advocate for this novel approach to grow into the industry standard. The days of solely focusing on key large centres for patient accrual are over, and this shift in paradigm can only benefit a greater number of cancer patients, everywhere.

Companion diagnostics (CDx) and laboratory diagnostic tests are key components of the patient pathway, especially in oncology. While the importance of biomarker testing and tumor profiling is more and more accepted by the medical community, few pharma and diagnostic companies have a solid handle on what drives testing behaviors.

As market researchers, we are frequently asked to identify the key drivers of a market, including prescribing or purchase behaviour. As human beings, we are often unaware of exactly what leads us to make certain decisions, so to focus on stated importance is flawed. Instead, we need to statistically derive the importance of key drivers, by assess correlations between different data points.

In your role, do you ever need to present geographical differences in data, either within a country or across countries? Excel spreadsheets or huge tables capture this information, but in a very dull, uninspiring way. A Heat Map could be the data visualisation tool that you are looking for.

Do you ever need to present large quantities of longitudinal data in a way that is digestible and engaging? Are you and your colleagues sick of static PowerPoint slides that represent one point in time but fail to effectively communicate insights over time? A bar chart race might be the answer.

New award-winning analysis of Coronavirus cases and deaths by English regions has found that areas with high risk of personal and material victimisation , income deprivation among under 60s and low skills and attainment suffered higher death rates from COVID-19. Significantly, areas with high proportions of non-whites and over 70s also had higher deaths per head of population when controlling for other relevant factors.

On Monday, 10th May, the BHBIA held their annual Best of Business Intelligence awards, aka The BOBI awards. We were delighted to win Analyst Team of the Year, in partnership with our friends at The Stats People, for our analysis of UK and International COVID-19 data.

New analysis of Coronavirus cases and deaths by country has found that countries with tougher government Covid stringency measures had a higher number of Covid cases and deaths per head of population than those with less stringent measures, even after controlling for age and relevant health differences.

Both the EU Medical Device Regulation (EU MDR) and the EU In-Vitro Diagnostics Regulation (IVDR) are new and updated sets of regulations, following on from the Medical Device Directive (MDD) and the In-Vitro Diagnostics Directive (IVDD) respectively. The EU-MDR comes into force in May 2021, while the IVDR follows a year later in May 2022.

Back in October, Guy Pascoe wrote about the increase in webcam interviewing during COVID. Six months later, he’s back with an update.

For our third blog in the series, I have been joined by our friend and partner, Gary Bennett, from The Stats People, to talk about targeting and segmentation, and more specifically how to improve the effectiveness of your marketing through a segmentation approach that works.

5 top tips for pharma companies to develop delivery devices that make a difference to patients and healthcare professionals.

In the 1990s, when I started in healthcare market research, successful pharma launches were built on strong clinical profiles. Blockbusters like Lipitor, Prozac and Losec succeeded on the basis of their superior clinical data. Huge salesforces then took this data to as many doctors as possible to persuade them of the value of their product…and huge sales followed.

The EU Medical Device Regulation (EU MDR) is a new and updated set of regulations, following on from the Medical Device Directive (MDD), that will now come into force on May 26, 2021.

The Nutella approach to innovation is rare in market research. As researchers, we are like magpies, attracted by the latest shiny thing. As an industry, we are constantly looking for the next advance in technology that can help us to gain better insights, in less time, for less money, and rightly so. However, in our pursuit of the latest shiny thing, many fantastic approaches remain under-used and under-innovated.

In this article, Guy Pascoe explores the pros and occasional cons of using web platforms to replace good old TDIs. Most of us who worked in market research in recent years will be familiar with video interviewing, and likely have moderated / watched / taken part in online IDIs or even groups. 

“Telehealth use began to skyrocket back in March as patients saw virtual care as a necessity amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients are continuing to see doctors over video visits but for different reasons now: It's more convenient and faster than going to see the doctor in person.” Fierce Healthcare – June 2020

COVID-19 has reminded us how important it is to be able to adapt ourselves to a rapidly changing business environment. Agility is a key element in gaining strategic advantage and market success, both for you as a provider of healthcare products and solutions and for us as your research partner.

When the date of application of the new Medical Devices Regulation (MDR) was postponed by one year, you may have taken a huge sigh of relief. The extra year meant that you could relax, focus on the more urgent tasks, and put your EU-MDR work off for a while.

Stephen Potts recently joined the Purdie Pascoe team as a director. ‘PersPectives’ caught up with Stephen to ask him why he chose our wonderful agency for his next career move and what he thinks he can add to the business.