Estimated reading time: 2 mins

It is amazing to me how pharmaceutical companies can get stuck in a paradigm. While constantly trying a million new things, none are significant enough to change the business.  Is it the regulatory environment?  How about the incentive programs, or what it takes to get promoted?

Here are some stuck paradigms I have experienced over the last 25 years in the industry:

• "More reps are better - reach and frequency is king"

• "Managed markets is separate and can’t be integrated into the business"

• "Formulary compliance is high because customers tell us it is"

• "Medicare Part D isn’t going to change our business" (held until 3 months before the program started)

• "Keep reps messaged on the product benefits only"

The newest paradigm about to be shattered is, “Reps don’t need to know about Electronic Medical Records (EMRs), Electronic Heath Record (EHRs) or ePrescribing.”  Once again, this can’t be more wrong.  Medicine today is practiced on computers—computers many physicians don’t understand as well as they should. Keeping reps in the dark about these systems only forces them to learn from the doctors who are leaders in the market place.  Hardly a way to impress a customer.

Pharmaceutical companies need to realize that EMR/EHR systems will help create new patients and increase compliance (as Surescripts has already shown with a 10% increase in patients picking up prescriptions).

What is the antidote to this paradigm rut?  Longer-term planning, longer-term brand staffing (to focus on the long term), and dropping the fear that the reps who are in the force are not able to handle discussing EMRs/EHRs. (Surprise! The good ones already are!)  

Now is the time to implement changes to take advantage of EMRs/EHRs.