Page | 1

Best Practices in Leading Medical Education Programs

Benchmarking Education Program Services, Trends & Effectiveness

at Pharmaceutical Companies

Best Practices, LLC Strategic Benchmarking Research & Analysis

Page | 2

Table Of Contents

Executive Summary pgs. 3-9

Research Overview pg. 3

Participating Companies pg. 4

High Level Key Findings pg. 5

Key Findings & Insights pgs. 6-9

Role Played By Medical Education Groups pgs. 10-14

Medical Education Groups: Regional Focus pgs. 15-17

Collaborative & Multi Disciplinary Approaches pgs. 18-28

To Medical & Clinical Education

Value Of Medical Education Formats pgs. 29-33

Medical Education Program Mix pgs. 34-37

Technology & Medical Education pgs. 38-41

Measuring Effectiveness & Future Directions pgs. 42-51

For Medical Education

Benchmark Class Demographics pgs. 52-56

About Best Practices, LLC pgs. 57-58

Page | 3

Medical Education Benchmark Research: Objectives, Methodology &

Topics Covered As patient compliance, efficacy and safety drive industry decisions, the need for medical education has re-

emerged to play a pivotal role in informing physicians and other health care professionals. Best Practices,

LLC undertook this research to examine how pharma companies will deploy medical education programs

and how they will measure their effectiveness and value.

Topics Covered

Research

Methodology

Research

Overview

Role Played By Medical Education

Groups

Medical Education Groups: Regional

Focus

Collaborative & Multi Disciplinary

Approaches To Medical & Clinical

Education

Value Of Medical Education Formats

Medical Education Program Mix

Technology & Medical Education

Measuring Effectiveness & Future

Directions For Medical Education

Best Practices, LLC engaged 23 leaders

from 19 top biopharmaceutical & medical

device companies through a benchmarking

survey. This report captures insights from

the pharma industry.

New compliance, transparency rules and

regulations have tempered the sponsorship

of some medical education programs by

pharma companies and third-party providers

of such services.

This benchmarking study investigates

emerging Medical Education trends at

pharmaceutical organizations regarding

funding, staffing, program types and

structure for this function or group.

Page | 4

Universe Of Learning: 19 Companies Contributed To This

Research This study engaged 23 leaders supporting medical education at 19 life sciences companies. More than

65% of participants are at the director level. More than 80% of participants were from the United States.

Benchmark Class:

Page | 5

High-Level Key Findings High-Level Key Findings

Emphasis on

Accredited

Programs

Companies place a high value on accredited programs. In light of the Sunshine Act

and because of compliance concerns, companies prefer outside educators, 3rd party

vendors and neutral venues medical education program development, delivery and

deployment.

Programs are

Getting

Outcome

Oriented

The emphasis on outcomes in the educational programs will continue. In fact,

adoption rate and outcomes improvement are the top two metrics to measure

performance. In line with this, companies need to orient their programs to address

outcome as well as educational needs.

Digital

Mediums Use

in Training to

Grow

While most educational programs are delivered in-person, the use of technology

will increase in future. And as company budgets are expected to shrink, this

means that program quality must be maintained on a limited budget. To do this,

companies will need to improve technology delivery tools.

Multi-

disciplinary

Programs To

Surge

Even as most companies use multidisciplinary programs, they still expect such

use to continue growing across therapeutic areas. Depending upon how

companies approach multidisciplinary programs, it can help with a lack of

resources or stretch resources even more.

Key Findings & Insights

Few of the key findings and insights that emerged from this study:

Medical Education is Uniquely Poised to Help Fuel Growth in Emerging Markets: More than 75%

of programs at benchmark companies were deployed in North America, while 9% in Europe. In next 2-3

years, benchmark partners foresee no deployment changes in North America. In contrast, more than

two-thirds of companies plan to expand their clinical education efforts across emerging markets, Asia

and Latin America.

Companies Supporting More Of Multi-disciplinary Education Programs: Two out of three

companies support multi-disciplinary education programs. The primary drivers of multi-disciplinary

education programs are increasing focus on health outcomes (67%) and holistic approaches towards

treatment (56%).

Use Of Technology In Program Delivery To Increase: About 32% of programs that were deployed

using technology were online on-demand, while 24% were live webcasts. Benchmark companies see

technology-based programs growing in double-digits in next 2 years. Fifty-seven percent of companies

see tech-based education programs growing above 30% or more in the next two years.

Page | 6

Page | 7

8) Estimate the percentage of your total medical education programs in the last fiscal year deployed across the

following regions.

N=21-22

Regional Allocation

100%

2%

10%

75%

6% 9% 1%

6% 4%

90%

55%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

120%

North America (US /Canada)

Latin America(Mexico, Caribbean,

Central & SouthAmerica)

Europe Asia-Pacific (Japan,Australia, New

Zealand)

Asia-Emerging(China, India,

Southeast Asia)

Rest of World

75th Percentile Mean Median 25th Percentile

North America, with 75% of program deployment in the last fiscal year, is the top region of pharma

medical education programs. However, emerging Asian countries (China, India, etc.) are growing fast and

catching up to Europe. Compared to 2011*, the percentage of programs deployed in the emerging Asian

countries has increased by 300%.

Medical Education Programs Primarily Used in North America

*Best Practices, LLC 2011 report: PSM-268: Professional Medical Education Excellence: Structures,

Resources, Services & Performance Levels to Optimize Pharmaceutical Education Groups % respondents

Page | 8

For many companies, health outcomes acts as the principal driver of multidisciplinary programs. The

next most likely driver is the need for a holistic treatment approach.

Focus on Health Outcomes Drives Multidisciplinary Interest

14) If you use multidisciplinary programs, what do you think is driving the increased interest in that format?

N=18

Multidisciplinary Education Drivers

6%

22%

33%

44%

56%

67%

Other

Healthcare reform stresses greater teaming

Lower cost

Specialist & primary care coordination is key

Holistic approach to treatment

Focus on health outcomes requires coordinationamong disciplines

*Others: New therapeutic category

*

% respondents

Page | 9

All benchmark companies foresee continued growth in the use of technology to deliver education

programs. In fact, 44% of companies predict tech-based education programs will rise by more than 30%,

while 13% expect more than a 50% increase in use of technology for education programs.

Use Of Technology-Based Education Programs To Grow

28) Looking over the next 24 months, what do you anticipate to be the direction of your technology / internet-based

education programs for healthcare providers

N=23

Future Trends for Technology-based

Education Programs

Increasing by 30 percent or more

44%

Increasing by 50 percent or more

13%

Increasing by 10 or more percent

30%

Increasing by 1-10 percent

13%

% respondents

Page | 10

Benchmark partners stressed that delivery format, quality, balancing educational needs, digitization,

regulations and sufficient resources are objectives that need to be addressed in the coming months

for successfully achieving educational objectives.

Success Factors for Improving Medical Education

29) What issues do you feel will be critical for Medical education to address in the next 24-36 months to ensure the

success of organizational objectives.

Critical Success Factors

Regulations

Effective

Delivery Format

Quality

Funding

Digitization

Balancing

Educational

Needs

Page | 11

This research features insights from a range of leaders in medical education functions. More than 60% of

respondents serve as a director, while 17% are the head of medical education at their organizations.

1) Please provide the following information, which will be used for classification purposes and to ensure that you

receive your copy of the study deliverable.

N=23

Director, 61%

Manager, 9%

Head , 17%

Others, 13%

Job Title

*Others: Senior MSL, MSL Excellence

*

% respondents

Universe Of Learning: Insights Drawn From Host Of Pharma Experts

Page | 12

Best Practices®, LLC is an internationally recognized thought leader in the field of best practice

benchmarking®. We are a research, consulting, benchmark database, publishing and advisory firm that

conducts work based on the simple yet profound principle that organizations can chart a course to superior

economic performance by leveraging the best business practices, operating tactics and winning strategies of

world-class companies.

6350 Quadrangle Drive, Suite 200

Chapel Hill, NC 27517

(Phone): 919-403-0251

www.best-in-class.com

Learn More About Our Company: