Surveying oncologists allows relevant healthcare brands to successfully market products.
For instance, a brand may have a cutting-edge device that will help cancer patients. Getting feedback from doctors in that field will strengthen the brand’s message.
But how is this done? Below, our healthcare market research company will cover how to conduct research with oncologists.
Focus groups bring together a small group of oncologists (typically 8 to 12) to discuss a specific product, device, or topic in a guided setting.
A trained moderator leads the conversation, asking questions and probing for deeper responses.
In oncology market research, focus groups are especially useful during the early stages of product development.
For instance, if a healthcare brand is developing a new infusion device or cancer screening tool, a focus group can surface how oncologists currently approach that challenge and what they’d need from a new solution before a single dollar is spent on development.
Unlike surveys that present questions in isolation, focus groups allow researchers to create context (such as with visual aids, product prototypes, or ads) in real time around the topics being discussed.
This dynamic is important in oncology.
When oncologists can react to a concept together, you often uncover concerns and preferences that no survey question would have thought to ask.
In-depth interviews (IDIs) are one-on-one conversations between a trained researcher and an oncologist.
They typically last 30 to 60 minutes and follow a structured (though somewhat flexible) interview guide that allows the researcher to dig deeper when something interesting comes up.
IDIs are the right call when you need to understand the “why” behind oncologist behavior or when dealing with sensitive topics.
Questions that IDIs can answer that surveys can’t are ones like:
Surveys are the quantitative backbone of oncology market research.
Where focus groups and IDIs help you explore and understand, surveys help you measure. They can help you validate patterns across a much larger sample of physicians.
Online surveys are also the most common format for reaching oncologists.
They can be distributed through verified physician panels, email lists, or specialty databases, and they enable brands to collect standardized data on a variety of items (such as prescribing habits, product awareness, treatment preferences, and attitudes towards guidelines).
A real-world example might be a pharmaceutical company preparing to launch a new immunotherapy drug for non-small cell lung cancer.
Before investing, it’s smart to know how oncologists currently make treatment decisions for this patient population and how the new drug fits in.
They could design a survey with 200 oncologists across the U.S., asking about current prescribing patterns, familiarity with competing therapies, barriers to adopting new treatments, and what clinical data they’d need to feel confident recommending the drug to patients.
The data from that survey would reveal how patients feel about switching, how they feel about a clinical trial comparison, and more to answer whether patients or providers would consider their new drug.
As cancer prevention efforts grow, healthcare brands continue to produce relevant devices for oncologists.
In order for those devices to succeed in every category, expert insight is necessary. This is especially important for healthcare consumers.
For them to trust a product, backing from doctors in the field goes a long way.
Consider the benefits of surveying oncologists:
And what happens when feedback like this is implemented? Better sales! Furthermore, you’re creating a product that will positively impact patients.
The Key Takeaway: Feedback from doctors who treat cancer can enhance a medical service or device. This data is used to improve marketing strategies, make overall improvements, and more.
This is one of our favorite steps.
Kickoff meetings are important in market research because they act as the introduction between your team and ours.
Building a strong relationship with your research team is essential for the best results.
In a kickoff meeting, you can discuss project goals and cover areas of concern.
Additional topics covered will be:
Never underestimate the power of discussing your project’s objectives from the start.
This is even more important when surveying oncologists. Since you’re dealing with a specialized field, you need to be on top of project goals.
The Key Takeaway: Kickoff meetings are the first step in any market research project. In them, you can discuss the main project goals.
Recommended Reading: 5 Items to Cover in a Market Research Kickoff Meeting
When conducting market research with doctors and physicians, things are different from other audiences. Doctors who treat cancer are always on the move and don’t have time for a long survey.
That’s why it’s important to keep surveys short. Anything over 10 minutes is too long.
Oncologists will be more likely to take a survey that fits in with their busy schedules.
That said, ensure they know the key goals of the survey. We never want respondents left in the dark!
In addition, make sure questions are concise. If three questions are similar, they can be combined into one.
These are the qualities we emphasize when crafting a survey.
The Key Takeaway: A short, well-written survey is ideal for doctors. Surveys over 10 minutes are too much time and are less likely to be taken.
Product/Device Awareness
Prescribing & Treatment Behavior
Patient Experience
Marketing & Communications
Recruiting oncologists is one of the most challenging parts of the entire research process. We use a variety of our proprietary methods.
All oncologists we use for surveys and studies are verified and rescreened using the survey’s introduction and screener questions.
For oncology specifically, this means we can confirm that respondents are actively practicing oncologists.
For recruiting, we also work within their schedules and offer appropriate incentives for each one.
Next, the survey will be programmed.
Because this step is so technical, we recommend using a programming checklist for surveys. When surveying oncologists, it’s important to weigh how effective programming plays a role in the process.
It’s easy to want to juggle tasks while programming. If a programmer does this, then the survey suffers. Since surveys have a linear design, going back and forth in this stage raises the chance of an error.
That’s why a checklist will ensure the programmer stays on-task through each section.
The Key Takeaway: A checklist comes in handy when programming a survey. This prevents errors from occurring throughout the survey.
Next, we’re onto the soft launch.
Just as brands may soft launch a service or product, we do the same with surveys. This step weighs how successful the survey will be.
We spend a lot of time on our surveys. With that in mind, we want to make sure your physician survey questions get the feedback they deserve.
That can’t happen if there’s a glitch within the survey, though.
Soft launching involves sending out only a small number of surveys to respondents. Instead of the whole pool receiving a potentially faulty survey, only some will. (But that’s the worst-case scenario.)
And when you’re surveying highly specialized respondents like oncologists, it’s key to ensure they’re getting a top-tier survey.
Furthermore, this “pre-test” also checks for:
Lastly, soft launching gives you peace of mind that the right feedback will come in. After reviewing the initial data, Drive Research opens the survey to a larger audience to complete fieldwork.
The Key Takeaway: A major step in surveying oncologists is the soft launch. This ensures they will receive a quality, professional survey.
Recommended Reading: 7 Reasons to Soft-Launch Email Surveys Before Jumping In
When the survey data has been collected, it’s time to clean it.
Meaning, it will be gone over meticulously by our research team. This step is designed to eliminate any respondent errors that may be hiding in the data.
In addition, it’s always on our market research checklists!
Trust us, this isn’t a step to brush over! Cleaning the data can uncover common issues like fast completion times, forgotten questions, and so on.
This is especially key when surveying oncologists. Because they may be in a hurry, there’s more room for error.
Carefully going over each respondent’s feedback will eliminate poor data from making its way to you.
The Key Takeaway: Cleaning survey data weeds out low-quality responses. This is especially important for physician survey questions.
Lastly, we’ll analyze all the feedback we get and create a detailed report.
Once the data is clear, we’ll put together a topline or comprehensive market research report. Either way, you’ll be getting an easy-to-read rundown of the doctors’ survey results.
In the report, we’ll tell you the best ways to move forward.
We’ll go over each major finding and include our personalized suggestions. The report will be yours, so it can be referenced at any time.
Additionally, we’ll also meet with you to discuss the findings. Here, any final questions can be answered. Any other thoughts/ideas can also be shared here.
Check out our post, Breaking Down a Market Research Report Into 10 Pieces, for more information.
The Key Takeaway: In conclusion, surveying oncologists may seem challenging. However, a solid market research team will work with you to easily gather the data.
Who should be surveyed in oncology market research?
It depends on your goals. Most projects focus on medical oncologists, but radiation oncologists, surgical oncologists, oncology nurses, and even patients or caregivers can be valuable respondents depending on the product or service being researched.
How long does an oncology market research project take?
Timelines vary based on methodology and scope, but most oncology survey projects run 2 to 8 weeks from kickoff to final report. Projects that include qualitative components, such as focus groups or in-depth interviews, may run slightly longer due to recruiting and scheduling demands.
What kinds of insights can oncology market research uncover?
Research with oncologists can surface insights around prescribing patterns, barriers to adopting new treatments, perceptions of competing therapies, patient communication challenges, and what clinical evidence they need before recommending a new drug or device. These findings directly inform marketing strategy, product development, and messaging.
Do patients play a role in oncology market research?
Yes, they can. While oncologist feedback is critical, patient perspectives add a valuable layer. Research with cancer patients can reveal quality-of-life priorities, treatment cost concerns, and how they make decisions alongside their care team
In the fast-paced field of oncology, doctors are hard to reach. But we know how to get the answers your brand needs.
Drive Research is a market research company. Our team will work with yours to create specific survey questions for doctors to match your needs.
