Surveying Oncologists: How to Gather Physician Feedback

oncologists analyzing brain tumor x rays

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. 


Benefits of Surveying Oncologists

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:

  • Better ways to market the product
  • Discovering areas of improvement 
  • Objective feedback
  • New advertising ideas 

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. 

Glad oncologists discussing ct scan result in the clinic


Step 1. Kickoff Meeting

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: 

  • Project details
  • Survey questions
  • Overview of timeline 
  • Unanswered questions 

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


Step 2. Writing the Oncologist Survey

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. 


Step 3. Programming the Survey for Oncologists

Next, the survey will be programmed. 

Because this step is so technical, we recommend using a programming checklist for surveys. W

hen 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. 

To learn more about this step, watch our short video:

💡 The Key Takeaway: A checklist comes in handy when programming a survey. This prevents errors from occurring throughout the survey. 


Step 4. Surveying Oncologists

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:

  • Routing issues
  • Typos
  • Question comprehension 

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


Step 5. Cleaning the Survey Data

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


Step 6. Reporting Feedback from Oncologists

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

topline vs comprehensive reporting packages by drive research

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. 


Survey Oncologists With Drive Research

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 based in New York. Our team will work with yours to create specific survey questions for doctors to match your needs. 

  1. Message us on our website
  2. Email us at [email protected]
  3. Call us at 888-725-DATA
  4. Text us at 315-303-2040

lark-allen-drive-research-aboutheauthor

Lark Allen

As a Content Marketing Specialist, Lark has a strong background and passion for creative, professional, and journalistic writing. She is also a self-proclaimed music freak and 90s enthusiast.

Learn more about Lark, here.


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