Analyzing Communicative Needs of Medical Representatives and Designing Strategic Course for them

Abstract

Effective communication is pivotal for medical representatives to convey complex medical information to healthcare professionals. Medical representatives are facing many hurdles to meet the current standard of International level. So, it has become significantly essential to draw attention of pharmaceutical industry towards that issue and plan something effective for developing proficiency in language skills of medical representatives. This mixed methods study investigated the communicative needs of MRs in the pharmaceutical industry, identified gaps in the existing training and designed a strategic course to enhance their communicative effectiveness. A survey of 100 medical representatives, semi-structured interview with 10 doctors and observation in natural settings revealed significant communicative needs including clarity, concision, technical knowledge and interpersonal skills. Existing training programs were found lacking in contextualized language practice and scenario based training. Medical representatives need to possess specific communication skills to communicate effectively with the healthcare experts. Critical communication abilities are found to include product understanding, responding to objections, and developing rapport. The findings of the study are the communication abilities of medical personnel can be greatly enhanced by a customized training program. The study's conclusions highlight the necessity of continuing to engage in communication skills training, which has broad implications for the pharmaceutical sector. Pharmacists can improve performance, customer satisfaction, and patient care by determining the medical representative's communication needs and creating tailored training courses.