Decoding a Doctor’s Prescription: A Study

Doctors today have very little time to listen to a medical representative. They have become patient-centric and feel that listening to a medical representative is a waste of their time. Wishing to learn what could make a doctor prescribe a drug when visited by the medical representative, I drew up a questionnaire consisting of product-centric variables and non-product-based variables. The questionnaire had six variables, which had to be ranked from 1 to 6, with 1 being the most important and 6 being the least important. The variables were easy availability, economical drugs, company name, sponsorships, medical representative’s dedication, and samples among the non-product-based variables and safety, efficacy, tried and tested, less drug interactions, good reviews of the drug, and less adverse effects among the product-based factors. A total of 100 doctors were interviewed. A personal interview was conducted wherein the questionnaire was direct and structured. The results were such that in Thurstone Case V Scaling, economical drugs were considered as the most effective way to get doctors to prescribe, followed by easy availability, company name, medical rep dedication, samples, and sponsorships among the non-product-centric factors, whereas in the product-centric factors, it included efficacy, followed by time tested, less adverse effects, safety, less drug interactions, and good drug reviews. In Karl Pearson’s coefficient of correlation, it was found that a high, positive correlation existed between economical drugs and efficacious drugs and a medium, positive correlation existed between economical drugs and safe drugs. Similarly, a medium–high correlation existed between company name and time-tested drugs.