The pharmaceutical industry is heavily dependent on communicating the latest medical information with Healthcare Professionals (HCPs) through emails and other communication channels.
Traditional Email
The conventional or traditional email communication involves composing emails with varying content and sharing them with healthcare professionals. However, there are several challenges in the traditional way of email communication, such as:
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Compliance Risk: In traditional email communication, the content may fall under regulatory scrutiny, and the chances of regulatory violations are higher if the content is not pre-vetted. This could lead to penalties from regulatory bodies.
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Content Inconsistency: The lack of standard content templates and a poor content strategy can lead to inconsistency and variation in communication throughout all the media.
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Time Sink: If Reps are creating emails and getting individual emails approved from the Medical or Regulatory team, this will cause a significant time lapse and also create many versions of the content.
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Tracking Challenge: It is also difficult to track emails and understand click-through rates in conventional email communication.
Approved Email: A Modern Approach
In a modern way of communication, pharma companies are engaged in creating pre- approved email content templates that can be used by medical reps for one-to-one email communication with Healthcare Professionals. Approved email communication offers multiple benefits, including:
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Regulatory Compliance: In this type of email communication, all content passes through a strict review process where medical, legal, or regulatory approvals are mandatory before being made available for sharing with Healthcare Professionals. This review of content reduces the risk of non-compliance and encourages better communication.
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Customer Engagement: In an Approved email approach, Medical Reps can quickly select the content and share the information with their HCPs. This saves their time and gives them more freedom to connect with their customers, ensuring better engagement.
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Content Consistency: Pre-approved email messages and templates ensure consistency in messaging throughout all communication channels and across all divisions of the organization.
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On/Off-Label Information: Sharing off-label information can violate regulatory guidelines and lead to severe legal and financial penalties. The approved email process prevents the use of "off-label information" and ensures the sharing of "on- label" information with HCPs.
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Tracking: Approved email platforms with CRM integration can help in tracking email opens, clicks, etc., providing valuable insights. Platforms like Keacyte offer approved email, ensuring compliant communication with HCPs.
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Audit Compliance: In the modern email approach, email content, sender, and receiver information, or logging information, can be recorded for audit purposes.
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Data Security: Approved email platforms can ensure end-to-end encryption to protect data and prevent unauthorized access. This is essential when communicating sensitive medical or product-related information.
How Pharma Companies Can Adopt Approved Email in Their Communication Strategy
All communication with HCPs must be accurate and validated by the Medical or Regulatory Team when sent via email. It should adhere to:
- -Compliance: Pharma companies have to comply with regulatory requirements; otherwise, it could lead to hefty penalties and brand damage. Many countries have unique regulatory governing requirements for marketing and Healthcare Professional engagement. An Approved Email system ensures regulatory compliance.
- -Transparency in Information: It ensures that all medical information, such as benefits or risks, is presented fairly and transparently, adhering to ethical marketing practices.
- -Efficiency: Approved Email streamlines communication, saves time, and improves the efficiency of sales reps.
- -Insights: Tracking email content and understanding the content choices of healthcare professionals help in strategizing communication.
- -Customer Engagement: Consistent, compliant, and tailored content through approved email helps build stronger relationships with doctors.
Keacyte is highly recommended by industry experts for its Approved Mail system.
- -Compliance Workflow: It ensures that every message follows a strict compliance workflow where content is reviewed and approved by the Marketing and Medical teams before sharing with stakeholders. Users can only access pre-approved content, ensuring regulatory compliance.
- -Approved Content Type: Keacyte supports different content types, and templates can be created for invitation emails, Medical Information, or HCP email communication, etc. It provides easy access to authorized users. Personalization of the content as per customer needs can also be done before sending emails. It also includes a feature for scheduling emails.
- -Customer Choice: Customers also have a choice to unsubscribe in Keacyte. It captures the reason for unsubscription. All divisions can be blocked from sending emails to such customers, ensuring respect for privacy and compliance with data protection regulations.
- -Tracking: It can also track the read status of the email, click count, and read count. This helps in evaluating engagement and understanding customer interest for future follow-ups.
Keacyte provides complete control and visibility of email communication, aligning with omnichannel strategy and compliance requirements.
Conclusion
Traditional email has multiple challenges, and a lack of regulatory compliance poses a huge risk of regulatory violations. On the contrary, Approved Emails offer consistent content, better customer engagement, and regulatory content compliance, ensuring adherence to country-specific regulatory guidelines.