#eHealthPromotion, #SaluteSocial

Like teenage girls unsure of the latest fashion, doctors are susceptible to the social influence of their peers when it comes to prescribing both new and repeat drugs, according to a new Wharton School study. And not unlike said teens, peer influencers change over time. With doctors, however, the study found that the changes occur as a drug moves from new and risky to recurrent status.

The Wharton professors divided doctors' influencer colleagues into two groups: those who are "co-located," whether that meant partners in a practice or colleagues at a larger medical facility, and those who are "networked neighbors" or fellow doctors who are part of a wider network used when seeking consultations or advice.

While both groups were very influential in determining whether a doctor will initially prescribe a drug, only the co-located physicians continued to hold sway on whether the doctor would continue to write the prescription, said Raghuram Iyengar, associate professor of marketing at University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and coauthor of the report, published recently in Informs' Marketing Science.

Iyengar said the findings mean that pharma should be shifting marketing strategies as a drug moves through trial to repeat use. Targeting influencers works as an initial strategy, but moving down the physician influence chain when the drug is up for repeated use is a better second-line strategy.

Via Pharma Guy