The Dreaded Qual Homework Assignment

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HCPs (and let’s be honest, most people) have mixed reactions to homework assignments of any kind. On the one hand, they appreciate that qual homework can save time and make the interview more effective. If the topic or assignment itself is particularly interesting or novel, they may enjoy getting the extra time to prepare, and it could even be fun!

On the other hand, there are also reasons they don’t like homework. HCPs may worry they won’t have enough time to complete the assignment when it is convenient for them. They may think the homework is difficult – that it is too involved or requires too many steps to complete. Or the homework may seem redundant or irrelevant to the interview from their perspective.

However, qual homework is a valuable tool in healthcare research and is part of many qualitative projects.

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For Healthcare Market Research Success, Take Care of Panelists!

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The key to successful healthcare market research is high-quality respondent participation, especially among physicians. For Reckner Healthcare, that means finding the right person, making sure they will give thoughtful, high-quality responses and complete your research, and then keeping them engaged to participate in future projects. Of course, that also means continually growing our panels to have enough of the right people when you need them. That’s why we implemented Respondent First™.

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Why One Panel Partner is Better than Three … or Five

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You have probably heard the saying “less is more.” Or your mother (or grandmother) may have said, “Too many cooks in the kitchen spoil the broth.” And that’s true of market research: the fewer the “cooks” or panel partners included in the project, the greater the probability of success. And it’s especially true of healthcare market research, where it is rare that one data collection or panel company can fill the complete quota of respondents. Even worse, some partners are just not good partners, and you may not know this! Your primary healthcare panel must be able to carefully manage all the partners in your project to ensure they use consistent processes. That is the key to finishing the project with high-quality data on time and within budget. Continue reading “Why One Panel Partner is Better than Three … or Five”

Lessons Learned from Researching Ambulatory Surgery Centers

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Technological innovations are enabling even more procedures to be performed outside the traditional hospital setting, driving interest in market research with healthcare professionals in ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs). Additionally, that trend is expected to continue. Becker’s ASC Review cites that currently, 41% of all surgeries are performed in ASCs and that 68% of all orthopedic surgeries will be conducted in ASCs by the mid-2020s. 

Recruiting healthcare professionals for market research studies is always challenging. However, ASCs pose some additional challenges for those who want to conduct marketing research in that environment. Reckner Healthcare has broad experience conducting marketing research with ASC leadership, administrators, physicians, and staff. Here are a few recent qualitative projects we completed successfully: Continue reading “Lessons Learned from Researching Ambulatory Surgery Centers”

Want Better Healthcare Market Research? Use Enhanced Profiling

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Healthcare is a complex industry and getting more complicated all the time. Hospitals consolidate into larger and larger hospital systems, including urgent care and surgery centers. More procedures are being done in doctor’s offices. And during the pandemic, telehealth came into its own as well. With this complexity, of course, comes a key challenge for healthcare marketing research: who is the best-qualified respondent for your project, and how do you find them? Continue reading “Want Better Healthcare Market Research? Use Enhanced Profiling”

5 Critical Questions to Ask Your Healthcare Panel Provider

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Sampling is one of the biggest challenges facing marketing researchers today. Lack of consumer confidence in surveys, concerns about privacy, “professional” respondents, and bots are all combining to lower response rates and weaken data quality. That is true for general B2C and B2B marketing research, but it is especially severe in marketing research in the healthcare industry, and even more so when trying to reach healthcare providers (HCPs).

Anyone who owns a consumer panel probably has some healthcare providers in their database. But that is not the same as a provider who owns and manages a proprietary healthcare panel. The brutal truth is that the incidence of healthcare professionals in the general population is extremely low. If you want to build and maintain a representative, reputable, dedicated healthcare research panel, you have to work at it. Healthcare professionals aren’t going to flock to your panel; you need to focus on – and even specialize in – finding and recruiting them to participate in your research and then building trust with panel members, so they stay engaged.

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Taking Care of Our Healthcare Panel Members, So They Take Care of You

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Recruiting and maintaining healthcare professionals in our Healthcare panel is an ongoing challenge. However, because Reckner has been tackling this challenge successfully for years, we know what is required. We take care of our panelists and, as a result, they are more likely to be willing to participate in your study with high-quality and thoughtful responses. Further, because we develop a partnership with our panel members, they are more likely to continue to work with us throughout their careers.

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The Bonuses you get from our Quant Team

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Everyone loves a BOGO (buy one get one free), right? While we cannot offer you a BOGO on your next quant project (sorry!), you do get several bonuses from your quant team that you may not know about.

Faulty Logic Finder

In the complexity of finalizing the questionnaire, study logic can be prone to errors. Our QA Managers and Programmers have literally read through thousands of studies, so they identify errors before they get into programming and more importantly, before they get into pretest.

Sample Plan Adviser

Thousands of studies means thousands of sample plans, so odds are we’ve recruited for this before. Our Project and Sample Managers use their experience and know-how to better target healthcare professionals, maximizing your incidence rate while maintaining the integrity of your sample plan.

Potential Problem Fixer

We hate to say it . . . problems do happen. Most of our teammates have decades of experience so they’ve seen it all, and they will present solutions to resolve any issues which may arise.

Variables Identification Consultant

Our Project Managers will help create variables to make your data processing needs easier – whether that’s for the data file, tables, coding process and more.

Presentation Planner

Our market is changing, faster than ever, and it can be difficult to anticipate what data may be needed after the project concludes With most of our Project Managers having hundreds of clients, they can anticipate Agency Management and Pharma Client questions, and thereby provide free consultations on banner points, a tab plan, and more.


While each of these things might seem small individually, taken together they save significant time on the backend –avoiding re-contacts, delivering results on time, and focusing your efforts on presenting the data, rather than chasing it. Bonus!

Behind the Scenes on Sample Management

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Continuing our look behind the scenes at Reckner, today we’re taking a tour through the Sample and Panel Management Team. (Check out our behind the scenes tour of the Quant Team).

Who We Are

The Sample and Panel Management Team oversees the Reckner Healthcare Professional Panel and is the center of all study activity.  Some of us work behind the scenes on the operations / process side and others are on the frontlines of client or panel communications.  Whether you work directly or indirectly with us will depend on what you need from Reckner:

Qualitative Recruiting:  you’ll be working with a Qual Project Manager and that person will work with us to secure the recruiting list needed for your project.

Programming & Hosting:  you’ll partner with a Quant Project Manager and that person will work with us to specify the sample needed and email the study invitations.

Sample Only (aka, Portal): you’ll collaborate directly with our team, whether this is for the full sample needed or for a top-off project.

So whichever service you need from Reckner, the Sample and Panel Management Team will be involved.

What We Do:

Essentially, anything that involves the panel involves our team, but our key activities include:

  • Expanding and maintaining the panel
  • Managing disbarment lists and auditing
  • Distributing study invitations
  • Providing call lists for the Reckner phone room
  • Conducting list matches
  • Addressing questions from the panel
  • Updating panel contact information

What We Can Tell You

We’re a bit like the Secret Service.  While we cannot give away all of our trade secrets, there are a few things that happen behind the scenes that we can share. We’ll focus on what happens when you come to us directly for Sample:

List Match

List match studies can be cringe-worthy, but we have creative ways to match to your list – no matter how bad it is. And, likely, we’ve seen it before – missing field designations, multiple people on a single line, duplicates, incomplete names. While we’d love a list that was “clean,” we live in the real world – we will make your list work!

Project Management

We assign clients a single project manager, so from bid to bill, you’re working with the same person. This is true of one-time, top-off clients, as well as our regular sample clients.

Consultation

Because a single person is responsible for your study, that person will watch response rates and will advise on sending reminders or new invites, prior to suggesting a change in honoraria.

Efficiency

No one has time for back and forth emails or incomplete planning.  We’re experts in providing sample for your study – regardless of size, specialty or study type.  We provide quick turn around on everything – from bid to list match to study invitations.

Creativity

Finding the right sample is part science, part art.  We employ multi-modal recruiting and innovative targeting to deliver the right respondents for your project.