Online detailing: The new way to sell

Drug reps don't have to stop by your office anymore -- you can now opt to meet with them via your computer.

By Tyler Chin, AMNews staff. July 9/16, 2001.

Several times a month, Edward Berman, MD, a solo internist in Ridgefield, Conn., logs onto a PC-based videoconferencing system in his office and enters a user ID and password to hold real-time video detailing sessions with pharmaceutical sales representatives.

The image of the sales rep is displayed on one part of the computer screen. Information about appropriate use, efficacy, dosage, side effects, contraindications and studies about new and existing prescription drugs appear elsewhere on the screen as Dr. Berman and the sales rep discuss it.

Dr. Berman is among several thousand physicians who are believed to be participating in "e-detailing" -- electronically accessing details, ordering samples and requesting visits from sales reps. But that definition has been evolving.

Some observers broadly define e-detailing as any online marketing and learning program targeting physicians, including CME programs or electronic mail notifying them of a new indication or a meeting at a hotel with drug reps.

Whatever the definition, online detailing is in a nascent stage.

In the past few years, several technology startups whose business plans depend on serving as conduits between physicians and drug companies have sprouted. Their job is to help the pharmaceutical industry better target and deliver their sales pitch to physicians.

But these startups also claim to offer value to physicians.

That's because online detailing lets doctors control the interaction with the pharmaceutical company, get information at their convenience and obtain more relevant information than they can from brief visits with sales reps. [...]