1. Tope Osiyemi, PharmD; Kristina Bundra, PharmD; Sonie Lama, PharmD.
Analysis of Medical Information Services Offered by Pharmaceutical Companies to Consumers
Tope Osiyemi, PharmD; Kristina Bundra, PharmD; Sonie Lama, PharmD.

2. Introduction
In the current state of healthcare, consumers, including patients and caregivers, are empowered by being actively involved in the decision-making process pertaining to their care and often look to the pharmaceutical manufacturer for information on their treatment.
The pharmaceutical industry plays a critical role in the dissemination of medical information to consumers. With the premise of patient engagement in this evolving landscape of healthcare, with new complex medicines such as biologics and personalized medicine, it is essential to efficiently communicate with consumers to enable better understanding of their medications.
Various healthcare entities including pharmaceutical companies, are creating tools to improve medical communications to consumers.
Reference: Almader-Douglas D. Health Literacy. National Network of Library of Medicine website. Published June Updated August 5, Accessed January 21, 2015.

3. Background
We factor in that health literacy as defined by the Institute of Medicine report, as the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions
Navigating through the healthcare system requires for consumers to have a certain level of proficiency, or health literacy, when understanding basic health information. Health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.
Approximately 36% of adults in the United States have limited health literacy:
Basic health literacy: 22%
Below Basic health literacy: 14%
An additional 5% of the population is not literate in English.
Only 12% of the population has a proficient health literacy level.

4. Patient-Centric Approach
Patients are the center focus for pharmaceutical companies, physicians, patient advocacy groups, and other healthcare entities

5. Objective
To gather information on the different communication methods to consumers adopted by the medical information (MI) contact centers across various U.S. pharmaceutical companies.

6. Study Design
Fifty pharmaceutical companies based within the U.S were asked to participate in a survey that assessed the methods of medical information dissemination to patients.
The survey included questions on the methods of information delivery to consumers, and whether information not available in the product label is provided
Companies were asked the following:
Forms of communication provided to patients
Communication channels offered to patients
Utilization of reading level
Provision of patient advocacy groups and disease state information

7. Survey Questions
Do you respond to medical information inquiries from patients/caregivers?
Yes
No. If no, end here
In 2014, what was the total number of medical information inquiries received overall (HCPs, patients, caregivers, other)?
_________________
3) Of the total number of medical information inquiries, approximately what percentage of inquires were from patients/caregivers?
0 – 25% %
51- 75% %
4) What information is relayed to a patient that is beyond the prescribing information of the product? Select all that apply.
Allergen information
Location of manufacturing facility
Adverse Events
Clinical data
None
Other (please specify)_____________________
5) What resources are utilized to answer patient inquiries? Select all that apply.
Prescribing information
Patient brochures
Medication guides
Consumer FAQs or letters
Publically available information on your company websites
Publically available information on government websites
Other (please specify)___________________________
6) Do you offer to send written follow-up materials to patients by way of or postal mail after a verbal response is provided?
Yes. If yes, proceed to question 7
No. If no, skip to question 8
7) What forms of follow-up communication do you provide to patient inquiries after a verbal response is provided? Select all that apply.
Standard Response Letters specifically designed for patients
Patient leaflet/brochures
Consumer FAQs
Other (please specify)______________________________
Approximately what percentage of medical information responses to patients are provided:
Verbal: ______________
Written: ______________
What communication channels for medical information are offered to patients? Select all that apply.
Phone
Live chat
Postal mail
Multi-media (videos/ audio)
Do you provide disease state information to patients?
Yes No
Are patients referred to patient advocacy groups for any kind of inquiries?
Yes. If yes, proceed to question 12
No. If no, skip to question 13
For what type of inquiries do you refer patients to patient advocacy groups?
Disease state questions
Support groups
Other (please specify)______________________
Do you target a reading level in your patient communications for patient understanding?
Yes. If yes, proceed to question 14
No. If no, skip to question 15
What reading level is the medical information provided in response to patient inquiries?
< 6th Grade
6th-9th Grade
10th-12th Grade
> 12th Grade
Would you like a copy of the results of the survey?
Additional Comments _______________________

8. Results: Survey Participants

9. Results 2014 total number of medical information inquiries received
25000 -
>100000
59325
2014: % of inquiries from patients/caregivers
0 – 25%
76-100%
51-75%
26-50%
Information given to patients/ caregivers beyond Prescribing Information
Allergen information
Location of manufacturing
Technical information
None
Allergen Information
Med guide
Resources are utilized to answer patient inquiries
Prescribing information
Medication guides
Consumer FAQs or letters
Publically available information on your company websites
Publically available information on government websites
Certain data on file for ingredient and manufacturing locations information
Do you offer to send written follow-up materials to patients by way of or postal mail after a verbal response is provided? No
Yes
What forms of follow-up communication do you provide to patient inquiries after a verbal response is provided?
N/A
Standard Response Letters specifically designed for patients
Medication Guides
Approximately what percentage of medical information responses to patients are provided:
100% verbal
65% verbal; 35% written
What communication channels for medical information are offered to patients?
Phone
Postal mail
Do you provide disease state information to patients?
Are patients referred to patient advocacy groups for any kind of inquiries?
For what type of inquiries do you refer patients to patient advocacy groups?
Support groups
Do you target a reading level in your patient communications for patient understanding?
What reading level is the medical information provided in response to patient inquiries?
6-9th

10. Results cont.
A total of 5 pharmaceutical companies participated in the survey. Among these, only 4 companies answer medical information questions from consumers.
Of the 4 companies that respond to consumer inquiries:
Each company utilizes multiple resources to answer medical information questions, however only 1 company offers to send follow-up materials to patients.
3 provide information outside of the product label
1 targets a reading level for the consumer
Only 1 refers patients to patient advocacy groups and provides disease state information
The association between the variety of services provided from the pharmaceutical company is irrespective of the volume of consumer inquiries received from the company’s medical information centers

11. Limitations
The small sample size of respondents may have introduced bias into the results, showing a similarity of services provided to consumers across various pharmaceutical companies.
Services not included in the survey may have not been represented in the services provided by the pharmaceutical company.

12. Conclusions
Of the pharmaceutical companies that participated, there was variability in the services offered to consumers.
Some pharmaceutical companies provide extensive information directly to consumers. Whereas, other companies have adopted the model to only communicate with healthcare professionals.
A correlative conclusion cannot be made using the descriptive data.
Further research may be warranted to further assess the scope of medical information services offered by pharmaceutical companies to consumers.