The more I think about it now, though, the more of a Popsicle headache all those reports start to give me. I suppose at the time, I was happy for the quantifiable feedback in an otherwise qualitative job function. Not everyone shared this perspective, though, as more expressive peers were more interested in alternative means of ‘feedback,’ i.e. solid reviews from DM visits and greater accessibility to Key Opinion Leaders via relationships). As reporting and analytics improve, so too should our ability to identify key performance indicators in a report heavy, knowledge poor (or inconsistently leveraged) analytical environment. The issue should no longer be how to collect and manage these data sources, but more so how to integrate, extract, and enhance the numbers to appeal to a larger mass of end-users – from the analytical thinkers and drivers to the expressive relationship builders.

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But time and high costs aren’t even half the battle. Often the biggest hurdle for brand campaigns is the failure to align national initiatives with regional strategy. Consider the following common utterance of those in regional positions, from director on down: “This message doesn’t fit with our location, physician demographic or representative skill level.” What’s a sales leader to do when early data points reveal the misalignment between the messaging rollout at the national sales meeting and the first few dashboards that reach her desk? The challenge is clear: she must construct and deploy fully-integrated business tools and resources that are quickly accessible and easily adaptable to ensure appropriate pull-through. The key, though, is to do so ahead of time.

I’ve encountered this challenge first-hand. In the mid-2000’s, as a DM in metro Boston, I experienced a significant change to the formulary status for my expensive but clinically-compelling flagship diabetes product. The conversations we were hosting with providers and institutions needed a makeover and newfound sophistication, which required a greater depth of understanding and insight. There was an immediate need to balance the dynamics of the local marketplace, clinical merit of our product, and comprehension of the ‘cost’ to the physician and his practice going forward. Instead of having a central ‘hub’ to help guide our regional and district efforts, though, we were left to interpret disparate information sources with marketing material aimed at an entirely different message.

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Enter the iPad.

The thought process throughout much of the industry is now focused on the practical application of this tool – but why? Because it’s freaking cool and does some amazing stuff, that’s why – technically speaking, of course. Personally though, I think we should pump the brakes a bit and do our best to balance the desire to leverage this technology to its fullest extent without compromising the value of representative-physician contact. In other words, rather than further automating sales forces, we should view the iPad as the perfect platform for performance support in advance of this interaction. In order to maintain a balance between representative empowerment and physician satisfaction, the real meat behind this tool is in its simplicity and capacity to serve in performance support – NOT physician engagement.

Zack King recently discussed pharma executives’ reaction to the iPad , but we’ve learned lessons on this topic recently from physicians, too. In a survey conducted by Manhattan Research, only 36 percent of physicians found the iPad experience to be more useful than speaking with reps in a traditional fashion. By the sounds of it, Shiny Object Syndrome has the potential to creep into the marketplace and consequently distract from a potentially well-crafted branding and messaging campaign. In fact, another piece of research from Gryphon Scientific suggests that 80 percent of physicians will avoid interactions with reps toting iPads altogether. So much for developing relationships deeply rooted in clinical merit and patient focus, right? The use of the iPad as a ‘point-of-sale’ tool should be used sparingly to avoid physician distraction or worse, avoidance.

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