Quantitative Sciences in measuring the Impact of Communication on Shared Decision Making to Determine Drug Adoption

Forecasting medical decisions are very challenging due to lack of predictability of physicians' drug acceptance behaviour when multiple choices (in therapeutic segment) exists. The role of communication in medical information transaction among the healthcare provider / stakeholders is either nascent stage or might not have been optimized by pharmaceutical firms in emerging markets like India. We present a tractable model for analyzing the relationship between diverse communication sources and adoption of drug, launched for the first time against other branded drugs in same generic class. The article emphasizes the role of shared decision making in form of drug marketer -physician interaction as well as physician -physician interaction in form of word of mouth. Drawing on recent theoretical explanations, hypotheses were developed and tested using multiple linear regression. Based on data set of 102 physicians treating hypertension, our estimations of the model yield four main implications: (i) marketing communication positively influence physicians' perception on drug benefit but declines to build up intention for drug adoption (jj) referral to professional guideline as well as participation in medical events ( seminar / symposia) substantially influence drug adoption decision (iii) word of mouth factor will act as barrier to drug adoption as imitation effect is not realized by young physicians or opinion leaders / senior cardiologists. The article shows lack of programmed shared decision making leads to low drug adoption particularly for drugs treating hypertension where treatment risk is low and multiple substitutes are available in market.