In pharmaceutical market research, one element remains consistently crucial: participant engagement. Whether you’re doing sophisticated patient journey analysis, gathering qualitative insights from healthcare providers, or exploring treatment nuances through surveys, the quality of research outputs directly correlates with the level of engagement and investment our participants demonstrate throughout the process.
When participants are truly engaged, they don’t just answer questions—they share stories, provide context, and offer deeper perspectives that can transform simple research into exceptional insights. This depth of engagement is particularly vital in pharmaceutical research, where understanding complex treatment decisions, patient experiences, and healthcare dynamics requires more than surface-level responses.
At KJT, we consider and prioritize the participant experience to maximize engagement from project start to finish. We collected 5 key steps to elevate your next pharma research project:
1. Designing a Participant-Friendly Experience
The foundation of meaningful engagement begins with thoughtful research design. This comes into play in two ways: methodology selection and instrument design.
In pharma, where we often engage with busy healthcare professionals or patients managing serious conditions, selecting the right methodology is crucial. This means carefully weighing whether a qualitative approach is needed to capture nuanced understanding or if quantitative insights would better serve our objectives.
Today’s research landscape offers unprecedented methodological flexibility. Virtual ethnographies might better capture the day-to-day reality of living with a chronic condition than a traditional ethnographic study or surveys. AI-powered chatbots could provide a more comfortable environment for sensitive topics, while human-led interviews might be essential for complex clinical discussions.
Once a methodology is selected, there is an art to designing a research instrument that has both a natural, conversational flow and the ability to deeply address research objectives. Rather than bombarding healthcare professionals with repetitive rating scales, we mix these up with engaging projective techniques. For instance, asking physicians to imagine and describe their ideal treatment pathway can yield richer insights than traditional satisfaction metrics.
In addition, personalization goes a long way to improve participant experience. Calling back to earlier responses rather than asking them to reiterate, tailoring language to match how the audience describes their condition, and, as a moderator, finding ways to connect and build rapport with the respondent can meaningfully improve the participant experience.
2. Building Excitement: Making Research Meaningful
For healthcare professionals and patients alike, understanding how their participation contributes to advancing medical knowledge or improving patient care can be a powerful motivator. When recruiting patients with a rare disease, for example, emphasizing how their insights will influence treatment protocols or patient support programs for others living with their condition can significantly boost engagement.
Beyond monetary compensation, participants often find value in being part of a broader scientific dialogue. Healthcare professionals, in particular, appreciate opportunities to contribute to their field’s body of knowledge or influence future treatment approaches. For patients, knowing their experiences might help others facing similar challenges, and being part of a community that understands first-hand what they’re going through can be incredibly motivating.
3. Setting Clear Expectations
Transparency builds trust and maintains engagement. From the outset, participants should understand exactly what their involvement entails. Some studies can involve substantial time commitments, and communicating that from the get-go can help avoid any confusion and drop-outs.
Communication should be crystal clear across all touchpoints (invites, confirmation emails, reminders, etc), from initial recruitment to final follow-up. For instance, when conducting a longitudinal study tracking treatment outcomes, providing a visual timeline of check-in points helps participants plan their involvement. Using simple, jargon-free language ensures understanding among diverse participant groups, including medical specialists and patients.
4. Making Participants Feel Valued
Personalization goes beyond using a participant’s name. It means acknowledging their expertise and experiences, respecting their time, and showing genuine appreciation for their contributions. In virtual research environments, such as online communities or bulletin boards discussing chronic condition management, establishing a human connection is crucial. This might involve regular moderator check-ins, personalized feedback, or acknowledgment of particularly insightful contributions using warm, conversational language to show that there’s a real person behind the research.
Gratitude should be specific and meaningful. Rather than a generic “thank you,” acknowledge the unique value of each participant’s contribution. For instance, thanking a physician for sharing a particularly challenging case study that illuminated an important treatment consideration, or acknowledging and affirming a patient for opening up about a particularly challenging medical experience.
5. Gamification and Motivation
Engaging participants, especially in longer-term studies, requires maintaining interest and motivation throughout the process. Gamification in pharma must be sophisticated and professional while still being engaging. For instance, in a multi-phase study, a points system might track participation across different research activities, with bonus points for detailed responses or consistent engagement.
For extended engagements, such as virtual communities, regular incentivization helps maintain momentum. This might include staged compensation for completion of different phases, bonus structures for exceptional participation, or recognition programs that acknowledge particularly valuable contributions.
While this is particularly important for longer research commitments to avoid attrition, gamification has a place in more traditional one-on-one interviews or focus groups as well, via well-planned projective exercises. Instead of simply asking a patient what they wish their doctor did differently in the diagnosis process, ask them to role-play a physician diagnosing a new patient. Or, rather than asking healthcare providers to rank treatments on various scales, utilize a digital whiteboard to help them map their perceptions of each treatment visually. These tactics provide deeper insight than direct questioning alone, while also keeping participants engaged.
The path to meaningful insights in pharmaceutical market research is paved with engaged participants. When we prioritize the participant experience—from thoughtful study design to meaningful recognition—we create an environment conducive to rich, nuanced insights that drive better healthcare decisions.
Investment in participant engagement isn’t just about ensuring completion rates; it’s about creating an environment where healthcare professionals and patients feel valued, heard, and motivated to share their authentic experiences and insights. In doing so, we not only gather better data but also build lasting relationships that can support future research initiatives.
We at KJT keep participants at the center of all our research engagements to uncover meaningful insights that drive your business forward.
Author
Clare Murphy
Research, Associate VP
As Associate VP, Clare is responsible for uncovering insights to drive business forward for her clients. Specializing in qualitative research, she excels in conducting interviews across diverse audiences and methodologies. Clare is particularly passionate about rare disease patient research and enjoys bringing the patient voice to the forefront.
