Leverage Multiple Signals to Identify KOLs and Comply With the New PhRMA Code
In the trove of health data proliferating in the U.S. health system, biopharma companies face significant challenges to identify relevant healthcare professionals who are experts in their therapeutic area. And doing so compliantly – particularly for company-sponsored speaking programs, where ethical conflicts and legal pitfalls must be avoided – can be a challenge. The recently updated PhRMA Code is part of an ongoing effort in the Life Sciences industry to ensure that interactions with healthcare professionals comply with the highest ethical standards around the development and marketing of new medicines.
The recent revisions to the code expressly prohibit companies from choosing physicians for speaking engagements based on prescribing volume. Those organizations that do not comply are subject to heavy fines from government enforcement agencies. Yet, historically, some companies have relied on data from legacy aggregators to identify relevant physicians, and that data was often rooted in prescription volume. Between government regulations and the industry’s new code, these traditional approaches need to change.
The New Data Standard: A Matrixed View of Patient Journeys
With the new guidelines now in play, it’s critical that Medical Affairs and commercial teams have the most complete view of providers' behavior – not simply counting their prescription numbers – or risk significant fines and reputational damage.
Komodo has always built technology to consider the disease burden from the patient's perspective. All of our solutions are built on the Healthcare Map™ – the industry’s largest and most complete database, containing real-world data from 330 million unique patient journeys charted across 3.5 million healthcare providers and 450,000 care settings.
Our software uses a matrix of signals to create a comprehensive profile of each physician, an approach that enables you to identify true KOLs more precisely and – of equal importance – avoid using prescription data altogether. Our matrixed profile incorporates five key signals:
- Patient encounters in a specified therapeutic area – not just pills prescribed
- Scientific publication and clinical trial participation
- Industry collaboration and partnerships through contractional payments for speaking, consulting, and research
- Referrals across HCPs, IDNs/ACOs, HCOs, and payers
- Social media activity to measure digital sphere of influence in a clinical focus area
Our multidimensional, real-world data, and multiple-signal approach to identifying KOLs is more accurate and more timely than legacy approaches. Additionally, our software streamlines the documentation process to ensure you’re in compliance with industry guidelines and governance, and that your engagement strategy will meet company and regulatory standards, prior to submission.
Our mission has always been to reduce the burden of disease. By putting patient-centric data at the heart of medical and commercial strategy, our solutions empower commercial teams to maximize the quality of HCP engagements and deliver the greatest value to both patients and providers.
To learn more about how Komodo’s solutions can help commercial teams, 
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