In a field as fast-paced as medicine, healthcare brands are consistently pumping out new, innovative products.
In addition to the added competition, the process of purchasing and selling medical technologies is constantly evolving.
Our healthcare market research company could argue that pediatric services and products are some of the fastest items to evolve on the market. Parent demands are high, as is the need for keeping their children healthy.
To remain competitive, it is important to earn feedback from your target buyers -- in this case pediatricians.
In this post, we’ll be covering how to survey pediatricians effectively to establish data-driven decisions and perfect your brand, product, or service.
Each section covers the essential steps to creating a successful project with those in pediatric medicine.
1. Kickoff Meeting
How to survey pediatricians is a fine art.
That’s why it’s important to partner up with a market research firm (like Drive Research) to walk you through it. That all begins with a kickoff meeting.
This first step is a way for both the healthcare or medical device brand and market researchers to come together and share objectives.
Key items to cover in a market research kickoff meeting can vary, but we always suggest covering the 5 following steps.
- Client expectations
- Overview of the research process
- Questions to ask those in pediatric medicine
- Project timeline
- Unanswered questions about the project
Covering these topics before the physician survey questions are written and sent off sets up the project for success.
💡 The Key Takeaway: Kickoff meetings are not to be skipped! This goes for all research projects but is especially important for medical surveys.
2. Writing the Pediatrician Survey
The most foundational step to the entire process is making sure your survey is written well! Even more important is that you get your wording right.
All this means is that since the survey is designed for the pediatric workforce, it should contain the correct medical jargon for that field.
In this case, it's helpful to work with a market research company that specializes in surveying doctors and physicians. They will have experience writing survey questions, that are both unbiased and contain the correct medical phrasing.
Most importantly, though, is that the pediatrician survey is short. Anything over 10 minutes is too long.
But why does this matter so much?
Pediatricians have little time to spare due to the fast-paced nature of their job. Because of this, they’re far less likely to take a survey that’s over 10 minutes long. And remember, you want as many responses as possible!
Consider these factors when writing the survey:
- Is the language concise?
- Can similar questions be combined?
- Are there unnecessary topics covered?
There’s more where that came from. Look at all of our tips for conducting market research with doctors and physicians.
💡 The Key Takeaway: A survey for those in children’s healthcare needs to be worded efficiently and take no longer than 10 minutes.
3. Programming the Survey for Pediatricians
After writing the physician survey questions, programming begins. Put simply, this is when the online document is then transferred into the survey platform by the research team.
Programming may sound simple, but it’s actually quite involved!
During the process, each detail from each question needs to be meticulously added to the platform.
It’s a good idea to refer back to a checklist while programming. If a programmer goes back and forth between questions while placing it in its platform, a small error can completely disrupt the survey.
Think of the ripple effect.
Keeping a list will ensure things run smoothly–question by question. After that’s set, the survey will then be reviewed once more by the researchers.
💡 The Key Takeaway: Programming a survey is a detailed, technical process. It’s best to refer back to a checklist when going through the process.
Recommended Reading: Programming Checklist for Surveys
4. Surveying Pediatricians
When conducting market research with pediatricians, our online survey company utilizes third-party panels as well as our in-house panel.
From our experience, we know what vendors offer access to quality respondents at an affordable price.
Additionally, we always recommend soft-launching a survey. If a survey was to be soft-launched to a panel of pediatricians, this just means it wouldn’t be sent out to the entire panel–just a small number of them.
Think of it as a test run. That way, if there are issues going on within the survey, it’s seen by only a small number of respondents and not the entire panel all at once.
We have plenty of reasons to soft-launch email surveys before jumping in, but we’ll share with you a few of our favorites below.
- Updating question-wording if it's confusing to respondents
- Tests average response rates to learn what you can expect
- Spotting any routing/technical errors
By running a soft launch, any issues that arose can be addressed before the survey is sent out to the rest of the doctors.
💡 The Key Takeaway: Medical survey questions need to be soft-launched to doctors. This allows the programmers to fix any errors before the survey is seen by the entire panel of pediatric doctors.
5. Cleaning the Survey Data
So, the survey is wrapped up. All done, right? Not quite!
Equally as important as the active survey process is what happens after: cleaning the data.
This is when the feedback from the physician survey questions is thoroughly gone over by the research team.
An absolutely critical step, online survey data cleaning should never be skipped, no matter the topic.
Here are some survey details we recommend programmers review.
- Sequencing inconsistencies: This is taking notice when a respondent directly contradicts themselves between multiple questions.
- Watch out for the “others”: If one of the child doctors selected “other” but then submitted an option that was in the original list of answers to choose from, this is a sign other inconsistencies may be lurking.
- Duplicate entries: Oftentimes pediatricians are given a reward for taking a survey. Therefore, some people might try to gain the system and get double the reward by taking the survey twice and entering a different name and email address. We spot these duplicate entries by reviewing IP addresses and assuring that once they take the survey once, they can't take it again.
Researchers will know when something is “off” with survey responses – all the more reason to work with them.
💡 The Key Takeaway: A medical survey for doctors is cleaned just as any other survey project would be. Researchers look out for mistakes like duplicate entries, sequencing errors, and more.
Recommended Reading: How to Spot Poor Survey Respondents - Ask These Questions
6. Analyzing and Reporting Feedback from Pediatricians
Now for the grand finale.
After all the survey data has been collected and cleaned, the research team will design a detailed report for the childcare brand. This step is especially important when surveying those in pediatric medicine.
Since the field is so specialized, the way the report is written and designed needs to be as clear and as direct as possible.
A report such as this can help a brand understand how to market itself properly, gain a better understanding of its audience, and areas of improvement for the product.
Basically, it’s allowing the brand to upgrade before hitting the shelves full force. It’ll include a full rundown of survey findings and steps for moving forward.
What’s more, the team at Drive Research not only puts together a full report of the results but also holds a debrief meeting with clients. This makes going over the report a collaborative process, where questions can be answered and ideas can be shared.
💡 The Key Takeaway: A full report will be given to the childcare brand. Along with this, an in-depth debriefing meeting between the research team and brand representatives will be held.
Survey Pediatricians with Drive Research
Understanding how to survey pediatricians may seem difficult at first. But with the right market research tools and an understanding of the specialty, it’s not that hard–we promise!
Drive Research is a market research company based in New York. Our team of pros has a deep understanding of surveying medical professionals. We can work with your childcare brand to create a specific survey for children's doctors.
Want to learn more about our market research services? Get in touch with us through any of the ways below.
- Message us on our website
- Email us at [email protected]
- Call us at 888-725-DATA
- Text us at 315-303-2040
Lark Allen
As a Content Marketing Specialist, Lark has a strong background and passion for creative, professional, and journalistic writing. She is also a self-proclaimed music freak and 90s enthusiast.
Learn more about Lark, here.
