What is a Medical In-Depth Interview?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) August 25, 2007 -- PRESS RELEASE

WHAT IS A MEDICAL IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW?

JACK M. SHAPIRO HEALTHCARE MARKETING RESEARCH
AND MANAGEMENT CONSULTING, INC.

P.O. BOX 1025
Maywood, NJ 07607
Phone: 201-441-9815
e-mail: JSHEALTH@AOL.COM
Web site: www.JackShapiro.com

Maywood, NJ August 28, 2007

Jack M. Shapiro, Principal Consultant for J.M. Shapiro Healthcare Marketing Research and Consulting has provided a succinct description of medical in-depth interviews which companies such as his provide clients in the fields of prescription and non-prescription pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, supplies and devices, hospitals, managed care, homecare, diagnostics, clinical research organizations, advertising agencies, branding specialists, and venture capitalists:

While companies often use focus groups to obtain initial reactions to products, services and promotional concepts, a second step frequently involves in-depth interviews with physicians, consumers, nurses, pharmacists, administrators and other related personnel in order to confirm focus group findings and plunge into particular subjects in greater depth than a focus group would allow. This is a more data-rich, labor-intensive technique where respondents can be individually interviewed for an hour or longer (45-minutes interviews are quite common) in order to reveal their deepest thoughts and motivations. By comparison, a respondent might only speak for 10 – 15 minutes in a 10 –12 person focus group lasting for two hours.

The interviews are conducted by a trained interviewer working from a prepared discussion guide. While this is usually considered to be qualitative, non-projectable research with samples of no more than 30 – 50 respondents (and often fewer), some studies can become projectable when sample sizes reach 100 or more. Many in-depth interview studies are conducted in focus group facilities with two-way mirrors for clients to observe, but studies have often been conducted over the telephone or in other venues (restaurants, offices, the respondents’ homes, for example). Interviews are usually tape recorded with the respondent’s permission.

Given the great amount of data that can be generated by this technique as well as longer time spent in the field conducting the research, in-depth interview studies might take considerably longer to execute and issue a report than focus groups which are often viewed in just a few nights.

focus groups     healthcare market research     in-depth interviews     Jack M. Shapiro     Marketing