The Two Pillars of Medical Qualitative Market Research

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(Free-Press-Release.com) September 6, 2007 --

MEDICAL FOCUS GROUPS include up to a dozen respondents (consumers, physicians, nurses, pharmacists, administrators, or other healthcare personnel) who are asked about their views/needs regarding specific subjects. This is a form of qualitative research and is considered “exploratory.” It is often the first step a client may take in order to evaluate the demand for a product or the viability of a promotional program. The group usually lasts for up to two hours and is led by a skilled moderator working from a discussion guide. This is a quick, useful, inexpensive way for companies to gain initial reactions to a new idea. Although results are not projectable to the nation as a whole, they provide valuable guidance and an overall “feel” for the market; researchers often call this “directional” research.

Focus groups are usually held in special facilities with a two-way mirror so that clients may observe from a viewing room. It is sometimes necessary to conduct these in hotel meeting rooms with remote camera equipment enabling clients to view from another room. This is an excellent way to observe group reactions to ascertain needs for new products, reactions to new advertising, or evaluate prototypes for new products – just three of many ways clients use focus groups.

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.

Jack M. Shapiro     medical focus groups     medical indepth interviews     medical qualitative research