Medical Information Support of the Sales Force: An External and Internal Assessment

To enhance medical information (MI) support of the sales force, two online surveys were designed: an external survey to identify general avenues for improvement and an internal survey to identify specific opportunities for improvement. The external survey was disseminated to 86 MI departments to determine standard MI practices in support of sales representatives. The internal survey assessing sales representative satisfaction with existing MI services was disseminated to 778 Solvay Pharmaceuticals Inc sales representatives. Both surveys were sent in December 2007 and remained open through January 2008. Eighteen MI departments (21%) responded to the external survey and 420 sales representatives (54%) responded to the internal survey. Results from these surveys suggested several considerations for the enhancement of MI support of the sales force.