ZEST insights

When you hear the term ‘key opinion leader’, who immediately springs to mind? A specialist or GP who commonly takes the lead in a therapy area, or maybe a leading academic in a particular field of research? But do your thoughts extend to members of other healthcare professions – say nurses, pharmacists, or physiotherapists? 

Allied healthcare professionals are likely to become more influential in patient management, with the Australian government taking active steps towards expanding their clinical roles to address the shortage of primary healthcare providers in this country. So it’s timely to begin challenging traditional concepts of a KOL and, by extension, your target audience.  

One key group to consider is nurse practitioners. These are nurses with the training and authority to manage patients, refer them to other healthcare professionals, and prescribe some medications. There are currently 300 nurse practitioners in Australia but Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon has suggested that this number be expanded to address the current workforce shortage in primary care. 

Do you have a program for nurturing leading nurse practitioners to ensure they remain in touch with your latest developments? Or is there another group of professionals – perhaps pharmacists - you want to engage? 

At ZEST, we can help you identify and nurture KOLs from a range of healthcare professions to help you gain the most from their expertise and provide opportunities for them to develop as advocates. Call us to discuss our KOL Care Continuum programs and we’ll help you stay ahead of the changing healthcare landscape in Australia.  

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 at 10:26 am by Linda Richards and is filed in the category Update. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.