A Study on Role and Function of the Medical Representatives

Lee, Dong-Il; Je, Hae-Kwan; Yoon, Seok-Jun; Ahn, Hyeong-Sik; Mun, Yeoung-Bae

Journal of Korean Society Quality Assurance Health Care 2003;10(1): 58.
Published online May 30, 2003.

의약정보담당자(MR)의 기능 및 역할에 관한 연구

이동일¹, 제해관², 윤석준³, 안형식³, 문영배⁴

¹고려대학교 보건대학원.CJ주식회사 제약사업본부
²CJ주식회사 제약사업본부
³고려대학교 의과대학 예방의학교실
⁴고려대학교 보건대학원

A Study on Role and Function of the Medical Representatives

Dong-Il Lee¹, Hae-Kwan Je², Seok-Jun Yoon³, Hyeong-Sik Ahn³, Yeoung-Bae Mun⁴

¹Department of Health Policy & Hospital Management, Graduate School of Public Heath Korea University.Pharmaceutical Business Unit of CJ Corporation
²Pharmaceutical Business Unit of CJ Corporation
³Department of Preventive Medicine, College of Medicine, Korea University
⁴Department of Health Policy & Hospital Management, Graduate School of Public Health Korea University

Abstract

Background
Aim of this study is focused on the analysis of the needed abilities of medical representatives resulting in building up the market and increasing sales. It is to propose methods to increase this ability ensuring continuous growth in market share and profit.
Methods
A survey was conducted between January 6 and May 31, 2003. Using SPSS(Version 10.0), the collected data was analyzed by Hotelling T2, factor analysis. Some hypotheses were selected to include the conclusion. Some questionnaires for physicians working in hospitals or clinics and the medical representatives working in a pharmaceutical company were created and asked to them to either prove or reject those hypotheses. The results were analyzed to find the primary factors that effect the interactions between physician and the medical representatives. These factors were also studied along with the theoretical research based on published references.
Results
The results were as follows. The main reasons for the physician to meet with a medical representatives were collection of product informations needed for patient treatment and collection of informations on current medical issue and as well as personal interests. The main parameters by which physicians evaluate the medical representatives are human relationship including sincerity and manners and supply of accurate and unbiased information on products. Overall, the medical representatives' perception on the importance of medical knowledge and ability to deliver it are lower than that expected by physicians.
Conclusion
Medical and pharmaceutical companies' environment are changed rapidly. And those changes forced medical representatives to set new roles and competency. In order to drive away from the past 'rule of thumb' and 'adaptation to circumstance', optimal method and systemic development to train and support the medical representatives should be quipped. They will help medical representatives to be specialists in medical knowledge and to understand the exact need of health care professions. Product competitiveness will be increased and eventually successful business can be achieved through it.

Key words MR(medical representatives);Pharmaceutical company;Physicians;