Ipsos Health Wins Prestigious Industry Award

The most prestigious industry award in pharmaceutical market research has been awarded to Ipsos Health at the European Pharmaceutical Market Research Conference for their presentation entitled “United Break Guitars: The Rise of the Pro-Sumer”.

The paper was presented by Sarah Phillips (Head of Health) and Steve Thomson (Director, CPG).

The paper focused on drawing learnings from the consumer world into that of the pharmaceutical industry and in particular how the advent of Web 2.0 has provided consumers and patients (who in reality are the same person) with a much wider platform to collect and also disseminate information. The recommendations of the paper looked at how this new technology is changing the dynamics of the patient - physician relationship and gave ideas for how the pharmaceutical industry could help physicians in their management of this growing sub-set of influential patients. Based on a self-funded study in the UK and Italy, along with learnings from the consumer world, Thomson and Phillips offered some sage advice about ‘pro-patients’: don’t fight them, work with them; don’t underestimate them, treat them as equals; finally, provide physicians with the tools and confidence to inform and manage this increasingly powerful patient group. Commenting on the win, Sarah Phillips said: “The standard of papers at this year’s conference was very high so Steve and I were extremely pleased when it was announced that we had won. It was a real team effort to put the paper together and this result demonstrates the quality of our team and the research that we produce.” About Ipsos Health    Ipsos Health is a global business division, within the Ipsos Marketing specialization of Ipsos, focusing on research in the pharmaceutical, bio-tech and medical device markets. We have teams of specialist researchers in over 35 countries that focus on delivering outcome-oriented research for our clients. Ipsos Health is a global organisation that is organised into regional hubs to provide the expertise and scale to successfully deliver on large scale international studies, as well as support clients at a local basis. Ipsos Health UK is the international research hub for Western Europe. Their approach is to provide clients with a very holistic view of the marketplace by considering the interactions of all stakeholders in the success of a product.