Visual Aid is the popular name, given to a Spiral Bound collection of Printed Pages, depicting the Brand Names & Unique Selling Points, Mechanism of Action, Dosage Form, and Dosage Regimen with respect to the Major Brands of the Pharma Corporate.
As the name depicts, it’s a visual aid or assistance which is provided to the discussion, which a Medical Representative needs to have with the doctor. Like, in a conference hall, any speaker taking the session, uses, relevant PowerPoint Presentation on the Projected Screen with various slides, the Visual Aid has the pages for multiple brands.
The MR discusses each page with a focus on relevant points on each page, pointing with his closed pen as pointer. This aids, the doctor to look into the page & try to remember, as & when he requires prescribing the brand/molecule.
Drug molecules come with a complex mechanism of action, which can be explained diagrammatically on the visual aid. Many times, the Product Manager, prefer to use Paper/ Craft gimmicks to simplify the complex mechanism of action of any drug molecule. This ensures, the doctor understands it well & due to the uniqueness of the design of the gimmick, the doctor remembers it for a long time. Thus ensures, high chances of immediate and long term prescriptions.
Seeing is believing. Pharma Companies shows the Product Pack for its visual appeal which directly connects the quality of the brand, easy to recall design on the pack, etc adds to the retention value for any brand in the doctor’s mind.
Doctors generally remain dependent on the dosage regimen suggested by the Pharma Companies which is based on the latest, peer-reviewed clinical journals published recently. Therefore, it is imperative, for the Pharma Corporates to give the Dosage Regimen in a prominent place on visual aid for any particular brand.
As it is now, evident from the above description, that Visual Aid is the most important document & promotional material available for Medical Representative for easy and effective conduction of doctor call. It is designed in such a way, that its weight & dimensions are critically evaluated. The sequence of the brands, specialty of the doctors to whom the brands are promoted, content on the page, number of pages for each brand, and time is taken by each brand are critically viewed while designing the Visual Aid. This ensures the MR spends quality time in the doctor’s cabin and discusses relevant brand’s essential unique selling points, so that, each doctor call, results in conversion of the doctor to become the loyal prescriber of the brand.
In spite of these all efforts, we see, many times, the Medical Representatives do not take proper efforts to use the Visual Aid in the doctor’s cabin. The result is, they are not able to get the proper doctor’s attention and the doctor loses interest in the brand. Such doctors would never, prescribe the brand for such MR.
Any Medical Representative who goes to the field without carrying his Visual Aid is a Crime in the Pharma Industry. Without visual aid, it is as good as absenteeism in the field, as no doctor call is possible without proper visual aid or Product Brochure. At times, MR may not use a visual aid, if he is using any other brochure to promote the brand; however, not carrying Visual Aid is not justified even in this case.