Virtual Reality: Why Every Pharma Marketer Needs this in their Toolkit – As Told by a KOL.
Dr. Irving Loh is not your average person, he is in his own words an “all-cap, bold face KOL,” and the optimal customer for all Pharma marketers. As an academically trained internist and cardiologist, NIH trained clinical research, principal investigator on over 160 clinical trials, national speaker for pharma, blogger, and a healthcare columnist, Pharma marketers want him on their side.
Throughout the years, Dr. Irving Loh as seen multiple tactics, being approached by attractive and knowledgeable reps prepared with their A/B tested marketing material and color animated iPad presentations often packed with bland didactic data that can makes one’s eyes glaze over in seconds and the mind drift to what’s next on their schedule. In the panel titled “Virtual Reality – A Revolution in Immersive Digital Healthcare Media,” at the ePharma Summit in Manhattan in March, Dr. Loh hits upon how virtual reality (VR) can break through such barriers for field reps looking to make lasting impressions with healthcare providers.
VR is more than just a vehicle for entertainment, games, or social media connection, Dr. Loh explains, in healthcare, VR is a tool for intensive learning. VR done right can give the client a truly immersive experience without awareness of the technology itself. It is a powerful platform that can spark “aha!” moments when facts and data come together.
So why is this type of visual experience so important? Dr. Loh states how, unlike attorneys like his wife and daughter who live and learn by the spoken and written word, remembering everything he has ever said to them, physicians generally are visual learners, they learn by seeing. The extraordinary thing about VR is that it shuts off external distractions and laser focuses the viewer into its world and makes it come alive. It’s a tool currently like no other that providers will want to go out of their way to show colleagues after the rep leaves. It is the ultimate “leave behind.”
Even though VR is a technology that is still just starting out, it is a vital tool that should be packed in each pharma marker’s toolkit as they plan future strategies and raise the bar on customer engagement.
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