Content without Borders (CwB) – an Efficient Approach to Handling Medical Information Inquiries

Abstract

A “Content without Borders” (CwB) initiative was implemented to de-label Scientific Response Documents (SRDs) by removing specific product Prescribing Information (PI) text and creating “No PI SRDs”. This approach is used to respond to unsolicited medical inquiries from healthcare professionals (HCPs) across 136 countries in Africa, the Middle East, Asia Pacific (except China) and Latin America. Key performance indicators including turnaround times (TATs), escalation rates, volume of content, measures of efficiency and HCP insights were evaluated to understand the quantitative and qualitative effects of CwB. This pre-post study compares metrics from 2019, before CwB implementation, to 2022 in the Asia Pacific region. The CwB initiative ensured that more responses were handled by customer-facing colleagues and reduced escalations to content experts by 24.23%. The average TAT improved by 52.03%, and the number of available SRDs shared among ≥2 countries increased by nearly 700%. Majority of content experts from select countries that adopted CwB indicated that it was easy to create/maintain No PI SRDs and that adapting a global SRD to the CwB format took less time than localizing an SRD with PI. Overall, the CwB initiative simplified scientific content creation and management processes within the Medical Information (MI) department, thereby allowing customers to receive information promptly and more efficiently. As resources are shared across multiple regions, there is more consistency within response content, ensuring equity in the MI services provided to HCPs. The implementation of No PI SRDs enabled MI services to be easier to access and easier to use.