Identifying the right physicians to engage — whether active treaters or key influencers — is one of the most challenging steps in launching a specialty and rare disease products. It is also critical to continued product success post-launch. A two-pronged framework for physician identification adapts to the treatment landscape at hand.

When treatment data exists, patient-level analytics such as lines of therapy and shared patient networks can pinpoint active treaters and link them back to prescribers.

When there is no standard of care and traditional data falls short, alternative approaches can be brought to bear. Diagnostic testing data can surface relevant physicians, while AI and machine learning models can predict likely patients and connect them to their treating physicians.

Primary market research and nomination studies further round out the picture by mapping KOLs and centres of excellence. The result is an actionable approach to KOL identification that is adaptable to any launch or brand strategy, regardless of data availability.