Have you ever wondered why people choose Coke over Pepsi or Bud Light over Coors Light? Or why two brands of pharmaceuticals with similar efficacy and safety measures are prescribed differently? The reasoning behind these types of decision outcomes is often more influenced by emotion than rational thinking. We’ve used mobile technology to overcome the lost time element by employing a Mobile Survey App to get closer to the moment of prescribing which has led to new insights and actions from Big Pharma. Eelke shared how we use System 1 / System 2 theory developed by Daniel Kahneman to establish why prescribing decisions are often driven by emotions which makes conducting research “in-the-moment” so important.

1. When physicians
get emotional
Eelke Roos
Senior Manager | SKIM London
Using mobile devices to capture the truth
behind prescribing decisions

2. Outline
System 1 /
System 2
1/2
Applicability
to Health care
Deeper Insights
from Mobile Research

3. Daniel Kahneman
System 1 System 2

5. Bread and …..
Finish the following phrase

6. Name this color

7. Answer this equation
2+2=?

8. Which line is longer
a
b

9. Count the occurrences
of the letter A
“System 1 operates automatically and quickly, with little
or no effort and no sense of voluntary control. System 2
allocates attention to the effortful mental activities that
demand it, including complex computations”

10. Answer this equation
2.486 x 9.996 =

11. System 1 System 2
The answer to 2 + 2 The answer to 2,486 x 9,996
Detect that one object is more Fill out a tax form
distant than another
Complete the phrase Complete a complex market
“bread and …” research survey
Read words on Count the letter A in a
large billboards piece of text
Play chess Play chess
(if you are Garry Kasparov) (if you are Eelke Roos)

12. What about prescribing?
System 2 activity
slow
System 1 activity
fast

13. OCCURRENCE MEASUREMENT
OCCURRENCE MEASUREMENT
● Emotions wear off
● Recall fades
● Answer solely based on hard factors (e.g. hard clinical facts)
● Based on more softer factors
● Easier to recall why
● Answer based on a combination of soft and hard factors

14. Research
Facility
Post-hoc:
Patient
Consultation
Patient
Record
Patient
Consultation
Mobile
App
Data collection is changing
Ad-hoc:

15. Business problem
Brands perceived as
similar
Unclear what
drives prescribing
decisions
Need to understand
drivers

16. 3 minutes of
closed questions
2 minute
voice memo
Data collected via mobile app

17. Example 1

18. 50 physicians 65 physicians
Participation
254 262

19. Forms of patient influence on treatment
Decline the drug Proactively suggest
treatment
Physician
presents options
Findings

20. Tweak messaging
to support physician-
patient dialogue
Increase
Direct-To-Consumer
(DTC) advertising
Actions
taken by
client

21. Thank you!
skimgroup.com
Eelke Roos
Senior Research Manager
e.roos@skimgroup.com
+44 208 22 27 706