Emerging Psychographic Segmentation Strategies for Developing Customized Professional Education David St. Peter, M.D. President VIEW on Medical Education August 2007 Why Customization Is Important Physicians are people too, and just like everyone else, they have innate differences that set them apart. After 18 years in the industry, I have come to the realization that while commonsense tells us our physician customers are not a homogenous group of robotic professionals, this mode of thinking is exactly what many default to when developing a one-size-fits-all approach to peer-to-peer education. Customization Through Segmentation Segmentation is often the first step in mass customization of a product or service that enables a better understanding of individual customer needs and beliefs so products or services can be targeted to best meet those needs. Key to mass customization is customer codesign, where the customers’ attitudes and beliefs are integrated into the value creation by defining, configuring, matching, or modifying an individual solution to the offering. Customization of an audience through attitudinal segmentation is not new to many industries, and because of this, they are years ahead of where medical education needs to be. Despite customization’s proven success, medical education companies rarely customize their educational offerings to healthcare professionals. Segmentation of the customer base — physicians who require learning — beyond basic occupational demographics such as specialty training, patient population demographics, and behavioral prescribing patterns are rarely collected. A primary reason for this is that in the past few validated psychographic tools existed for physician learners, and those that did exist were not meaningfully applied to the med ed industry. Fortunately, there have been a few breakthroughs — new methodologies have been developed to begin mass customization of medical education and are changing the way educators develop and deliver peer-to-peer communications. One of the programs is DiSC, a four-quadrant behavioral model developed through the work of William Moulton Marston, Ph.D. Although the DiSC system has been widely used in many business sectors, never before has it been applied to a physician audience with special interest in applying its results to the peer-to-peer communication and medical education channel. Similar to Myers-Briggs, Wilson Learning, and the 4 Colors Style Program, this educational tool categorizes individuals into four main groups based on individual behavioral styles and communication preferences. (Note: D = Dominance, Drive, Direct; I = Influence; S = Steadiness or Stability; C = Compliance.) These methodologies help medical educators customize a physician’s learning process by gaining a better understanding of faculty presenters and, more importantly, their target audience. This is a major step toward moving away from a one-size-fits-all philosophy. Now with the ability to segment, individual physician educators can be coached to better understand both themselves and their audience to best communicate messages and effectively change behaviors through their teachings (please see Tables 2 and 3). Customized programs can be developed so that content, as well as its delivery, is matched with the specific needs of the physician learners. Think about the possibilities of being able to codesign with the learner and audience’s individual communication styles in mind (please see Table 3). Directed speaker training and targeted recruitment efforts are key tactical elements that drive the success of medical education programs, such as speakers bureaus. Putting Psychographic Segmentation Research to Use Although individual profiles are key to program development and execution, group characteristics provide topline insights as well. Understanding this dynamic is important to the development and dissemination of information through peer-to-peer communication, and is critical for educational program developers to understand that, first, differences may exist and, second, that program format and flow can be customized to reconcile these differences and enhance learning. Physician Psychographics Physician psychographics are a more robust strategic tool than standard demographics and other traditional segmentation strategies used in medical education because they delve deeper into individual physician interests, needs, preferences, and attitudes related to learning and communication styles. By understanding these styles, an educator can develop and provide instruction on how to better deliver educational content that is relevant and behavior changing. Just as many doctors are more likely to learn new solutions for problems they are already facing — or are faced with in their office that day — many physicians want to learn in a way that is not only engaging and tailored, but makes good use of their time. The Selva Group, an inVentiv Health company, Saratoga Springs, N.Y., is a full-service medical education and event management company. For more information, visit theselvagroup.com. Examples of Mass Customization of Products and Services Industry Product or Offer Brand Automotive Build you own car/ Land Rover, customized manuals Mini Cooper Entertainment Television on demand TiVo Financial Credit cards with custom Capital One terms and conditions Food Hamburgers “Made Your Way” Burger King Technology Build your own computer Dell and Gateway Technology Custom pagers built within Motorola two hours of order Textiles Tailored jeans service Levi Jeans Table 1: Communication Style Differences Between Physicians and the General Population Table 2: Communication Style Differences Between Physician Specialists Table 3: Communication Style Differences Between Faculty and Learners Customized CME

Download PDF