Notes from an Online Community
Doctors are people, too
I recently finished an eight-week virtual community of physicians and NPs with the online research platform Aha!, a longtime partner. To be honest, I was a bit skeptical about an online community of physicians: would they really be willing to engage this way, and to stay engaged over the life of the community? Short answer: yes and no. Ultimately, this experience reminded me that healthcare professionals (HCPs) are people too.
It’s important to note that “community” members did not interact with each other; they answered their own questions in a silo, which - for our purposes - was the way to go. We wanted to understand their knowledge and familiarity with diagnosing a particular, somewhat rare condition - and we wanted to provide a space where HCPs would feel comfortable being candid.
Here’s what we learned….
HCPs will engage continually over time, with probing - but they may need a bit more probing than general population respondents. They required a higher than average number of reminder emails to come back to the discussion, and sometimes they needed to be poked and prodded to provide more than quick, rational responses. But with a clear sense that a moderator is reviewing answers and cares about them, they will engage.
The lesson: Be prepared to chase down some HCPs.
HCPs don’t always answer the questions you ask. It might be that they didn’t read carefully enough, or that they answer the question they wanted you to ask - but they may need redirecting.
The lesson: Read all responses carefully, and probe often.
HCPs are willing to admit what they don’t know. A one-to-one interaction really helps make this possible; in this study, they were not exposing their ignorance or lack of experience to their peers, just to me. Even still, it was interesting to see how readily they identified gaps in their knowledge.
The lesson: Use a numeric scale for self-measuring knowledge, with only the anchor points identified (e.g., completely unfamiliar to extremely knowledgeable) to encourage self-reflection, and then probe for explanation.
HCPs can surprise you. One respondent, during the first week or two, made a strong argument for why the timing of this research (November/December) was terrible because it is the busiest time of year in her practice, and she is already short on time. Interestingly, she was one of the most committed, thoughtful, and helpful respondents we had.
The lesson: Don’t give up on busy HCPs!
Physicians are not above using chatgpt. One respondent used AI liberally and without any attempt to mask the responses. I went back to him often for more precise information about his clinical experience, but he was ultimately not as helpful as other participants.
The lesson: Be on the lookout for AI-generated answers, and push for a personal point of view.
Ultimately, 19 of 20 HCPs completed the full eight weeks of research, and nearly all of them expressed interest in continuing the conversation in additional research or as part of an advisory board. Like many people, HCPs enjoy giving their opinion. It just might take a little more elbow grease to get them to do so over time.