Physician movement varies by specialty

August 19, 2009 – 3:08 pm by Steven Niles

Building relationships with physicians is a critical part of the pharmaceutical sales rep’s job. Those efforts can be hampered, however, if the physician the rep has taken such pains to bond with is no longer at the office when the rep comes knocking. The extent to which this can be a problem differs considerably depending on the type of specialty the rep serves.

In a recent study, researchers with SK&A Healthcare Information Solutions found that 15.2% of U.S. physicians move to a new location or practice, retire, or pass away each year.

According to SK&A researchers, aerospace medicine and chiropractors are the biggest movers. The top five movers also include hepatologists, adolescent medicine specialists, and geriatricians. (Editor’s Note: Aerospace medicine? In case you’re wondering, physicians in this area are responsible “for the determination and assessment of the health, safety, and performance of persons involved in air and space travel” – go to the Aerospace Medical Association for more information.)

Meanwhile, diabetes specialists are the least likely to move and thus most stable. Other physician segments in the bottom five are orthopedic reconstructive surgeons, plastic surgeons, dermatopathologists, and pediatric critical care specialists.

The report ranks 88 specialties by their annualized change rate and is based on telephone interviews by the SK&A Research Center with about 224,000 medical practices representing about 650,000 physicians. SK&A has sorted the data in two ways: alphabetically by physician specialty and by move rate. The full complimentary report is available for download from SK&A.

Tags: move, physicians, ranking, representatives, sales, SK&A