Ask About the Last Case: Recruiting EVAR Physicians for Real, Recent Experience
Ask a physician how they usually plan a case, and you get the textbook answer. Ask them to walk you through their last one, and you get what actually happened.
A manufacturer wanted to map how US physicians plan standard abdominal aortic aneurysm repair with EVAR: from requesting CT images to measurements, device selection, and the day of the procedure. It also wanted reactions to an outline of a concept for case-planning software.
The recruit was built around recent experience. Every physician had to have planned a case within the past 45 days and was asked to discuss their most recent cases in detail.
Other criteria:
At least two years post-fellowship
At least one aortic aneurysm device implant a month
About half using a competitor or multiple brands
Spread across the US
To test whether reliance on manufacturer support differed by setting, the sample was split between high-volume physicians in large or academic centers and lower-volume physicians in smaller community hospitals.
The final sample comprised 15 participants: nine vascular surgeons, three interventional radiologists, and three interventional cardiologists. Six worked in large hospitals, one in a medium hospital, and eight in small hospitals. Interviews lasted 60 minutes and were conducted by telephone and were blinded.
Anchoring the conversation in real cases brought out practical detail on case planning that could have been glossed over, such as the extent to which many physicians rely on company reps for measurements. That gave the client a grounded starting point for product development and for priorities for improving customer support.
