Pharma has never had more ways to reach doctors, yet trust hasn’t followed.
Australian doctors gave the pharmaceutical industry a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of −68 in the AusDoc BIG Doctor Survey in 2025. More than seven in ten were detractors and just 4% were promoters. Fewer than one in six rated pharma’s trustworthiness as good or great.
More channels won’t close the gap: just 9% of doctors want more online engagement options from pharma.
So how can digital become the way for pharma to rebuild? By delivering utility rather than broadcast. Here are six shifts the data supports.
1. How can pharma remove patient access barriers?
The single thing doctors most want pharma to do more of is support patient access to medicines: 47% chose it, ahead of education. When two medicines are clinically equal and PBS listed, patient support tips the balance for 23% of doctors, more than three times the 7% swayed by a rep relationship.
Asked to describe a time pharma helped them care for a patient outside the norm, nearly half of the doctors who shared a story described access:
- Compassionate supply,
- Bridging until a PBS listing, or
- Help for patients who couldn’t afford the treatment.
Yet finding these programs too often depends on a rep visit, however 43% of doctors say they see reps rarely or never. If a doctor doesn’t know a program exists, their patient can’t benefit from it.
“Early access to Cardiomyopathy drug – patient avoided a heart transplant!”
What good looks like: make access and patient support programs easily discoverable and on demand. Eligibility, enrolment steps and contacts in one searchable place, available the moment a doctor needs them in a consult, within Medicines Australia Code requirements.
2. What content do doctors actually want from pharma?
Doctors don’t have an information shortage. They have a filtering problem.
Their top unmet needs are:
- Guidelines for patient management and treatment (57%)
- Key takeaways from the latest trials, papers and congresses (51%)
- Product and prescribing information rank far lower, at 15%
The content that earns attention does the reading for them:
- What changed
- What it means for practice
- What to do differently on Monday
“Clear communication and honest relevant concise information.”
What good looks like: guideline summaries, congress wrap-ups and treatment flowcharts that respect a ten-minute consult, scannable on mobile, clinically framed, and clearly labelled as sponsored where they are.
3. How do doctors want to receive accredited education?
Education is the second thing doctors most want from pharma, chosen by 39%, and a third want more accredited learning activities (33%).
How they want to learn is split almost evenly:
- Sponsored events and conferences (34%)
- Online webinars (32%)
- In-person rep visits (31%)
All rank as preferred ways to hear about new medications. Doctors don’t want to choose between formats; they want the one that fits their working schedule.
What good looks like: run accredited education across formats such as face-to-face events, live webinars and on-demand modules, so a doctor can complete it between sessions, after hours or at a conference.
One program, many ways in.
4. Show up where doctors already look
When doctors want to learn about new medications and indications, they go to:
- College and professional society updates (54%)
- Clinical publications (52%)
Pharma-owned channels barely register: pharmaceutical advertising at 8% and pharma websites at 3%.
The problem is fragmentation. Samples, access programs, patient resources and product updates sit across dozens of company websites, portals and rep conversations. Doctors need one place to find them, inside the platforms they already trust.
What good looks like: bring services to where doctors already are. AusDoc Samples & Services, for example, lets doctors request samples and support from multiple companies in one place.
5. What patient resources do doctors want from pharma?
One in three doctors wants more resources and tools to share with patients (33%). It matters commercially as well as clinically: patient choice is the second-biggest tipping factor between two clinically equal medicines, cited by 54% of doctors.
Doctors are being asked to explain more in less time. Digital removes the friction of the brochure stand: resources can be found on demand, downloaded, printed, emailed or texted to a patient, and updated the moment the evidence changes.
“I’d like pharmaceutical companies to provide clearer evidence-based education, create practical resources for patients…”
What good looks like: plain-language, disease-focused resources in formats doctors can use in the moment (print in the consult, share by email or SMS, or show on screen) while staying non-promotional and within TGA advertising rules.
6. How can pharma reduce doctors’ administrative burden and give time back?
Administrative burden is doctors’ number one frustration, named by 54%. More than one in four spend 10 or more hours a week on non-clinical and admin tasks (26%). Every pharma touchpoint lands in that context: anything that adds to the load is resented, anything that lightens it is remembered.
AI is the obvious lever, and doctors are open to it. More than a third expect AI to improve their workload over the next five years (36%), and 15% want pharma to support them with AI and technology in clinical practice.
What good looks like: design every digital asset to save time, such as one-click PBS authority and access information, pre-filled patient resources, and help adopting tools that cut admin. Not clinical decision-making delivered by a sponsor.
Why is utility the strategy for pharma digital engagement?
The six shifts share one test: does this help a doctor care for a patient, or does it just reach them? Doctors have told us clearly which they reward. Pharma doesn’t need more channels. It needs fewer messages that each do more.
AusDoc reaches more than 67,000 AHPRA-verified doctors in an independent Australian clinical environment, and offers sponsors three ways to put these shifts into practice:
- Medical education: Accredited learning delivered face-to-face, live and on-demand.
- Hosted content: Guideline summaries, congress takeaways and patient resources, clearly labelled as sponsored and published alongside trusted clinical news.
- Advertorial eDMs: Access programs, PBS changes and support services delivered to a verified audience, with the room to explain them properly.
The door isn’t closed. Doctors are telling pharma exactly how to open it.
Contact Us:
Ready to give doctors less noise and more help? Talk to our team about putting these six shifts to work for your brand, with a verified audience of AHPRA-verified Australian doctors.
About the research
The findings in this article are drawn from:
- AusDoc BIG Doctor Survey 2025:
- n = 1,430 AHPRA-verified Australian doctors across general practice and specialties.
- Question-level sample sizes vary because respondents could skip questions.