IMS commercial effectiveness services team unveils comprehensive review, to date, of physicians and chemists in India

IMS Health, the global provider of information, technology, and services for healthcare, unveiled the IMS Health Physician and Chemist Census, India’s largest-ever collection of market intelligence on this stakeholder group.

The IMS Health Physician and Chemist Census covers 120 cities (metro and non-metro) and includes rich insights into over 3.73 lakh doctors and 99,000 chemists across multiple parameters. The scope of information will help maximise the commercial and strategic potential for pharmaceutical, consumer health, medical devices and diagnostic companies. It will also provide critical insights for government policy-makers to develop better policies and a stronger healthcare infrastructure in India.

At the announcement of the census, Amit Backliwal, Managing Director, IMS Health – South Asia, explained, “This census helps close important information gaps in the healthcare value chain in India. Our commercial effectiveness services team will use these new insights to enable stakeholders across healthcare to make better-informed decisions and to sharply increase the ROI from their commercial strategies. In addition, government and public bodies will now be armed with the market intelligence they need to design more relevant, more targeted programs that drive superior health outcomes.

The census reveals a number of new insights about physicians and chemists across India, particularly about the relative density and coverage of services across the country. For instance, the cities of North India account for 31 per cent of doctors in the country, but only 28 per cent of the country’s population resides there, highlighting the extent to which these cities are over-served by the healthcare system. On the contrary, East and South India have a significantly lower density of GPs (non-MBBS) compared to the Indian average.

A look at specific areas reveals some surprising realities regarding the distribution of doctors in India:, Cities in Kerala have emerged with the lowest doctor density in India, while Haryana has the highest doctor density. Furthermore, the data gathered points to an alarmingly low doctor density in rural areas. The IMS Health Physician and Chemist Census also reveals that 44 of the top 120 Indian cities are below the global median of 1.2 doctors per 1000 population, while 76 cities are above this benchmark.

Similar insights are found across the chemist population: Around 42 per cent of chemists in India are concentrated in the top nine most populated cities and 29 per cent of chemist sales are performed without any prescription. Significantly, the census finds that 37 per cent of chemist outlets are attached to doctor clinics, polyclinics, hospital facilities, and nursing homes.

Explaining the rationale for such an extensive census, Kumar Hinduja, Senior Director, Strategic Planning, IMS Health India said, “With this census, our experts from commercial effectiveness services will now be able to better help various healthcare stakeholders expand their knowledge and understanding about the dynamics that exist in India’s doctor and chemist population. Ultimately, this census will help identify over- and under-served regions and enable the healthcare system in India to run much more intelligently.”

EP News Bureau – Mumbai