HCP consent collection for pharma companies

HCP consent collection is the process by which pharmaceutical and life sciences companies obtain explicit, documented permission from healthcare professionals such as doctors, pharmacists, and nurses before contacting them with promotional, medical, or educational communications. Under GDPR and ePrivacy regulations, this permission must be freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous. Without a valid consent record, pharma companies cannot legally send digital communications to HCPs in Europe.

Real-time consented data capture means that every opt-in or opt-out from an HCP is immediately recorded and automatically synchronized across all connected systems including CRM platforms like Veeva and OCE, email platforms, and digital channels. Rather than manually updating consent records after the fact, changes are processed instantly the moment an HCP gives, updates, or withdraws their consent. The result is that your entire team always works from accurate, up-to-date, and compliant HCP data with no manual effort and no risk of acting on outdated consent.

Consent can be collected in many ways. A representative of the company can ask for consent during a visit or a meeting, an HCP can fill in a webform, consent can be obtained during a phone call, etc. Regardless of the channel used, it is important that the consent process is thorough, respectful, non-coercive and compliant with relevant regulations and standards.

These can be various channels such as the field force, digital channels such as socials media, websites, congresses, webinars but also paper letters. Most important is that you gain prior consent before you can use it in line of the purposes of consent.

Consent management is typically done by organizations who collect and use personal information. They can use tools such as consent management platforms (CMPs) to help obtain and manage consent from individuals, comply with data privacy regulations and provide detailed information about data collection practices. It is important that the organization has a clear understanding of their legal obligations under data privacy regulations and that they have appropriate processes in place to obtain and manage consent in compliance with those regulations.

It is the explicit permission of the owner of the individual data to use the personal data for certain purposes such as promotional communication

Typical requirements:

Freely Given: Consent must be given voluntarily, without any pressure or coercion. For example, users should not be disadvantaged if they choose not to give consent.

Informed: Individuals must be fully informed about the identity of the organization, the purpose of data processing, the type of data collected, and their right to withdraw consent. This information must be presented in clear and accessible language.

Specific: Consent must be specific to the purpose of data processing. If data is processed for multiple purposes, consent must be obtained for each one separately.

Unambiguous: Consent must be given through a clear affirmative action, such as ticking a box or clicking a button. Pre-checked boxes or implied consent are not allowed.

Consent management can seem like a big hassle and additional work that can be alleviated if there’s no consent management platform in place and the consent management process is just ignored, right?

Yes,

The solution benefits for you:

HCP Consent auditability: All Healthcare Professional (HCP)  opt-ins and opt-outs are automatically captured and verified in accordance with (local) data protection regulations related to consent. You do not need to rely solely on just checkboxes in other systems, such as CRM.

High scalability: Consent can now be easily collected using digital consent forms, which significantly reduces your reliance on sales representatives in the consent management process and enhances your outreach through digital channels.

Seamless connectivity: The process of consolidating and synchronizing HCP consent data between systems is now automated, minimizing manual input and reducing the potential for errors.

Improved data quality: Consent data is now always up to date, as it is stored in a central repository where incoming and outgoing consents are checked for duplicates. This ensures that each HCP record is accurate and up to date, minimizing it to one correct entry.

Drivers for these campaigns are knowing where your customer is, defining the channels where the customers resides to capture and collect optins, making appealing content to optin, designing easy consent forms that are compliant with data protection rules, having a central repository where all mutations are captured right, complete and timely.

Personal data, as defined under laws like GDPR, refers to any information that can directly or indirectly identify a living individual. This includes:

• Direct Identifiers: Obvious information such as name, email address, phone number, or social security number.
• Indirect Identifiers: Information that, when combined, could identify someone, like IP addresses, location data, or cookie identifiers.
• Special Category Data: More sensitive information, such as health records, religious beliefs, political opinions, or genetic data.

Essentially, if a piece of data can identify a person, it’s considered personal data. Proper handling of such data is crucial for maintaining privacy and compliance with regulations.