It’s bad news for kids, but not so much for parents, doctors or sales reps
The words “Back to school” may be disheartening to kids, but not to their parents or their pediatricians. And to med/surg distributors, back-to-school represents an opportunity to prepare their customers for flu season and vaccinations.
“Regular history and physical exams including back-to-school checkups … provide a chance to make sure a child is healthy, and catch and treat any newly discovered medical problems sooner rather than later,” says Jennifer Shu, MD, FAAP, Atlanta-based pediatrician and author, and spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics. “These visits are an excellent opportunity for children to receive adjustments or refills for medicines, such as asthma inhalers, or to make adjustments in their lifestyles, which can positively impact their health. When possible, it’s best to have these visits at your child’s ‘medical home’– that is their usual pediatric office where the physicians are familiar with the child’s health history.”
“From a clinical standpoint, the general practitioner will tell you that the back-to-school checkup is one of the most important tools they have for treating school-age children,” says Josh McCreary, field sales consultant for Henry Schein in the Kansas City metropolitan area. “As they see them through the years, they build a medical history, so they can spot patterns or identify risks to that child’s health. Those checkups help them identify milestones and guide the children toward a holistic view of health.
“Of course, financially, the back-to-school checkups are beneficial for the practice,” he adds.
The checkup
“All kids should have an annual checkup, whether it’s right before school starts or anytime in between school years,” says Shu. The goal is to check whether the child is healthy enough to go to school and participate in activities, and that no new medical conditions have appeared since the last visit. In addition to measurements such as height and weight and vital signs (such as blood pressure and heart rate), depending on a child’s age, diagnostic testing may include screening for vision, hearing, cholesterol, anemia, scoliosis and more. “These checkups are a great time to get any recommended vaccines,” she adds.
Today, pediatricians are watchful for such challenges as “lack of sleep due to early school days and late homework and activities, an increase in the use of electronic devices inside and out of school, and the possibility of a more sedentary lifestyle in kids where PE is not required at school or who don’t have much physical activity outside of school,” says Shu. “Pediatricians can help identify each child’s specific challenges and provide guidance to families for improvement.”
They also use the back-to-school checkup to assess a child’s emotional and social well-being as well as any safety risks that need addressing, says Shu. “In the past 10 years, mental health has become more of an issue in back-to-school checkups. Pediatricians can help students and their families navigate through learning difficulties such as ADHD as well as mental health concerns, such as anxiety.”
Vaccines, diagnostics
Sales reps are seeing signs of a shifting emphasis by pediatricians as well.
“I’ve seen the vaccine business grow exponentially,” says McCreary. “As early as mid-July, we’re starting to see an enormous spike in vaccines.” That’s particularly true among proactive practices, that is, those that take the time to plan and execute communication and marketing campaigns before school starts.
Today’s back-to-school visit “isn’t just about a stethoscope and blood pressure cuff,” adds McCreary. “A lot of kids are coming through the door with diabetes, prediabetes, high cholesterol – chronic conditions that begin in pediatrics.
“The American Academy of Pediatrics now recommends cholesterol screening for these kids. That’s why the diagnostic side has gone up pretty significantly.”
Reps should consider back-to-school time as an opportunity to let customers know that they care about what’s important to the customer, McCreary adds.
“Focusing on doing well in back-to-school in that July-to-September period can really help enhance your one-on-one relationships with customers, and align yourselves – and dental professionals – with the dental industry’s goals of improving access to care. If you go in, talk to the practice, help them run a successful campaign and bring in patients, you are helping the doctor, the practice and the patient,” McCreary adds.
Manufacturers can help, adds McCreary.
“We all like education – end users, doctors, practices and sales reps,” he says. “We like to be educated on changes that have occurred in the past year.” Manufacturers can alert their sales reps to changes in their vaccines or in vaccination protocols, and their reps can pass that knowledge on to the distributor rep. “They might suggest, ‘You might want to remind your doctors that certain vaccination guidelines have been changed. The same is true with things like cholesterol screening. Even though the doctor might already have gotten information from the American Academy of Pediatrics or elsewhere, it always helps to reinforce the education.”
Back to flu
For one manufacturer – Roche Diagnostics Corp. – “back to school” means back to flu season.
“The beginning of the school year means that flu season is right around the corner, so one of the most important considerations for a physician practice is how best to prepare for the demands of respiratory illness testing and patient management,” says Jason Dukarm, group marketing manager, point-of-care, cobas Liat & Channel Marketing. “It can put significant stress on a practice’s resources, especially if we have another flu season like last year’s.
“There is new technology available for the point of care that enables a physician to move beyond the ‘flip of a coin’ diagnostic uncertainty of many rapid antigen tests and gain the confidence that goes along with lab-quality molecular testing,” says Dukarm.
Molecular testing for flu, strep and RSV benefit the practice and patient several ways, he says.
“First, it provides significant benefit for patients in knowing that when an antibiotic is required, such as for a diagnosis of Strep A, treatment can begin immediately. Second, physicians can avoid prescribing unnecessary and ineffective antibiotic therapy for patients who don’t have a bacterial infection, which until the advent of molecular testing, needed to be confirmed via bacterial culture, often delaying patient care by as much as 24 to 48 hours.
“The 2017-2018 flu season caught many people by surprise in terms of its severity, and that painful sting is still fresh in many people’s minds. To equip their customers for success, reps should encourage practices that are in need of more innovative testing methods to make that transition now, versus waiting.”
Roche has partnered with a number of its distributors to provide field demo incentives with the intent of driving activity today that benefits them tomorrow, says Dukarm.
“Many practices are very set in their ways in terms of their work processes. The move to molecular testing does require change management in terms of setting staff expectations. However, distributor reps who have a firm understanding of a practice’s testing and patient workflow through a standard office visit will best be able to service their accounts with optimal solutions and ease their implementation experience as well.”