No matter what the scale or subject of your research, securing the right participants up front can mean the difference between a smooth, insightful healthcare market research project or one more likely to take up hours of your valuable time or – worse still – one that leaves you with inconclusive or unusable results.

In our experience, the clearer you are with your healthcare market research recruitment supplier from the word go, the higher your chances of starting your project with the right complement of participants. So as a starter, here are ten points to consider:

As in just about every other sphere of our lives, technology has transformed market research, radically altering and improving both the quantity and quality of information researchers can access.

So if you’ve not considered using tech like smart watches, fitness trackers or video cameras in your patient market research before – or you’re looking to expand how you use it – here are five ways it can revolutionise the type and scope of information you can access.

You already know that market research online communities are becoming increasingly popular in the world of research. It’s pretty easy to see why – they’re fast, cost-efficient and deliver in-depth insights easily by enabling groups of people to voice their opinions in a safe and secure setting. We’ve got a feeling that it’s only a matter of time before the same happens in the healthcare sector.

The key to delivering in-depth insights in market research online communities lies in the tasks your respondents are set. Each task is created to gather insights, opinions and information – and in order to ensure your community is successful, you need to choose your tasks carefully. From using a variety of different formats to keep your participants engaged and encouraging them to think creatively to ensuring they meet the research objectives, read on for our five favourite tasks for healthcare market research online communities…

When starting any market research project, one of the first things you need to ask yourself is whether or not your sample size is achievable. After all, a research study can only be truly valuable if it is both reliable and representative of your audience. Selecting the ideal sample size can be tricky and should be based on solid statistics whilst at the same time being realistic for the size of the target market. That’s why it’s important to do your sample size research as early in your proposal stage as possible, to ensure you don’t have any problems with delivery further down the line.

What is reproductive medicine?

Reproductive medicine is a branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, diagnosis and management of disorders and diseases of the reproductive organs. It is estimated that one in seven couples – that’s approximately 3.5 million people in the UK – have difficulty conceiving, making fertility a really important area for medical fieldwork.

Ethnography is officially defined as’a qualitative research approach that involves relative submersion into the setting to be studied‘- or, to put it more simply, it’s when researchers observe participants in their own environment to learn first-hand their opinions and how they behave. With its roots in anthropological study, ethnography is helpful in a number of research areas, but especially so in patient market research because it allows researchers to get right to the heart of how patients think, behave and feel in an environment they are comfortable in. Ethnography gives the rich insights  you can achieve through traditional qualitative research but in a natural setting where participants can really open up – which can be incredibly beneficial when it comes to some of the sensitive subjects touched upon in medical market research.