With growing workforce pressures, choosing a healthcare-dedicated community has never been more important.
According to OECD, the European healthcare system is facing challenges that mirror those in Australia. The report Health at a Glance: Europe 2024 show that EU countries are already short of an estimated 1.2 million doctors, nurses and midwives. In addition to this, more than a third of practising doctors are aged over 55, and many are nearing retirement. These pressures mean that healthcare professionals are stretched thinly, and researchers increasingly need quick, reliable access to expert insights to keep projects moving.
In healthcare market research, the quality of your findings depends entirely on the quality of the experts you recruit. Yet not every expert network is designed with healthcare in mind. Choosing the wrong consultants can delay your project, create compliance risks, or undermine the value of your data. So how do you know if a dedicated healthcare panel is right for your study?
Here are some practical points to consider.
- Do you need specialist physicians in a particular therapy area?
- Are you looking for key opinion leaders who can give a strategic view?
- Or is your priority to hear from niche patient groups that are harder to reach?
Being precise about your scope helps you see straight away whether the expert network panel has the right depth in healthcare. A generalist network that offers coverage across many industries might look impressive on paper, but if healthcare is only a small part of what they do, it may not be able to deliver the quality you need, or the depth of insight about the market that can save money and time.
In healthcare research, trust and compliance matter. Always ask:
- How are experts verified?
- Are their identities, qualifications and areas of specialism checked?
- Is there regular monitoring to make sure standards are upheld?
A reliable panel will have robust processes to offer reassurance on their panel quality and will be able to evidence their approach and the technologies they deploy, e.g. facial identification AI. Without this assurance, you risk wasting time on conversations that may not stand up to scrutiny.
Step 3: Ask about turnaround times
- Can the panel connect you with the right experts within a few days, or even as quickly as 24 hours?
- Do they commit to timelines for consultations?
Panels that are built specifically for healthcare usually have an advantage here. Because experts have already chosen to take part, they are ready to respond quickly rather than being recruited on demand. The size of the panel is important. The more experts a panel has that are already recruited and engaged, the faster they’ll respond to invitations, and it’ll be more likely that there’s experts already on the panel that match your criteria.
- Keep their pricing clear and straightforward
- Charge per interview or service
- Do not add hidden extras
This makes projects easier to plan and ensures you pay for value, not overheads.
- Strong compliance procedures
- Secure handling of sensitive information
- Clear ethical guidelines for how experts take part
If these safeguards are not in place, you may be exposing your organisation to unnecessary risk. You also need a supplier that is mindful of reporting requirements around adverse events, for example. Choosing a healthcare-specific panel means that none of this will be new to them – you’ll be in safe hands.
Perhaps the most important point is that not every expert network is suitable for healthcare research. A panel designed to cover many different industries cannot match the depth, speed or compliance of a community that is dedicated to healthcare professionals.
When you are choosing a panel for your next healthcare project, keep this checklist in mind. And when you are ready to start your next expert network project, know that ekas and M3 Experts can deliver.
