Menu
Close
.svg)
Over the weekend, I stumbled across a term I hadn’t heard before: polywork. It popped up in a Fortune article about tech workers holding down multiple jobs at once -- sometimes even five gigs a day. As a bit of a logophile, I paused. Polywork. A new label for something that’s clearly on the rise. But as I kept reading, I started thinking: this isn’t just a tech-world phenomenon. In fact, I’ve been hearing echoes of it for years, just in a very different context.
Because if you work in pharma marketing research, you’ve likely had a respondent casually mention that they “split time” between a hospital, a private practice, and maybe even a correctional facility. And they sometimes will ask: during today's interview, which one do you want for me to focus on? Importantly, these aren’t just different physical locations. They’re fundamentally different jobs -- with distinct treatment protocols, decision-making processes, and care delivery models.
In healthcare, polywork is (or at least seems to be) very common. I'm not exactly sure what proportion of HCPs hold multiple positions, but if you talk to doctors on a regular basis like I do, you hear about it qualitatively a lot.
It’s built into how our system operates.
Infectious disease specialists are a prime example: they consult on complex inpatient cases in hospitals or cancer centers, run outpatient clinics, and sometimes even provide care in public health (i.e., FQHC) or correctional settings. Each of those “jobs” requires a different clinical mindset, a different toolkit, and a different decision-making framework. And each addresses different disease states and patient types.
For us as researchers, that means when we’re trying to understand how an HCP might evaluate or adopt a new product; or react to a promotional piece or set of messages, we need to ask: Which hat are they wearing right now?
In qualitative interviews, we’ve all heard insights that don’t quite align -- until the HCP clarifies, “Oh, I was talking about my private office, not the hospital.” That distinction can mean the difference between a new product being readily prescribed or stuck in a P&T committee for six months. We need to build in time and tools to map out all the roles a respondent holds and anchor their responses to a particular setting.
And in quantitative research, context is just as critical. If we don’t segment by practice setting, or ask respondents to differentiate their answers based on where they’re practicing, we risk muddy data and misleading conclusions. The barriers to adoption in a major academic tertiary care hospital are not the same as those in a PE-owned private office, or a community health clinic.
Understanding HCP polywork isn’t just a research nuance -- it’s a strategic advantage. When insights teams bring that level of clarity and specificity to the table, brand teams can develop more targeted messaging, MSLs can prep for more relevant and impactful conversations, and patient support programs can be tailored to the actual workflows providers are juggling.
So next time a respondent mentions their “day-to-day,” take a knee and ask them to unpack it. You might find you’re not speaking to one physician -- rather to three or four, all in the same conversation.
