An expert system to physician-detailing planning
In the pharmaceutical industry, the main components in determining physician-detailing plans are strategic physician-population segmentation, data driven sales-response functions of physician prescribing behavior, and an optimization algorithm for sales call allocation. Using data mining technology in neural networks coupled with non-linear programming, this paper proposes an expert system to effectively allocate sales-force resources for single-product physician-detailing planning. The result shows that this adaptive and easy-to-implement system helps decision makers to outperform the standard industry practice1 by 10% in profit gain.
neural networks non-linear programming physician detailing promotional-response function