KeyOps brings together pharma and physicians for quick data gathering

Toronto-based start-up KeyOps has created an online platform that enables pharma companies to interact with physicians online, instead of the old-fashioned method of time-consuming lunches, dinners and off-site presentations and Q&A sessions. By alerting physicians to online surveys, which they can complete in a matter of minutes, doctors gain extra dollars in compensation and the pharmaceutical companies obtain valuable insights from key influencers.

Company CEO Peter Doulas noted that it’s important for the pharmaceutical companies to gain feedback from doctors about how their therapies are being used and how they might further support clinicians and patients. Communicating with physicians also helps them learn about the competition and how they might improve their own performance.

“After a drug is released, for example, pharma companies want physician insights,” said Doulas. “It’s important to continuously monitor the therapeutic landscape and physicians are in the best position to offer pharmaceutical companies on how to improve.”

However, in recent years, doctors have been overwhelmed by their patient workloads, paperwork and the problem of balancing their personal lives with their professional careers. They just don’t have time for meetings with companies – even using Zoom or Teams – that take hours away from their schedules.

“With KeyOps, we created a solution that’s empathetic to this problem and hassle free,” said Doulas.

Indeed, KeyOps was the brainchild of two Toronto-based physicians – Dr. Sam Elfassy (a gastroenterologist) and Dr. Saeed Darvish-Kazem (a cardiologist) – who realized a better solution was needed. They teamed up with Doulas, a long-time Microsoft executive with experience in launching and growing startups, and Darren Anderson, who brought over 25 years of pharmaceutical expertise to the founding team.

Since 2020, the company has grown to 22 employees and recently raised $4 million in seed capital. The company works with numerous pharma and medical device companies, including Biosyent, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi Canada, and Becton Dickinson and Company (BD).

They’re reaching physicians across Canada, and they’ve begun marketing the system to doctors in the United States, along with additional pharma and medical device companies. “We’re working in about a dozen different therapeutic areas across Canada, and we’re expanding into the United States,” said Doulas.

The system provides substantial benefits for physicians and companies.

“The physician logs into the dashboard, and sees which opportunities are available, along with the honorarium that goes with it – usually $100 to $200,” said Doulas. They can complete the survey in about 10 minutes at their desktop or even on the go using their mobile device.”

The surveys are targeted at various kinds of clinicians, such as GPs, oncologists, dermatologists, gastroenterologists and other specialists, and offer questions germane to their areas of expertise.
For example, a dashboard for dermatologists – at the time this article was written – included questionnaires about atopic dermatitis and skin cancer.

After completion, the payment is processed within a few hours, while a face-to-face meeting would normally take weeks to process.

Meanwhile, the pharma and medical device companies that posted the surveys can see results in real-time, as the survey is picked up by clinicians, and they can analyze the data in many ways – comparing results by province or over time.

So, a company could run a similar question in three different surveys, for example, and then compare the responses.

“That kind of analysis could normally take a research company months,” said Doulas. Using KeyOps, the answers are obtained in days or even minutes.

To do so, the system makes use of artificial intelligence, something that Doulas says differentiates KeyOps from its competitors. “We’re the first in the market with this,” he said.

KeyOps also benefits from a strong management team. With two physicians on board, the company can quickly check on whether its surveys and outreach methods will appeal to doctors.

“They’re able to tell us a lot about the software, whether it’s easy to use and how best to engage the physician community,” said Doulas. “They also provide us with their medical expertise.”

Doulas commented that the KeyOps solution is particularly useful for companies that want fast insights. In future, the company will expand its reach to physicians south of the border. As well, KeyOps is looking at solutions that connect drug companies with pharmacists.

“There have been a lot of regulatory changes in the pharmacy sector,” said Doulas. For example, many provinces are expanding the scope of practice for pharmacists, enabling them to diagnose patients and prescribe therapies as well as dispensing them. The KeyOps platform could provide drug companies with more information about how pharmacists plan to adapt to these changes.