Information Flow Chart

Freelance reporters are the "eyes and ears" of the Grassroots Research Group (GRG) of investment company Dresdner RCM, a part of the giant German insurer Alliance, whose clients' assets are valued at nearly one trillion euros. Misha Derkavski, GRG's director, says journalists have played a significant role in creating the company's healthcare analyst reports for nearly 20 years.

"They gather information simply by talking to knowledgeable sources who are not related to the financial industry," he explains. "That includes practicing physicians, clinical investigators, and other healthcare providers."

"The drug's growth slowed a bit at the end of the fourth quarter," says Vose, "and there was some concern about whether that was the beginning of a trend or just an anomaly. So we talked to nephrologists to see if they planned to use more or less Renagel, if their use had plateaued, and how they felt about a competitor entering the market within the next year."

Vose, Derkavski, and Michael Dauchot, lead healthcare analyst at Dresdner, all say they go to great lengths to avoid journalistic bias in designing surveys and reviewing reporters' results. But it's unlikely that reporters involved in GRG maintain objectivity when they are bombarded by information from the very companies whose products they're assigned to research. Reporters' choices of survey subjects-doctors and other prescribers who may have been influenced by corporate PR and marketing campaigns-may be biased and may exclude subjects with different perspectives of the product or company.

Nevertheless, the Dresdner team says, trusted management contacts provide them with insights into companies that often reveal problems and difficult issues. That doesn't mean it won't recommend investment in a company with problems. In fact, if a company has a proven track record and its leadership has been honest and open about those problems, it may still fall into the "buy" category.

Derkavski says that, by reconciling the views of doctors, managed care providers, and pharma companies, they can better assess the complex interplay of forces affecting the industry. That philosophy, says NRP's executive vice-president and general manager Nancy Rueth, captures the future of corporate and product communications in which the media is part of the process, not just a target for information.