Overview
Invasive fungal infections (IFIs) present important challenges for healthcare professionals, particularly in diagnosis, treatment decisions, and clinical management. Understanding these challenges can help identify gaps in current practices and opportunities to improve patient care.
A survey conducted between July and August 2024 gathered insights from clinicians across India involved in the diagnosis and management of IFIs. The initiative focused on understanding diagnostic approaches, treatment preferences, delays in antifungal therapy, and patient-related factors that influence clinical decisions.
The survey engaged healthcare professionals across six specialties: hematology, infectious disease, intensive care, microbiology, oncology, and transplant medicine and surgery.
Campaign Approach
The initiative adopted a digital survey-based approach to gather clinical insights from healthcare professionals involved in managing invasive fungal infections.
The key communication channels included:
- Mobile application
- SMS
The outreach targeted 16,490 healthcare professionals across India. The objective was to encourage participation from relevant clinical specialties and collect responses that could help identify challenges in IFI diagnosis and management.
To gather insights across a structured set of questions, the survey was divided into two parts, allowing the initiative to capture responses from clinicians through a coordinated process.
Methodology
The survey followed a structured methodology combining targeted HCP outreach, sequential questionnaires, and response analysis.
The process involved two surveys, Survey A and Survey B, each containing 10 questions. Survey A was conducted before Survey B, with the aim of ensuring that the same doctor attempted all 20 questions.
The survey targeted six specialized groups of healthcare professionals:
- Hematologists
- Infectious Disease Physicians
- Intensivists
- Microbiologists
- Oncologists
- Transplant Physicians and Surgeons
The initiative aimed to collect 300 quality responses to understand clinical practices and challenges related to IFI management. Digital platforms, email, and SMS were used to reach the target audience.
The collected responses were reviewed to understand participation across specialties, regions, years of professional experience, and healthcare settings.
Result
Between July and August 2024, the campaign generated substantial digital reach and collected responses from healthcare professionals across India.
The campaign achieved:
- Reach: 16,490 healthcare professionals
- Impressions: 71,206
- Clicks/Interactions: 5,942
- CTR: 8%
- Overlapping Survey Responses: 304
Survey A received 339 responses, while Survey B received 322 responses. After accounting for overlapping respondents, the survey recorded 304 responses from doctors who participated across both parts.
Intensivists contributed the highest number of responses, with 101 responses, followed by Microbiologists and Transplant Physicians and Surgeons, with 46 responses each.
Regionally, Maharashtra recorded the highest number of responses, followed by Delhi and Haryana. Most responses came from doctors with fewer than 10 years of professional experience, followed by those with 10–20 years and more than 20 years of experience. Private hospitals and institutions contributed more responses than government healthcare institutions.
The campaign also generated 71,206 impressions and 5,942 clicks, achieving an 8% CTR across its digital outreach channels.
Conclusion
The survey provided valuable insights into the challenges healthcare professionals face in diagnosing and managing invasive fungal infections in India. By collecting responses across six specialized clinical groups, the initiative helped highlight diagnostic practices, treatment approaches, and barriers that warrant further attention.
The combination of targeted digital outreach and structured questionnaires enabled the collection of 304 overlapping survey responses, offering a foundation for understanding clinician perspectives on IFI management.
Future survey initiatives can build on these findings through targeted follow-up, broader clinician participation, and continued efforts to understand clinical challenges. Such insight-driven initiatives can help identify opportunities to strengthen diagnostic and treatment practices and support better patient care.
