TGA stakeholder survey 2016
TGA business services portal
TGA Business services portal - Use
More than 80% of the responding sample highlighted that they use the TGA business services website (Table 34). Around one in four respondents were regular users of the site, accessing it either about once a week (6%) or more than once a week (19%) and just under one third (32%) used the site less than once a month.
Table 34: TGA Business services website - Frequency of use
| Frequency | % |
|---|---|
| Never | 19% |
| Less than once a month | 32% |
| About once a month | 12% |
| Two or three times a month | 10% |
| About once a week | 6% |
| More than once a week | 19% |
| Not sure | 2% |
n= 2391
Use of the site varied markedly across stakeholder categories (Table 35), with those identifying in the medical products industry and government categories least likely to highlight that they never use the Business services website. Despite this difference, use of the site was consistently high across all self-identified groupings. This is likely to partly reflect the large cross over across these groups, with many respondents identifying in multiple stakeholder categories. Frequent use (once a week or more often) of the site was highest amongst those in the medical products industry (30%) and community (28%) groupings. In contrast, where they used the site, tetailers and academics tended to do so on an infrequent basis, with 50% of retailers and 44% of academics highlighting use Less than once a month.
Table 35: TGA Business services website - by stakeholder category
| Category | Never | Less than once a month | About once a month | Two or three times a month | About once a week | More than once a week | Not sure | n |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Health Professional | 23% | 37% | 9% | 9% | 6% | 14% | 3% | 445 |
| Medical Products Industry | 15% | 30% | 13% | 11% | 7% | 23% | 2% | 1622 |
| Community | 20% | 34% | 9% | 5% | 6% | 22% | 5% | 65 |
| Retailer | 21% | 50% | 11% | 8% | 2% | 4% | 4% | 169 |
| Government | 14% | 35% | 28% | 12% | 9% | 0% | 2% | 57 |
| Academic | 23% | 44% | 12% | 9% | 2% | 8% | 2% | 144 |
| Media | 0% | 0% | 50% | 0% | 0% | 33% | 17% | 6 |
| Other | 23% | 29% | 14% | 7% | 6% | 18% | 3% | 403 |
Within the medical products industry, regulatory affairs consultants appeared most likely to use the site, with only 5% identifying in the never category and three in four (75%) highlighting access at least once a month. Industry association representatives also showed high use of the site, with 64% identifying use at least monthly and only 11% never using the site. Product sponsors also showed high use, although this was less frequent than other groups. Product manufacturers showed generally lower overall use, with one in five (20%) indicating they never use the site and less than half (45%) using it once a month or more often.
Frequency of use, in particular in the most frequent use categories of once a week or more, was also strongly with the number of employees of companies working in the medical products industry (Figure 36). These frequent levels of use were lowest in smaller companies and rose to their highest levels amongst companies with 100-599 (52%), 600-699 59%) and 1000-1499 (58%) employees.
Figure 35: TGA business services website - Frequent use (Weekly or more) by employee numbers (Medical products industry)
Community respondents showed varied levels of usage of the site, with consumers (38% using the site once a month or more) and carers (25%) usage levels generally less frequent than other groups in this category (Table 36). Use was most frequent amongst health representatives or advocates, with more than half of this group reporting access to the site one a month or more often.
There was also varied use amongst health professional sub groups. Within this category, nurses, complementary healthcare practitioners and pharmacists all showed similar overall usage levels, with between 13% and 16% reporting that they never use the site. Around one in four dental practitioners reported never using the site, however where they did access it, these users tended to show more frequent use, with 59% reporting once a month or more frequent access. This level was above nurses (53%) and complementary healthcare practitioners (42%). The least frequent users in the health professional category were medical practitioners, with more than half (54%) reporting that they never use the business services site and only one in five (20%) accessing monthly or more frequently.
Table 36: TGA Business services website - Frequency of use by Industry, Community and Health professional categories
| Category | Never | Website use - Monthly or more often |
|---|---|---|
| Medical products industry | ||
| Product sponsor | 10% | 59% |
| Product manufacturer | 20% | 45% |
| Regulatory affairs consultant | 5% | 75% |
| Industry association representative | 11% | 64% |
| Other | 25% | 39% |
| Community | ||
| Consumer | 23% | 38% |
| Consumer health representative or advocate | 15% | 53% |
| Patient | 20% | 42% |
| Carer | 21% | 25% |
| Other | 14% | 49% |
| Health professional | ||
| Complementary healthcare practitioner | 14% | 42% |
| Dental practitioner | 24% | 59% |
| Medical practitioner | 54% | 20% |
| Nurse | 13% | 53% |
| Pharmacist | 16% | 34% |
| Other | 19% | 49% |
Reasons for use of the business services site most commonly related to lodging applications or checking the progress of applications.
Table 37: TGA Business services website - Reasons for use
| Response | n |
|---|---|
| Lodge an application(s) | 1437 |
| Check the progress of an application | 1287 |
| Vary or modify an application | 952 |
| Fees and charges information | 982 |
| Register with the TGA | 861 |
| Pay a bill or fee | 770 |
| Other, please specify | 170 |
Average 3.5 selections per user
TGA Business services portal - Satisfaction
Satisfaction with the business services website was generally strong, with 65% highlighting that they are either satisfied or very satisfied and just over one in ten (11%) showing dissatisfaction (Table 38).
Table 38: Business services website - Satisfaction
| Statement | Nett Dissatisfied | Very dissatisfied | Dissatisfied | Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied | Satisfied | Very satisfied | Nett Satisfied | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Website satisfaction | 11.4% | 2.2% | 9.2% | 23.3% | 56.9% | 8.5% | 65.4% | 1874 |
Satisfaction was highest amongst those in the medical products industry (70%) and retailers (65%) and lowest amongst health professionals (58%), government (55%) and academic (49%) users (Table 39). The varied levels of satisfaction where is likely to reflect the diverse information needs of these groups.
Table 39: TGA Business services website - Satisfaction by stakeholder category
| Category | Nett Dissatisfied | Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied | Nett Satisfied | n |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Health Professional | 14% | 28% | 58% | 327 |
| Medical Products Industry | 9% | 22% | 70% | 1342 |
| Community member, consumer or community representative | 14% | 24% | 61% | 49 |
| Retailer | 12% | 23% | 65% | 126 |
| Government | 26% | 19% | 55% | 47 |
| Academic | 23% | 28% | 49% | 106 |
| Media | 0% | 40% | 60% | 5 |
| Other | 16% | 25% | 59% | 297 |
Within the medical products industry, satisfaction was generally strong across all groups, with both high levels of satisfaction (68%-73%) and low levels of dissatisfaction (10% or lower; Table 40). The exception here was those who identified in the “other” grouping, where satisfaction was at 49% and dissatisfaction rose to 19%.
Consumer satisfaction with the TGA site was identified at 58%, with 14% showing some level of dissatisfaction. Patients and carers showed slightly higher levels of dissatisfaction 61% and 65% respectively, while consumer health representatives were generally satisfied (70% nett satisfaction) and showed low levels of dissatisfaction (9%).
Table 40: TGA Business services website - Satisfaction by Industry, Community and Health professional categories
| Category | Nett Dissatisfied | Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied | Nett Satisfied |
|---|---|---|---|
| Medical products industry | |||
| Product sponsor | 9% | 21% | 70% |
| Product manufacturer | 9% | 23% | 69% |
| Regulatory affairs consultant | 6% | 21% | 73% |
| Industry association representative | 10% | 22% | 68% |
| Other | 19% | 33% | 49% |
| Community | |||
| Consumer | 14.4% | 28% | 57.8% |
| Consumer health representative or advocate | 8.9% | 22% | 70% |
| Patient | 14.3% | 24% | 61% |
| Carer | 11.9% | 23% | 65% |
| Other | 25.5% | 19% | 55% |
| Health professional | |||
| Complementary healthcare practitioner | 10% | 21% | 69% |
| Dental practitioner | 8% | 33% | 58% |
| Medical practitioner | 19% | 28% | 53% |
| Nurse | 9% | 33% | 58% |
| Pharmacist | 8% | 29% | 63% |
| Other | 21% | 27% | 52% |
Within the health professional grouping, satisfaction with the site was highest amongst complementary healthcare practitioners (69%) and pharmacists. Dissatisfaction was low amongst most health professional categories, with complementary healthcare practitioners, dental practitioners, nurses and pharmacists all showing dissatisfaction with the site at 10% or less. However those who identified as medical practitioners and other health professionals showed low levels of nett satisfaction (53% and 52% respectively) and higher nett dissatisfaction (19% and 21% respectively).