An SMO network running 10 to 50 sites across multiple states has a physician outreach problem that is structurally different from a single-site operation. Each site has a different geographic footprint, a different therapeutic area focus, and a different physician referral network. Physician outreach that works in Atlanta does not automatically translate to Denver. A centralized approach that treats all sites identically misses the geographic variation. A fully distributed approach where each site independently runs its own outreach is operationally fragmented and expensive to manage.
SMO networks that have solved this problem typically use a hub-and-spoke model: centralized physician identification and list building at the network level, with site-specific outreach sequences deployed at the local level using each site's contact information, PI name, and therapeutic area focus.
The Centralized Identification, Local Outreach Model
NPI-based physician identification scales well at the network level. A centralized team can run geographic queries for each site's address and relevant therapeutic area simultaneously, producing physician contact lists segmented by site geography. Each site receives a list of physicians in their specific area to contact — not a network-wide list, but a geographically precise list relevant to that site's patient market.
The outreach sequences are then deployed using each site's contact credentials — sent from the local coordinator's email address or the local PI's name — maintaining the relationship authenticity that physician outreach requires. Centralized tracking records which physicians have been contacted, which have responded, and which have referred patients, preventing duplicate outreach and maintaining a network-wide view of physician engagement.
Cross-Site Referral for Multi-Site Studies
For studies running across multiple network sites simultaneously, physician outreach can be coordinated to route patients to the most geographically convenient site for the patient while still crediting the outreach to the site that generated the physician contact. A physician in a market between two network sites can be contacted by either site — or by the network centrally — with the patient routed to whichever site is closest once a referral is made.
This approach maximizes physician coverage across the network's geographic footprint and reduces the physician-to-enrolled-patient conversion time for the patient, since they do not have to travel to a site that may not be the most convenient option.