Mock Call: Discovery with a Busy Pulmonologist

The scenario

Dr. Marcus Oduya, a respected, evidence-minded pulmonologist who is practice-first: he cares about what a therapy will do for his COPD patients day to day, especially keeping his frequent exacerbators out of the hospital. He is responsive and fair, not hostile, and he does NOT quiz reps on trial design or statistics — he asks what a study means for his patients. He won't volunteer his frustrations unless the rep asks good, genuine discovery questions about how he manages his panel.

You're meeting Dr. Oduya during a scheduled visit at his pulmonology clinic. He manages a high volume of COPD patients, a large share of them elderly and Medicare-covered, and a meaningful subset are frequent exacerbators who keep cycling through moderate-to-severe flare-ups. You have not yet had a real conversation with him about how he treats these patients today — part of your job on this call is to find that out. Prior-interaction thread: on your last visit he was cordial but rushed and asked you to "come back when you have something that actually moves the needle for my hard cases." You are bringing the LUCID-COPD story, but he has not seen it and will not know the study by name. Open by learning how he manages his frequent exacerbators before you position anything.

Expect these pushbacks