Academic detailing is interactive educational outreach to practitioners that delivers evidence-based, unbiased guidance directly to clinicians in their own practice settings. Our educators are pharmacists, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and physicians; they meet one-on-one with practitioners to discuss the latest evidence and best practices to inform optimal prescribing.

Alosa’s academic detailing approach has three components:
Systematic review of the evidence: All our materials are developed by nationally recognized physician advisors, who complete a thorough review of the latest clinical trials, professional guidelines and epidemiological studies.
b. User-friendly: The information is condensed and “packaged” into a format that is easily accessible, clinically relevant and designed for the busy clinician.
c. Interactive education: Our academic detailers use these materials to guide their  one-to-one presentations to clinicians, tailoring the sessions to each individual’s practices, knowledge, and preferences.

Since publication of the original research¹ on academic detailing (AD) in the early 1980’s, many randomized controlled trials have demonstrated that AD works in improving care for numerous clinical conditions in a wide variety of settings, from diminishing use of sedating medications in nursing homes² to reducing overuse of broad-spectrum antibiotics in a teaching hospital.³ A Cochrane review of 69 RCTs involving more than 15,000 clinicians found that AD visits have consistent, positive effects on helping prescribers make more evidence-based choices.⁴ A systematic review of AD interventions published in 2025 also supports the use of AD to bring about more evidence-based prescribing in a variety of clinical settings.⁵

Avorn J & Soumerai SB. Improving Drug-Therapy Decisions through Educational Outreach — A Randomized Controlled Trial of Academically Based Detailing. NEJM, 1983; 308:1457–63.

Avorn J, Soumerai SB, Everitt DE, et al. A randomized controlled trial of a program to reduce the use of psychoactive drugs in nursing homes. NEJM. 1992;327(3):168-173.

Solomon DH, Van Houten L, Glynn RJ, et al. Academic detailing to improve use of broad-spectrum antibiotics at an academic medical center. Arch Intern Med. 2001;161(15);1897-1902.

O’Brien MA, Rogers S, Jamtvedt G, et al. Educational outreach visits: effects on professional practice and health care outcomes. Cochrane Database Syst. Rev. 2007;(4):CD000409.

Rome BN, Dancel, E, Chaitoff A, Trombetta D, et al. Academic detailing interventions and evidence-based prescribing, a systemic review. JAMA Network Open. 2025;8(1):e2453684.

Yes, academic detailing (AD) can be cost-effective, since much non-evidence-based prescribing is also costly. An economic analysis of the original AD research found that for each $1 spent on the program, $2 was saved in Medicaid drug expenditures, without even considering savings for other insurers or for patients.¹ An economic study of an Australian academic detailing program aimed at reducing hospitalizations by improved prescribing of high-risk medications to elderly patients reported a $5 – $6 saving on direct health expenditure for each $1 spent delivering the program.²

Soumerai SB, Avorn J. Economic and policy analysis of university-based drug “detailing.” Medical Care. 1986;24(4):313-331.

Consultants CL. Drug and Therapeutics Information Service – Update of the economic evaluation of the NSAID project. Canberra:Australian Commonwealth Department of Health and Family Services; 1996.

Alosa Health offers a range of options for improving quality measures in chronic disease management such as diabetes, COPD, heart failure and opioid use disorder. Additionally, we develop tailored clinical topic materials upon request to meet the specific needs of our partners.

Examples include reducing the concurrent prescribing of opioids and benzodiazepines, improving the effectiveness of diabetes control, as well as preventing potentially harmful drug-disease interactions in older adult populations. These focused interventions support safer and more evidence-based prescribing.

It’s tempting to try and influence prescribing choices by simply sending clinicians memos, but evidence shows that these are usually ignored, and don’t reliably improve medication choices.  It’s possible to force changes in drug use by limiting what’s covered at the pharmacy, but this can often result in patients leaving empty-handed if they are told that the medicine their clinician ordered isn’t reimbursable.

By contrast, practitioners appreciate the chance to talk to a knowledgeable colleague about their own drug preferences; that also enables the academic detailer to identify prescriber-specific opportunities for education and behavior change.

Finally, at a time of major problems of burnout and difficulty retaining primary care clinicians, morale and commitment are increased rather than diminished by an approach marked by education and interaction rather than restriction.

Alosa’s trusted health educators can play a significant role in helping clinicians understand effective biosimilars to replace reliance on far more costly biologics that are no more safe or effective. We can offer unbiased, evidence-based, non-commercial information through one-on-one or small group interactive educational outreach. Our trained academic detailers—generally pharmacists, physicians, or nurses—meet directly with prescribers to discuss the latest research and clinical guidelines on biosimilars, including efficacy, safety, and regulatory considerations. They tailor educational messages to the specific needs and baseline knowledge of each clinician, encouraging active participation and addressing individual barriers to adoption. Finally, they reinforce key messages through follow-up visits, supporting sustained changes in prescribing behavior.

Post-visit surveys indicate that more than 98% of clinicians (surveys completed = 1,165) agree Alosa’s academic detailers deliver up-to-date, unbiased, evidence-based information that helps them enhance patient care, and 95% agree that these visits have impacted the way they make clinical decisions.

Reflecting strong approval, most clinicians invite our detailers to return with additional clinical and patient resources.

The US pharmaceutical industry spent over $20 billion for marketing directly to health care professionals. Of this, $5.6 billion was for prescriber detailing (mainly face-to-face visits), $13.5 billion for drug samples, and $979 million for direct physician payments.

1. Schwartz LM, Woloshin S. Medical marketing in the United States, 1997 – 2016. JAMA. 2019;321(1):80-96.

Alosa Health, its staff, and our core clinical and health policy advisors do not accept consulting fees from the pharmaceutical industry. This policy is fundamental to Alosa Health’s mission of providing unbiased, evidence-based clinical education and outreach to healthcare providers and policymakers. By maintaining this independence, Alosa can ensure that its educational programs and recommendations remain free from any commercial influence, supporting the delivery of impartial and trustworthy information to clinicians.

Academic detailing program costs are contingent upon the size and scope of the targeted intervention. Alosa has experience developing large-scale national programs spanning numerous states and focused projects for individual counties or cities. Each program is customized to address your unique challenges through tailored evidence-based content and training aimed at improving healthcare decision-making. Regardless of your project’s scale contact our Chief Operating Officer to explore how Alosa can support your goals.

Alosa Health’s training programs have been developed and refined over several years to equip professionals with the skills necessary to enhance providers’ medication prescribing quality and decision-making capabilities. Our collaborative efforts extend to national government healthcare programs, including the Veterans Affairs Academic Detailing Program and Indian Health Services, as well as regional health systems and medical groups such as Hospital Health Sisters and Atrius Health. We also partner with state public health training initiatives, including the Iowa Department of Health and the Massachusetts Health Policy Council. Furthermore, our reach extends internationally, collaborating with organizations like Canada’s Centre for Effective Practice (CEP).

As with choices among prescription drugs, choices among medication policies often come with extensive research about what works and what doesn’t, but those charged with making such decisions often don’t have the time to review all the evidence about each of the available choices. Alosa’s health policy team reviews the best current information on what works and what doesn’t in prescription drug policy options, and can discuss these options interactively with system-level decision-makers.

Leveraging the experience of Alosa’s core clinical advisors, topics are identified based on clinical impact, release of practice shifting guidelines, and pain points for clinicians and partners. With feedback from frontline clinicians and subject matter experts, we dive deep and grapple with challenging clinical questions to make prescribing recommendations based on the very latest clinical trials, professional guidelines, and epidemiological studies.

The resulting synthesis is distilled into a visually engaging discussion aid to facilitate change conversations. Additional materials are developed to support implementation of recommendations, including clinician pocket cards and patient teaching tools. A continuing education approved evidence document provides a deep dive into the evidence supporting the recommendations.

Alosa Health educational materials, web pages and training content have been carefully designed by our clinical advisors, medical writers and graphic designers with the goal of improving patient care. This content is protected by copyright and Alosa maintains authorization over distribution of these resources. We often grant licenses for our intellectual property, with terms depending on the specific resource, its intended use, and the desired length of use. Please contact us to learn about how this expertly designed clinical material can support your educational initiatives.