Surveys are a method to collect primary data from a sample of a population and typically apply a standardised questionnaire through in-person interviews or options for self-reporting with postal mailings or electronic communication (e.g. open-source web applications). These may be supported by audio computer-assisted self-interviewing (A-CASI) tools or interactive voice response systems (IVRS). The choice of the most suitable data collection approach will depend on the target population characteristics, the disease and the treatment characteristics, and the type of information to be collected.

For a healthcare professional survey, participants may be recruited from web panels and member lists of professional or learned societies. For patient recruitment, prescribers or pharmacists may be best placed to identify patients in the relevant clinical setting, and existing web panels as well as e.g. member lists of patient organisations may be considered.

Validated health measurement instruments (e.g. self-reported questionnaires or diaries running on interfaces such as hand-held devices or computers) may collect patient-reported outcome measures (PROM) and patient-reported experience measures (PREM).