Because medical science liaisons require a unique combination of scientific expertise and soft skills to successfully interact with key opinion leaders, the effectiveness of MSL on-boarding and team development is a perennial topic of interest. I have been an MSL at Sanofi since 2018 and took on one of the two hybrid MSL/field trainer positions on my team in 2021. This hybrid role could also be viewed as a best practice, as it affords my counterpart and me the opportunity to keep our finger on the pulse of MSL needs and desires through continued KOL engagement and other MSL responsibilities.
Additionally, this role also allowed me to join and, in 2023, lead an internal group of field trainers from across Sanofi specialty care. This group meets virtually every month and has also held a full-day live meeting in 2022 and 2023. I believe that the best practices and lessons learned from my own experience as a trainer and from my colleagues in other therapeutic areas would be of use for anyone involved in MSL team development.
At the last live meeting in 2023, all eleven attendees completed a survey to characterize their teams’ approach to training and their own work as trainers. Regarding on-boarding, all trainers were involved in MSL certification. Most were also involved in MSL skills/soft skills training, disease state training, creating or maintaining a training schedule, and field readiness (Fig 1). The MSL on-boarding period generally lasted three to four months. MSL certification generally consisted of presenting a slide deck, a question-and-answer session and/or roleplay scenarios.
It is also interesting to note that the group was divided as to whether “MSL certification” was the same thing as “field readiness.” For instance, some teams used certification to confirm that the MSL-in-training had gained adequate disease-state and product expertise, after which they would complete a series of field shadowing visits to learn more about soft skills and compliance rules. By contrast, other teams included field shadowing opportunities and MSL skills training alongside disease state and product training, meaning that certification at the end of training was the last barrier before the MSL could work independently in the field.
Speaking of surveys and MSL skills, one process implemented on my team has been to meet with each newly certified MSL to gather feedback on the on-boarding curriculum and ideas on future team development. So far, thirty-one MSLs have been surveyed, resulting in action items reported to the leadership team at least twice a year. This feedback has led to new initiatives such as recording a five-part podcast series on best practices when attending a medical congress and tweaking the curriculum by aligning the pre-work for didactic training and incorporating more verbalization sessions across different disease-states.
Most significantly, repeated feedback requesting more soft skills training led to the development and implementation of an “MSL Skills” curriculum, a bi-weekly series drawn mainly from one-off workshops previously completed with the team at live meetings. The full curriculum is outlined in Table 1 and emphasizes active learning, including breakout groups, role playing, or games. The curriculum was also designed to be both relevant and timely. For instance, the first session focuses on what the MSL-in-training would need to know before shadowing with certified MSLs in the field. Additionally, several key documents are reviewed including targeted topics, which are approved critical questions to ask KOLs that are aligned with the yearly medical objectives, as well as the Sanofi handbook for medical and clinical personnel and the technology guide for various systems including Veeva, the customer relationship management tool at Sanofi. All members of the first class of MSLs who attended the MSL Skills series were polled after completion. Feedback was positive, with suggestions for future topics or the opportunity for MSLs to attend again if requested.
To conclude, MSL training is a complicated process that varies widely between teams and encompasses everything from on-boarding, to certification, to on-going team development. However, MSL team trainers can benefit from receiving feedback both from their team and from trainers across their business or even from other companies to learn about best practices. Just as personalized medicine has become a hot topic across the pharmaceutical industry, personalized MSL training can benefit teams and lead to the creation of new, useful initiatives that enhance team learning and effectiveness.
About the author:
Rebecca M. Call, PharmD
Rebecca Call is a Field Medical Science Associate Director – Training on the Sanofi US Medical Affairs Rare Diseases team. She joined Sanofi in 2016 as a PharmD fellow, completing a two-year postdoctoral program, and ultimately joining her team as a medical science liaison in the Mid-Atlantic region in 2018. She has been in her hybrid training role since 2021. She remains committed to supporting the fellowship program on her team, becoming a fellowship preceptor in 2018 and fellowship program director in 2024. Her work allows her to focus on her passions within medical affairs, including developing and maintaining relationships with external stakeholders as well as supporting adult learning and up-skilling on her team. She is based in Richmond, VA and enjoys cooking, hiking and international travel.
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