With over 90% of KOLs looking to medical teams as partners in achieving the best patient outcome, now is the time to measure strategic influence
With continued investment and innovation boosting therapeutic options available for niche diseases, staying up to date on the latest scientific evidence and guidelines remains a challenge for healthcare professionals (HCPs) and scientific experts. HCPs have 75% more assets per indication than ten years ago. Medical affairs teams are uniquely positioned to partner with HCPs and experts to drive medical education and sift through the mountains of scientific data and information at their fingertips.
A recent Veeva survey of 50 U.S. key opinion leader (KOL) oncologists showed that the majority (92%) find scientific exchanges between experts and biopharmas increasingly important. More than ever, HCPs and KOLs are looking to medical teams to be their partners in achieving the best patient outcome. This means providing experts with current and accurate information to support their education, treatment decisions, patient discussions, and peer-to-peer knowledge sharing.
As HCPs and KOLs seek more frequent scientific interactions, medical affairs are gaining a more strategic role. A modern approach to measuring medical impact is crucial to medical team’s growing value and influence in advancing complex treatment decisions. This can better demonstrate medical’s role in driving business outcomes as it becomes the third strategic pillar alongside R&D and commercial.
The state of measurement today
Measuring medical impact is evolving from traditional subjective approaches. Tying in quantitative measures with qualitative factors, teams have historically gauged impact through the number of interactions with KOLs, the actions taken after each engagement, and the insights that resulted in a follow-up action.
Yet, weighing the impact of scientific exchanges can take longer periods to materialize since MSLs educate on emerging treatments that take time to show a benefit for patients. This makes it difficult to compare contributions with other data-driven parts of the organization that can easily track sales-based metrics.
With the lack of an industry-standard approach, measuring impact varies from one organization to another and is often based on size, disease area, and regulatory oversight. According to Veeva’s 2023 survey with the MSL Society, there is a lack of consensus between field medical teams and global medical managers. Managers feel the primary key outcome metric of field teams should be indications of change in clinical practice (31%) or capturing insights to improve future engagements (25%). Whereas MSLs believe it to be the strength of relationships (24%) followed by insights (22%) and knowledge transfer (18%).
Medical teams now have an opportunity to become more data-driven, moving beyond traditional activity metrics and tapping into new impact measures closer to the patient.
Translating medical’s true value
To unveil medical’s important value across the industry, medical leaders can start by standardizing metrics that reflect the field’s overarching goal: changing medical practices to advance patient outcomes.
Taking a holistic approach can help overcome the complex topic of measurement. By setting a framework built on simple measurements that track desired outcomes at various stages, medical teams can establish a foundation for translating value. As teams grow and expand their influence, each stage (or module of the framework) can build in complexity as the desired outcomes become more intricate and require more complex analytics.
With this new medical impact model, teams can unlock their true impact on the industry and tie key outcomes to business goals. This model, developed with industry medical leaders, highlights seven pillars in measuring medical value:
- Operational effectiveness
How effective is the medical affairs organization? - Valuable relationships
How well are key stakeholders connected to the organization? - Targeted education
Is the information shared closing knowledge gaps? - Actionable insights
Are insights helping inform the organization and changing behavior? - Scientific belief alignment
How aligned are customers to the company’s scientific statements? - Clinical practice optimization
Are clinical care gaps and unmet needs being resolved? - Improved patient outcomes
How much are patients benefiting from receiving the right treatment?
Teams can start measuring what is most relevant, providing flexibility to adapt to current organizational needs. Ultimately, a strong foundation and operational backbone are key to success. Taking time to establish best practices and ways of working in the earlier modules will lay a solid groundwork that will help measure impact over the long term.
From supportive to strategic
Making the case for a new impact model will further medical teams’ role and influence, especially regarding budget, decision-making, and strategic leadership. This guiding framework is a starting point and can help teams map their journey to create incremental successes and build on them.
Measuring medical impact is challenging, but it’s achievable and critical for the future of medical affairs. By taking this step forward, MSLs can start to make connections that show impact and apply insights to ongoing scientific education that advance the ultimate goal of improving patient outcomes.
About the author:
Christoph Bug, MD, PhD, MBA
Accomplished pharma expert with a passion for Medical Affairs, believing that strong Medical functions make companies more successful AND improve patient outcomes.
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