Advancing medical strategy through scientific engagement and knowledge generation remains fundamental for the Medical Affairs department in pharmaceutical companies. Demonstrating the value they bring to healthcare and access systems by improving patients’ lives with innovative products is now indispensable.
Impact measurement is key to understanding the real value of medicine. The current Medical Scientific Liaison (MSL) approach should focus on the quality of interactions and the evaluation of both quantitative and qualitative metrics based on value creation and impact, surpassing traditional metrics. This change brings us closer to meeting the relationship and influence needs with opinion leaders and the scientific community.
MSL activity must start from a Medical Plan aligned with the medical strategy and demonstrate the objective impact of scientific interactions with external scientific experts over time. Measuring the change in opinion leaders’ mindset—evaluating their knowledge, attitude, and clinical behaviors—allows for assessing individual progression and demonstrating the value of established medical objectives.
The MSL medical engagement plan must be aligned with the medical objectives and scientific imperatives of the therapeutic area, which in turn align with the brand’s imperatives. It must include segmentation of key opinion leaders and institutions, strategic tactics, and the activities to be developed.
Feedback and Omnichannel Interaction
Feedback during scientific interactions, whether in-person or digital, allows for evaluating the quality of activities and their influence. To optimize results, it is essential to connect all communication points with key opinion leaders (KOLs) through different channels, not only being omnichannel but also integrating with the scientific communication plan. The CxQ (Customer Experience Quotient) allows us to measure healthcare professionals’ perception of their interactions with the MSL, based on relevance, simplicity, and trust.
Insights and Decision Making
Optimized management of medical insights provides valuable information about the healthcare environment, unmet needs, and medical decisions. These insights must be actionable and impact the medical strategy. Interpretation and analysis through artificial intelligence improve the impact on decisions, support product development, and add cost-efficiency, benefiting patients.
Interdepartmental Collaboration
Transparent communication with commercial teams allows for identifying areas of opportunity in medical education and scientific communication. This response from the medical areas must be agile and effective, allowing us to maintain our scientific commitment.
Conclusions
Addressing current challenges requires a diligent and initiative-taking approach from medical affairs teams, including MSL, for effective decision-making that generates real value for all involved in the healthcare ecosystem.
Medical affairs must continue to rapidly and nimbly incorporate impact assessment metrics to add value to interactions with healthcare professionals, and specifically with key opinion leaders, and ensure that their analysis organically influences medical strategy.
There is no single path to achieving the strategic impact of MSL within the Medical Affairs department. Leveraging diverse communication channels, building trust in the scientific role of MSL, and connecting with business areas are essential to achieving this goal, along with leveraging new two-way digital communication opportunities and AI tools.
Disclosure: The author is an employee of Sanofi and a Member of the Medical Affairs Professional Society. The ideas discussed in this manuscript belong to the author and do not represent the views or endorsements of his employer.
About the author:
Yanier Coll Muñoz, MD, MBA
Yanier has more than 10 years of experience in the healthcare industry. He has held various leadership positions, including Clinical Research Associate (CRA), Medical Advisor, Medical Scientific Liaison (MSL), Medical Manager, and Medical Operations and Excellence roles in the pharmaceutical industry. A specialist in cardiology, he is a full member of the Mexican Society of Cardiology.
Yanier holds a master’s in business administration from the International University of La Rioja (UNIR) and specialized diplomas in Pharmaceutical Marketing from Anahuac University in Mexico and Applied Statistics from the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico. Additionally, he earned a Master of Science with a specialty in Medical Emergencies from the University of Medical Sciences of Villa Clara in Cuba.
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