The terms “efficacy” and “effectiveness” are often used interchangeably. But when evaluating health technologies (e.g., drugs, vaccines, diagnostics, devices), their meanings have crucial differences. Efficacy concerns the question, “Can it work?” That is, can a novel technology improve health outcomes under ideal conditions in an experimental design? Randomized … [Read more...]

Introduction: Medical Science Liaisons (MSLs) thrive on meaningful work that addresses patient care decision-making as supported by scientific data and published literature. Below, we demonstrate this impact and how a field-based inquiry evolved into a large-scale project with multiple engagement points and broad utilization. The Need: Despite a health care professional's … [Read more...]

As a seasoned professional, life has given me several opportunities for challenges and successes. I want to share a few pearls of wisdom I gained during one of the most challenging times in my professional career and personal life with the intention that I may provide hope for others. Having earned a PhD in Neurobiology and Anatomy at Wake Forest University and completed … [Read more...]

The primary function of medical advisory boards is to provide consultation to the company on core topics of high interest related to the product. The strategic output sought at an advisory board will likely vary based on the phase of the product in its life cycle, which could include: a pre-launch advisory board to assess the clinical development program (what the data … [Read more...]

At the start of the pandemic, April 2020, I was offered my first medical liaison role. I had been a Hematology/Oncology Physician Assistant for 13 years and was excited to start my new career in Medical Affairs. Adapting to virtual onboarding and virtual scientific engagements, were some of the barriers that I encountered in my job transition. Prior to COVID, my favorite … [Read more...]

Introduction  I took a sustainability and corporate social responsibility course during my Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Arizona State University. The focus of the course taught by Dr. Reynold Byers was on profitability, increasing a firm’s sustainability, social responsibility, and the triple bottom line: people, planet, and profit (PPP). For a class project, … [Read more...]

After attending the MSL Society’s 9th annual conference in Las Vegas in December 2021, I took some time to reflect on various inquiries our team received about how to effectively step into the MSL role from a clinical, academic, or research background. The industry is a tough nut to crack, but it is absolutely possible. The true keys to breaking into the MSL role are … [Read more...]

A drug pipeline is the set of drug candidates held by a pharmaceutical company that is collectively going through discovery or under development at any given point in time. A drug pipeline may be restricted to a particular therapeutic area (TA), drug class, or extended to the drug discovery process; research and development pipeline (R&D). Pharmaceutical companies usually … [Read more...]

Medical Affairs Advisory Board Equation: MSL + VAB = OEE    Medical advisory boards, which are comprised of a range of different stakeholders (e.g., external experts, healthcare professionals [HCPs], payers, patient advocate groups, patients, and pharmaceutical attendees), have been utilized by biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies for many years to challenge thinking … [Read more...]

Relationships are the backbone of not only humankind, but they are also an imperative element of our roles as MSLs.  The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines relationship as “the state of being related or connected”, and research shows our brains respond positively to people when we feel a personal connection with them.  Relationships play a vital role in both our personal and … [Read more...]

As trusted subject matter experts, Medical Science Liaisons (MSLs) play a central role in capturing and disseminating insights to external and internal stakeholders. However, even amid the digital transformation of Medical Affairs, there are heavy manual burdens to bear. Presently, there are more heterogeneous sources, where insights are collected across teams in many different … [Read more...]

The engagement of key opinion leaders (KOLs) is critical for pharmaceutical companies to develop their clinical research programs and for strategic planning. Historically, identifying KOLs has relied on personal recommendations as well as tools and services that aggregate metrics about the impact of a researcher. While such approaches have been adopted widely and proven … [Read more...]

Medical science liaisons (MSLs) are vital resources to execute industries’ medical strategies and deliver insights from the voice of the scientific and healthcare community. Peer-to-peer engagement supports the education of scientific exchanges with the medical community to ultimately improve patient outcomes and therapeutic decision-making. MSLs are the field force of the … [Read more...]

Attending medical conferences and intelligence gathering are important activities for most Medical Science Liaisons (MSLs). In fact, a recent global survey conducted by the Medical Science Liaison Society (MSL Society) found that globally 97% of MSLs attend medical conferences while 85% participate in gathering insights (1). Historically, intelligence gathering and deepening … [Read more...]

To my esteemed colleagues who took time out of their day to listen online to the webinar session entitled, “Achieving Effective KOL Engagement and Intelligence Gathering at Medical Conferences”. First, gratefully acknowledge your interest and attendance. Like any good educational session, our webinar was planned with clear learning objectives in mind. Based on some of your … [Read more...]

The scientific landscape and the ways in which we share and view evidence continue to change at a very rapid pace. Key opinion leaders (KOLs) are interacting with and educating colleagues, patients, and the general public in new ways, and the methodologies that we use to evaluate our engagement with them have also evolved.  As MSL teams -- and the levels of their visibility -- … [Read more...]

Medical science liaisons (MSL) have become one of the most prominent roles in the healthcare industry. While once existing as mostly a background role supporting the commercial end of pharma and life sciences companies, MSLs are now on the forefront of operations, strategy and execution. They are no longer just educating and informing doctors – they are accelerating medical … [Read more...]

As medical affairs leaders, we are always thinking about the development needs of our teams, however, in talking with many leaders across organizations, there is consistently very little focus on people leader development needs.  As we consider how vital it is to invest in our staff to help them advance their competencies, growth should not end when one moves into … [Read more...]