The primary purpose of the Medical Science Liaisons (MSLs) role is to provide value to Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs), in part, through the exchange of scientific information. In fact, the success of every MSL is based on their ability to add value to the KOLs they support! However, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a substantial impact on the activities of Medical Science Liaisons. As … [Read more...]

Employee mobility is high in the pharmaceutical industry, and Medical Science Liaisons (MSLs) frequently move between companies to advance their career prospects. The core competencies of the MSL role (namely, to be a therapeutic area (TA) expert and to develop peer-to-peer relationships with the Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) in that TA) are highly specialized, so attractive … [Read more...]

I’m always amazed at how well nature mimics our everyday lives. We live in a world where everything is so automated that we forget we’re innately organic. Our very being is rooted in our ability to influence the environment and create a positive impact. Showing up authentically as trusted medical affairs professionals and scientific partners is critical. The way we show up … [Read more...]

CTIS go-live is just around the corner. The new portal brings a new approach to clinical trials in the European Union: digitalization, improved efficiency, increased transparency, enhanced patient safety… and a huge adaptation process for sponsors and researchers. A lot of work is to be done right away! The European clinical trial scenario is about to undertake a major … [Read more...]

EMA and FDA define Real-World Evidence (RWE) as the information derived from the analysis of Real-World Data (RWD) about a medicinal product. RWD includes the data relating to a patient’s health status or the delivery of health care collected from various sources. These sources exclude traditional clinical trials, although FDA considers that hybrid or pragmatic trial designs … [Read more...]

In the Pharma Industry, one of the critical functions Medical Liaisons are responsible for is distilling and interpreting scientific data and communicating it to a broad audience of healthcare practitioners. Whether key opinion leaders (KOLs), payers, or policymakers, the ultimate goal is to communicate effectively to ultimately improve patient care; no one does that better! … [Read more...]

For decades, pharmaceutical firms have tried using different types of promotions to affect physicians prescribing behavior. This led to misconceptions related to pharmaceutical marketing practices and induced the need to unveil the true meaning of pharmaceutical marketing. Pharmaceutical marketing, as a sub-branch of marketing, evolved over the years from a more … [Read more...]

My journey as a Medical Science Liaison began a little over a year ago. Yes, you read that correctly. I completely changed my career during a pandemic. I was leaving the comfort of a position where I was an expert who directly managed home parenteral nutrition patients for a new career within the pharmaceutical industry. To say this was daunting, and frankly, a little scary is … [Read more...]

The way we communicate with others has evolved tremendously in the last few years, with digital channels, and in particular social media, becoming more and more prominent in our daily lives. Many industries, such as retail, are already harvesting the power of digitalization to gather insights from customers and share content. We see a similar trend in the healthcare sector, … [Read more...]

Advisory boards have long been recognized as a crucial component of the life sciences landscape and have been delivered almost exclusively in a traditional format, involving the face-to-face participation of the medical industry’s most sought-after opinion leaders. The travel and social distancing restrictions imposed as a consequence of COVID19 forced the Industry to pivot … [Read more...]

Field Medical/MSL Management, particularly in Europe, more often abandon the concept of “KOL Influence Networks”. The negative connotation of the term “Influence” and the practical challenges in determining “Influence” ( e.g. asking MSLs to fill CRM data fields with information on who is influencing whom, etc.) have always been pain points in the global “KOL Influence Network” … [Read more...]

The radiography of the role of a Scientific Liaison Physician was based in times ago on the one-to-one interactions that this professional had with the stakeholders, sharing relevant scientific information, new scientific data, updates from congresses, and academic activities, among others. Currently, a value proposition of the Scientific Liaison Physicians is aimed at … [Read more...]

Introduction The emerging role of big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries is indisputable.[1,2] While many larger pharmaceutical companies have teams in pharmacovigilance or marketing that monitor, collect, and draw meaningful conclusions from big data (extremely large datasets), medical affairs and field … [Read more...]

The COVID19 pandemic has impacted the MSL role and how they interact with KOLs. However, even in this dire situation, 53% of KOLs still consider face-to-face engagement with MSLs very important. Therefore, it is vital to effectively promote this engagement in an adapted way. The MSLs and the KOLs have to adapt to this novel situation, where face-to-face meetings are not always … [Read more...]