The role of the medical affairs (MA) professional continues to evolve. More than ever, it is becoming apparent that the availability of seemingly endless sources of data—from medical records, peer-reviewed research, and even social media posts—continue to drive that evolution. The potential positive influence of this abundance of data makes it increasingly important to take a closer look at how and why scientific communication platforms (SCPs) are critical to MA professionals and to the successful launch of any given medical product.

Setting the stage for scientific communication platforms

SCPs contain the clinically relevant diagnosis and treatment assumptions and beliefs that provide the foundation on which all medical communications are developed. These platforms are a core element of a company’s strategy and are essential for effective engagement of medical thought leaders by medical affairs and by commercial teams. With our exploding “data universe,” the development of effective SCPs has become an area of great change in the context of stakeholder engagement.

Science today is much more complex, especially with the existence of newer biopharmaceutical products. The complexity of this information requires an entirely different level of expertise on behalf of Medical affairs teams. MA teams help healthcare practitioners (HCPs) understand the core science that is driving the value of a particular product. As such, MA teams must become much more adept at managing and distilling the significant volume of data so that they can help HCPs understand which patients would benefit the most from specific new therapies.

But because there is such a wide range of data sources that can be utilized, MA professionals must identify the experts and thought leaders who are producing this data, as well as which of them are most aligned and most appropriate for engagement by the MA team.

Helping to identify thought leaders for medical affairs

The process begins with examining peer-reviewed publications, clinical trials, and conference presentations. Additionally, records of research grants awarded can enable MA teams to identify who is receiving funding for research in a specific therapeutic area. There are opportunities to understand who talks to whom and who seeks advice from whom when treating patients with a particular disease.

There also exists a wide range of claims data, prescribing data, diagnosis data, medical claims, and hospital claims which can generate the evidence needed to demonstrate product differentiation, healthcare resource utilization, patient outcomes, etc.

All these sources can improve the MA team’s understanding of not only who the experts are regarding a specific disease process, but how that disease is currently managed and where the unmet needs lie.

Early engagement with thought leaders should be top of mind

Armed with this information, MA professionals can and should engage even earlier with physicians, payers, and external scientific experts in a medical product’s development cycle.

However, this early engagement is not a universal occurrence. In fact, one of the most common mistakes companies make is not getting their MA teams to engage sooner. Often, these companies assume the marketplace understands the science and what the unmet needs are when neither of these are safe assumptions.

• where the unmet need lies,
• the current treatment practices,
• the current beliefs and assumptions that physicians have about the associated diagnosis,
• the management and treatment of the disease,
• the medical burden of the disease on the healthcare system, and
• the economic burdens on the patient and society at large.

Understanding all these factors early in the product lifecycle empowers medical affairs to effectively build the foundation for the product profile. Additionally, this early involvement means MA professionals can ensure that that the assumptions the company has made about the relative value of the product they’re developing is aligned with the assumptions and beliefs of the medical community.

Go beyond traditional thought leaders and their networks

It is critical for MA teams to understand not only how traditional academically based thought leaders (TLs) think about a disease, but also what the practicing physician assumes to be true about managing a patient with any given disease, because the truth is, there’s often a gap between those two audiences.

Far too many organizations assume that medical professionals in the field are going to understand the science and see the value of their product. Those assumptions need to be assessed as quickly as possible so the company can confirm that their messaging and their rationale for using their new product aligns with the beliefs and assumptions of the practicing physicians who are making patient treatment decisions. Those physicians might not be typically seen as the traditional TL, but they are the individuals seeing the actual patients and determining which medical products to prescribe.

The changing tide

Historically, MA listened to and answered questions from healthcare professionals about products already on the market. As time went on, MA professionals were able to anticipate and inform those HCP questions before they were even asked. Now, MA is positioned to shape and transform the dialogue with HCPs. MA professionals can do so by making sure that the organization they represent not only understands the fundamental beliefs and assumptions that exist in the medical community, but are also aligned with those assumptions and beliefs about treating the disease based on the scientific evidence.

In doing so, MA teams will help their companies formulate their SCP statements. They need to ensure along the way that those platform statements are aligned with the medical community’s view of their product’s targeted disease.

It all comes back to the data

Currently, there are companies that compile large healthcare data sets and leverage those data assets using advanced analytic techniques such as natural language processing (NLP). NLP does the heavy lifting of looking at how physicians and the medical community are talking about given diseases. The combination of big data, traditional primary research techniques that have been validated over the last 20 years, and advanced solutions such as NLP allow us to map out these communities to help companies determine

1. Whom to engage
2. How to effectively and efficiently distribute information that’s going to help doctors make the best treatment decision they can possibly make

The role of translator

Ultimately, a company’s responsibility is to make sure doctors and other HCPs seeing patients with any given disease know how to use a product, know who needs it, and know what to look out for if something goes wrong.

When it comes to medical affairs, the communication process via their SCP must go two directions—company to community, and community to company. Medical affairs becomes a translator for R&D and clinical research teams to the community. They must also take information from the community as to unmet needs in the community and where their product can add the most value.

Conclusion

Medical affairs continues to transition from an execution role to a more strategic one as it becomes critically important as the liaison between national and local thought leaders. Through the SCP, medical affairs professionals can use big data and advanced analytics to bridge the information gap, ultimately serving the best interests of the companies they represent as well as the providers and their patients.