Medical affairs drives many essential functions within medtech organizations and contributes significantly to broader organizational goals and improving patient care. However, some facets of medical affairs such as medical communications and inquiries don’t always get the attention necessary to ensure meaningful, evidence based HCP engagement. A medical information and publication leader at a global medtech, shares how his team optimizes medical communications and inquiries to ensure product confidence and strengthen relationships.
The core of a strategic medical affairs ecosystem
Medical affairs acts as the bridge between science, medicine, and business. But within that ecosystem, many roles often go unrecognized—from clinical trial managers and regulatory writers to medical information teams and data analytics specialists. The medtech has actively integrated these functions to ensure that clinical insight is not only gathered but shared across the organization and with healthcare professionals (HCPs) in a meaningful way.
The medical information and publication leader highlights that a key element for their Medical Affairs team is a robust literature repository with more than 70,000 publications.. This library supports both internal needs and external HCP inquiries, equipping medical affairs with evidence-based responses that are easily accessible ensuring fast, compliant responses. “It’s about responding strategically. Every HCP interaction is an opportunity to build trust—and if we don’t have the right answer ready, we risk damaging both confidence and relationships,” says the medical information and publication leader.
“It’s about responding strategically. Every HCP interaction is an opportunity to build trust—and if we don’t have the right answer ready, we risk damaging both confidence and relationships.”
–Medical Information and Publication Leader, Global Medtech
Delivering scientific value
The medtech’s medical communications function includes two integrated teams: one for medical information and one for scientific publications. Together they support the entirety of the product lifecycle, from literature reviews and scientific document approvals to conference abstracts, poster sessions, and full manuscript development.
To ensure success, they take a proactive approach. The team maintains publication panels that bring together practicing clinicians and key opinion leaders who create guidance documents to shape future clinical guidelines. They also work with KOLs to publish their use cases to have HCPs educating other HCPs organically. In one case, a plastic surgeon developed from a first-time presenter into a faculty editor of a major journal publishing use cases and research data, with the medtech’s long-term support to help shape his research, publications, and professional profile. The leader shares that “medical publications are our source of truth, they are what our commercial teams use to demonstrate evidence. Not just data on file, but peer-reviewed proof.”
“Medical publications are our source of truth.”They are what our commercial teams use to demonstrate evidence. Not just data on file, but peer-reviewed proof.”
–Medical Information and Publication Leader, Global Medtech
The team’s commitment to compliant communication is evident in every process, from strict internal review procedures to clear workflows for solicited and unsolicited HCP requests. All scientific content, whether shared internally or externally, is managed through and governed by legal, regulatory, and medical reviews. “One of the very important things that we do is scientific document reviews and approval. Everything that we produce has to go through an internal approval process.” they share. “Veeva MedComms is where it’s all reviewed, and just by having that particular system for us to go back and see a history of something similar has been extremely helpful.”
“One of the very important things that we do is scientific document reviews and approval. Everything that we produce has to go through an internal approval system. Veeva MedComms is where it’s all reviewed, and just by having that system for us to go back and see a history of something similar has been extremely helpful.”
– Medical Information and Publication Leader, Global Medtech
The medtech is also introducing AI tools to analyze large government documents and surface relevant literature faster to continue cutting time off of traditional workflows and increase efficiency. Dashboards help the team respond quickly to market needs, including tenders and HCP requests, while ensuring full compliance.
Expanding impact of Medical Affairs
Although the organization has seen great success with their medical affairs processes, they are always looking to improve. Medical affairs is seeking to gain more funding to broaden the impact of their efforts and to be brought in sooner in product development. With growing recognition of the strategic role of medical science liaisons (MSLs) and a more collaborative relationship with clinical operations, medical affairs is growing into a proactive, data-driven, and impact-measured function, contributing and maintaining a growing, compliant library of scientific content to drive success throughout every stage of product lifecycles.
To learn more about optimizing medical communications and managing medical inquiries, see the Veeva Medical Suite for MedTech.
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