Since its inception, the use of medical affairs expertise has significantly increased. The experts largely consist of medical science liaisons (MSLs) who liaise with KOLs as their unbiased, scientific partners. They also help pharma companies understand the unmet needs of these stakeholders, thereby enabling refinement of strategies. According to the benchmarks developed by the ZS medical affairs team, KOLs value their engagements with MSLs: Prior to the pandemic, engagements between KOLs and MSLs were predominantly face-to-face, lasting for an average of 30 minutes each—far longer than engagements with sales reps. During the pandemic, these engagements shifted predominantly to virtual; despite this big disruption, some of these engagements lasted for even an hour. This firmly establishes the important role that MSLs continue to play.
These benchmarks indicate the increasing need for pharma companies to scientifically engage with their customers and, therefore, for more robust medical affairs teams. It is also an indication of the strong need to focus on the most critical aspect of their interactions: customer-centricity. Increased demand for customized scientific information has made medical affairs groups vital during the pandemic. These groups must now engage with a wider variety of stakeholders than in the past, and more stakeholders means diverse information needs—thus adding to the complexity of the MSL role. Customer-centricity from a medical affairs perspective is often dealt with subjectively—and on an as-needed basis—instead of using a comprehensive framework that defines the pillars of customer-centricity for field specialists.
Three-pillar framework of customer-centricity
Following a rigorous data-driven approach, the ZS medical affairs team has identified three key pillars for a customer-centric framework. These pillars help understand the evolving stakeholder needs and the breakdown of what KOLs consider important. The three pillars for a customer service framework include scientific acumen, responsiveness, and communication and collaboration
- Scientific acumen
The scientific expertise of MSLs serve as a key element that drives customer-centric discussions with a KOL, making it the first pillar for the framework. Typical topics vary according to the KOL’s needs and interests, product lifecycle, emerging trends, latest data releases and other factors. The pandemic further shed light on the need for scientific expertise on additional topics that KOLs lack, such as information on drug interactions between COVID-19 and ongoing medications. MSLs possess this type of scientific acumen, bringing a different perspective of the data to KOLs. That said, while KOL interactions are important, MSLs should also focus on interacting with nurse practitioners, physician assistants and other healthcare professionals.
- Responsiveness
In order to be successful, MSLs must build relationships with KOLs, setting the ground for a long-lasting impact for their own organization. Responsiveness is key here, making it the second pillar for the customer-centric framework. The sudden shift to virtual engagements this year has been most successful in places where MSLs had already established scientific relationships with KOLs. Therefore, as we move toward a hybrid engagement scenario in the future, the depth of scientific relationships will play a key role in ensuring sustained engagements with KOLs.
- Communication and collaboration
MSL training programs should emphasize the need for a strong customer-oriented mindset and open communication among MSL teams and leadership. The lack of face-to-face interactions due to the pandemic has increased the need for communication and collaboration. During the past six to eight months, MSL teams and leadership have experimented with different engagement tactics—such as shorter and more focused virtual discussions—to enable efficient dissemination of scientific information and effective coverage of a desired topic. Such tactics will help KOLs transition smoothly and effectively to the new normal that will come with communicating and collaborating.
The medical affairs experience and expertise used to define the three-pillar customer-centric framework came from data derived from more than 100 medical affairs clients and 60 customer-oriented studies. These studies provide an extensive overview of evolving medical engagement dynamics, emerging medical roles, the triggers driving these changes and growing customer needs. The findings illustrate that the KOLs see MSLs as their true scientific partners critical to gathering the data they need to make key decisions and be scientifically well equipped. Moving forward, the definition of customer-centricity will further evolve as traditional MSL and KOL relationships continue to develop further. This will form the crux for developing and building scientific engagement plans to cater to the next wave of changes in the pharma industry.
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