Supporting Medical Affairs excellence
In these key areas of expertise:
- Strategic planning -
Serving as the foundation for effective decision-making, Medical Affairs strategic planning enables alignment of medical objectives with organizational goals. By identifying key opportunities, challenges, and timelines, and prioritizing initiatives to address these, Medical Affairs can most efficiently allocate resources – be they human, financial, or technological. No longer a once-yearly exercise, it is a living process whereby frequent assessment permits agile adaptation.
- Digital transformation -
Integration of digital tools and services is fundamentally changing how Medical Affairs operates. No matter the size of the organization, digital transformation is a key investment in operational efficiency, and thus value delivery to both internal and external stakeholders. Whatever the end user profile, understanding their current and future expectations for performance of the Medical Affairs technology stack is key to successful digital transformation.
- Patient partnering -
The Medical Affairs function is at the forefront of a revolution in patient partnering. As the function is empowered to engage external stakeholders such as patients, patient advocates, and caregivers across the product development life cycle, Medical Affairs is uniquely positioned to partner with these groups on a variety of activities. This ensures that product research and development are aligned with their requirements and expectations, elevating true patient centricity.
- New product launch -
New product launch is a critical activity in which Medical Affairs plays a central role, both strategically and tactically. Commonly defined by pre-, peri-, and post-launch timelines, Medical Affairs bolsters success with action and engagement across each of these. Launch planning integrates multiple simultaneous workstreams: stakeholder partnering, communications and education initiatives, data and insights generation, team expansion, and much more.
- Stakeholder engagement -
Medical Affairs’ engagement remit is growing. In addition to their cross-functional partners, Medical Affairs teams compliantly engage a range of external stakeholders. These include patients and advocates, policymakers, professional societies, payer systems, physicians, nurses, and other allied healthcare professionals. Only with intentional and targeted strategy is it possible to effectively engage these audiences and derive insights from such exchanges.
- Medical communications -
Medical communications is a multi-faceted workstream through which Medical Affairs disseminates scientific and clinical data to diverse stakeholders. It fosters informed decision-making, by ensuring that disease state and medical product information is conveyed, without bias, through a variety of channels. Continuous improvement of medical communications capabilities, notably via digital innovation practices, reinforces clarity, consistency, and compliance in messaging.