Best Practices for Gathering and Distributing Insights within Medical Affairs Organization

Industries Profiled:
Pharmaceutical; Biotech; Biopharmaceutical; Communications; Manufacturing; Consumer Products; Diagnostic; Medical Device; Health Care; Chemical; Clinical Research; Laboratories; Science


Companies Profiled:
AbbVie; Adamas Pharmaceuticals; Agios Pharmaceuticals; Alcon Laboratories; ALK Abelló; Alkermes; Amgen Inc.; Amicus Therapeutics; Apellis Pharmaceuticals; ApotheCom; AstraZeneca; B. Braun Medical Inc.; Bayer; Becton Dickinson; Biohaven Pharmaceuticals; bioMerieux; Boehringer Ingelheim; Clovis Oncology; CSL Behring; Daiichi Sankyo; Eisai; Eli Lilly and Company; EMD Serono; Fidia Pharma USA Inc.; Genentech; Getinge; GlaxoSmithKline; Ipsen; Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc.; LEO; Lundbeck; Lupin Limited; Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals; Merck ; Merck KGaA; Merz Pharmaceuticals; Mesoblast; Novartis; Novo Nordisk; Nutricia; Orchard Therapeutics; Pfizer; Roche; SAGE Therapeutics; Sandoz Inc.; Sanofi; Sanofi Genzyme; Sanofi Pasteur; Santen; Servier; Sunovion; Takeda; TerumoBCT; Teva Pharmaceuticals; Thermo Fisher Scientific; Vertex Pharmaceuticals; ViiV Healthcare

Study Snapshot

Best Practices, LLC engaged 84 executives from 57 leading life sciences companies in this research. The study insights are mostly from directors and higher management executives, representing nearly 80% of the benchmark participants.

Benchmark data is broken down into three different segments to provide deeper insights. Classifications reflect their approach and standing on Medical insight generation:

• Insight Leaders (17 respondents)
• Insight Majority (56 respondents)
• Insight Laggards (11 respondents)

• Structure of Medical Insights and Dissemination Group
• Gathering Insights: Coordination, Activities and Tools
• Disseminating Insights: Tools, Activities and Effectiveness
• Insights Gathering: Training Techniques and Tools
• Innovative and Best Practices
• Actionable Insights and Intelligence Gathering
• Key Lessons Learned

• Insight Gathering Process and Its Effectiveness: Few conduct the Insight Process through a stand-alone group. Instead, they use various subfunctions to coordinate a slate of activities to ensure data is gathered and input into a system. They may choose to coordinate work across other inter-functional groups, often with limited success.

• Medical Affairs Insight Leadership: Most companies lean on Field Teams and Medical Strategy to lead the Insight process. However, leading organizations also have thought-leader management and operations step in as well.

• MSL Relationship Cultivation and Insights Harvesting: Thought-leaders, medical congresses and advisory boards are the most important data sources. MSLs and market access teams are seen as most effective for insight gathering.

Sr. No.	Topic	Slide No.
I.	Executive Summary	Pg. 4
	One-page Executive Brief	Pg. 5
	Segmentation Criteria	Pg. 6
II.	Insight Overview and Key Findings	Pg. 9
III.	Structure of Medical Insights and Dissemination Group	Pg. 14
IV.	Gathering Insights: Coordination, Activities and Tools	Pg. 34
V.	Disseminating Insights: Tools, Activities and Effectiveness	Pg. 63
VI.	Insights Gathering: Training Techniques and Tools	Pg. 72
VII.	Innovative and Best Practices	Pg. 76
VIII.	Actionable Insights and Intelligence Gathering	Pg. 79
IX.	Lessons Learned	Pg. 83
X.	Participant’s Demographics	Pg. 85
XI.	Detailed Benchmark Study Data	Pg. 89
XII.	About Best Practices, LLC	Pg. 116

• Business issue, Methodology, Analysis and Recommendations
• Insight segmentation
• Why is the Insight Leaders group more successful?
  The essential medical insights framework

• Critical steps of insight gathering and dissemination in Medical Affairs – Total benchmark class
• Critical steps of insight gathering and dissemination in Medical Affairs – Insight Leaders
• Critical steps of insight gathering and dissemination in Medical Affairs – Insight Majority
• Critical steps of insight gathering and dissemination in Medical Affairs – Insight Laggards

• Presence of a separate group that gathers and disseminates insights for Medical Affairs – Total benchmark class
• Presence of a separate group that gathers and disseminates insights for Medical Affairs – Insight Leaders
• Case Example: Insights collection and distribution by separate group in Company A
• Presence of a separate group that gathers and disseminates insights for Medical Affairs – Insight Majority
• Case Example: Process of gathering insights by separate group in Company B
• Case Example: Process of insight gathering and dissemination by separate group in Company C
• Case Example: Process of insight gathering and dissemination by separate group in Company D
• Role of each of the groups within Medical Affairs for both gathering and disseminating insights – Total benchmark class
• Role of each of the groups within Medical Affairs for both gathering and disseminating insights – Insight Leaders
• Role of each of the groups within Medical Affairs for both gathering and disseminating insights – Insight Majority
• Role of each of the groups within Medical Affairs for both gathering and disseminating insights – Insight Laggards
• Lead and support role of Medical Affairs groups in gathering and disseminating insights – Total benchmark class
• Roles of Medical Affairs sub-functions in gathering and disseminating insights – Insight Leaders, Insight Majority, and Insight Laggards
• Other Medical Affairs groups involved in insights gathering and dissemination
• Level of expertise of the person who is responsible for conveying medical insights to other functions – Total benchmark class
• Level of expertise of the person who is responsible for conveying medical insights to other functions – Insight Leaders, Insight Majority, and Insight Laggards
• Strengths and weakness of benchmark companies’ current insights gathering and dissemination group structure
• Strengths of benchmark companies’ current insights gathering and dissemination group structure
• Weakness of benchmark companies’ current insights gathering and dissemination group structure

• Effectiveness of listed tactics and tools used within Medical Affairs group to coordinate work, data, and analyses – Total benchmark class
• Effectiveness of listed tactics and tools used by Medical Affairs group to coordinate work, data, and analyses for stakeholders – Total benchmark class
• Very effective team coordination tactics and tools within Medical Affairs – Insight Leaders, Insight Majority, and Insight Laggards
• Effective team coordination tactics and tools within Medical Affairs – Insight Leaders, Insight Majority, and Insight Laggards
• Very effective team coordination tactics and tools for stakeholders – Insight Leaders, Insight Majority, and Insight Laggards
• Effective team coordination tactics and tools for stakeholders – Insight Leaders, Insight Majority, and Insight Laggards
• Use of different tools for insight gathering in Medical Affairs; Integration of insights into a single platform using different tools
• Additional tactics used by participants to generate precise and faster insights
• Percentage of intelligence gathering work involving primary (field) research and secondary research – Total benchmark class
• Percentage of intelligence gathering work involving primary (field) research and secondary research – Insight Leaders, Insight Majority, and Insight Laggards
• Effectiveness and importance of primary data collection sources – Total benchmark class
• Frequency of usage of primary sources for collecting intelligence data within Medical Affairs – Total benchmark class
• Effectiveness and importance of primary data collection sources – Insight Leaders
• Effectiveness and importance of primary data collection sources –Insight Majority
• Effectiveness and importance of primary data collection sources –Insight Laggards
• Frequency of usage of primary sources for collecting intelligence data within Medical Affairs – Insight Leaders, Insight Majority, and Insight Laggards
• Effectiveness and importance of secondary data collection sources – Total benchmark class
• Frequency of usage of secondary sources for collecting intelligence data within Medical Affairs – Total benchmark class
• Effectiveness and importance of secondary data collection sources – Insight Leaders
• Effectiveness and importance of secondary data collection sources –Insight Majority
• Effectiveness and importance of secondary data collection sources –Insight Laggards
• Frequency of usage of secondary sources for collecting intelligence data within Medical Affairs – Insight Leaders, Insight Majority, and Insight Laggards
• Effectiveness of internal sources that support intelligence data collection – Total benchmark class
• Highly effective internal sources that support intelligence data collection – Insight Leaders, Insight Majority, and Insight Laggards
• Functions and groups used within Medical Affairs organization to narrow the focus of the issue and discover information gaps – Total benchmark class
• Functions and groups used within Medical Affairs organization to narrow the focus of the issue and discover information gaps – Insight Leaders, Insight Majority, and Insight Laggards
• Internal limitations to receiving medical insights – Total benchmark class
• Medical Affairs’ barriers to internal insights sharing

• Breakdown of intelligence deliverables types – Total benchmark class
• Breakdown of intelligence deliverables types – Insight Leaders, Insight Majority, and Insight Laggards
• Tools used by Medical team to deliver insights with other functions – Total benchmark class
• Tools used by Medical team to deliver insights with other functions – Insight Leaders, Insight Majority, and Insight Laggards
• Effectiveness and importance of digital tools used by Medical Affairs team to gather, evaluate, and disseminate intelligence – Total benchmark class
• Highly effective digital tools used by Medical Affairs team to gather, evaluate, and disseminate intelligence – Insight Leaders, Insight Majority, and Insight Laggards
• Effective digital tools used by Medical Affairs team to gather, evaluate, and disseminate intelligence – Insight Leaders, Insight Majority, and Insight Laggards
• Importance of digital tools used by Medical Affairs team to gather, evaluate, and disseminate intelligence – Insight Leaders, Insight Majority, and Insight Laggards

• Effectiveness of training techniques for insights data collection – Total benchmark class
• Effectiveness of training techniques for insights data collection – Insight Leaders, Insight Majority, and Insight Laggards
• Effective online tools used for training

• Analyzing and then prioritizing insights – a key step in the process of gathering info, deriving insights and then prioritizing them for action
• Innovative practices used successfully to leverage platforms for greater or faster intelligence insights

• Voices from the field: Actionable insights captured by benchmark Medical teams
• Additional methods used by Medical Affairs team to gather intelligence (apart from KOL and HCP engagement

• Constructive insight learnings

• Geographic responsibility of benchmark participants
• Therapeutic areas represented by benchmark Medical teams
• Job titles of benchmark participants