Three Questions Medical Affairs Needs to Answer to Nail HCP Engagements
by Aswin Chandrakantan, MD, Chief Medical Officer and SVP of Corporate Development
February 24, 2021
For healthcare providers (HCPs), the pandemic has introduced a host of medical complexities while creating a massive surge in telehealth engagement. Clinicians have less time and fewer channels to keep up with the rapidly evolving science and a host of new gaps in care created by a digital-first healthcare landscape.
At the same time, Medical Affairs teams continue to grapple with the best ways to engage with HCPs without in-person visits. And yet, the large-scale shift to digital and rapid developments in science have rendered Medical Science Liaisons (MSLs) more valuable than ever. As the landscape continues to quickly evolve, doctors need the support of MSLs as trusted partners to more deeply understand the opportunities and challenges inherent in this “new normal.”
For Medical Affairs teams, hyper-personal relationships with HCPs are more important than ever to elevate the conversation and drive a high standard of care. Achieving those relationships will require MSLs to examine three questions:
- Who do I engage?
- What do they need?
- How can I optimize my value to them?
Who Do I Engage?
An effective MSL outreach strategy starts with a very simple question: Who should I focus my attention on?
The right data can help segment HCPs by the most appropriate metrics for a specific therapeutic area. Komodo’s Healthcare Map™ pulls data from interactions of 325 million patients across the healthcare ecosystem, drawing together de-identified claims from clinical encounters using scientific intelligence and other digital data sources. This comprehensive view of the healthcare landscape allows MSLs to pinpoint the most influential clinicians within a given therapeutic area.
This data-driven view of healthcare gives Medical Affairs teams the insights to understand which clinicians are treating relevant patients, as well as their influence on social media, their speaking activity at medical meetings, their publications in journals, and their engagement in clinical trials. By holistically understanding leadership and influence, MSLs can target the clinicians who will have the biggest impact on patients – and other HCPs – within a therapeutic area.
What do they need?
After identifying the most relevant targets, that same data-driven approach supports an MSL’s call-planning strategy. Through a rigorous analysis of information from congresses, journal publications, clinical trials, patient care, and referral patterns, Aperture empowers MSLs to stay relevant by providing a comprehensive view of an HCP’s focus, their priorities, and the challenges they are facing.
For instance, crucial screening procedures like colonoscopies and mammograms have plummeted since the pandemic began, and many patient populations face chronic conditions that require frequent visits but also put them at a higher risk of contracting COVID-19. MSLs have an opportunity to offer education and guidance on how those HCPs and HCOs can support these patient communities, get screenings back on track, and maintain high standards of care.
Because Aperture is built on patient-level data, MSLs can also use it to track HCPs’ telehealth adoption in real time, enabling field MSLs to dynamically engage within the communities they serve. This is essential information to keep a pulse on how practice patterns are evolving amid the disruption of COVID.
How can I optimize my value to them?
HCPs need relevant support and education, which helps them achieve the highest possible standard of care amid the significant disruptions that COVID has caused.
Leveraging Aperture’s real-time scientific and clinical intelligence, which pulls in comprehensive insights from patient-level data, Medical Affairs teams are empowered to deliver relevant information on potential interventions – from telehealth options to rare disease patterns, or mapping out which patients are most at risk of falling behind on care.
Software rooted in patient-level data, with reliable, comprehensive insights, allows Medical Affairs teams to meet the needs, answer the questions, and provide the support clinicians are looking for. In doing so, MSLs continue to drive value as liaisons to the practitioner community and, most importantly, at a more global scale, to close gaps in care and reduce the burden of disease for all HCPs and patients.
Learn how Aperture can support MSLs here.
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