Communicating and showing the value of medical affairs work has always been a fundamental challenge for medical affairs professionals. Hard metrics often don’t align with the mission of scientific exchange and uncovering insights. But that’s not to say that there aren’t a wide variety of tools and techniques for demonstrating the contributions that you as an individual, your team and the whole function are making.

Here are five strategies to help you show the value of medical affairs:

1. Cross-Functional Stand-Up Meetings

Software developers have something called a ‘stand-up.’ These are basically short, sometimes daily meetings where attendees remain standing, which helps to keep the meeting short. However, it’s amazing how much these short, high frequency meetings can help get things done and build strong long-term relationships with your regulatory, clinical and sales/marketing colleagues. Through sharing your activities, you’ll start showing others the value that you and the medical affairs team add to the organization.

Typically you’ll want to address 3 main issues:

• What you did yesterday that helped your specific medical affairs group move the needle forward towards some goal
• What you’ll do today and
• Address any obstacles that prevent you from achieving the team’s goals. It’s a great way to come up with solutions and collaborate.

2. Train Other Team Members

Educating others comes naturally to most medical affairs & medical science liaison (MSL) professionals. Consider working with your cross-functional colleagues to understand their training needs. For example, one company I worked with held quarterly training sessions for each sales region, where the MSL from that region would train the sales team. It’s a great way to demonstrate value & build a long-term relationship.

3. Journal Clubs

The good ole’ Journal Club. It’s a classic but still works. One company had its MSL team conduct a journal club on each module of the Board Certified Medical Affairs Specialist Program (BCMAS). The V.P of Medical Affairs reported how it helped his team unify, learn, and most importantly demonstrate value to their team members.

4. Take the Initiative

Don’t wait to be told what to do. Taking initiative will demonstrate your leadership. See a problem with the marketing brand plan? Talk to a product manager. Concerned about a study’s clinical design? Talk with clinical development. Take the initiative, do the research and come prepared. Anything you can do to help the team shine and be more successful will be remembered.

5. Be a “Know it All”

For medical affairs & MSL professionals, we need to be the subject matter experts. Period. Know your data, your competitor’s data, the disease state, the guidelines, drugs in the pipeline and your KOLs’ research. People will remember that and will come to you for your expertise over time.

William Soliman is Chairman and Founder of the Accreditation Council for Medical Affairs (ACMA). The ACMA offers training, board certification, consulting and predictive analytics for medical affairs teams. Learn more about how the ACMA can help make your medical affairs organization shine.