There is no doubt that the pharmaceutical industry has experienced significant growth in the last few decades, globally. In 2022, pharma revenues across the world totaled 1.48 trillion U.S. dollars. Pharmaceutical industries have many vital functions that aid in their success, one important function being Medical Affairs. Medical Affairs is a function within biopharmaceutical, consumer healthcare. Medical Affairs teams work alongside Research and Development and Commercial Markets. Research and Development involves the development of new drugs, devices, and diagnostics, while the commercial markets sell the products. Medical affairs is the bridge between these two functions and generates and communicates data that help healthcare providers, policy makers, and payers make decisions about treatments by incorporating scientific evidence. Medical Affairs is then broken down into several more components which includes medical information, medical communications/publications, medical science liaisons, and medical operations/HEOR: all which play vital and unique roles within Medical Affairs to ensure optimal treatments for patients that are both safe and effective. Today, we will focus on medical information teams and learn what they do and why they matter.

Medical information teams are composed of experts who answer the questions they receive from HCPs. They develop responses with concise, accurate, scientific, and non-promotional information. Medical information teams also provide responses that concern the safety and risk versus benefit profiles of a product. If answers do not exist, it is up to the medical information teams to identify the knowledge gaps that can lead to education opportunities. Medical information professionals use their data to support Medical Affairs departments by:

• Setting up strategic communication plans

• Publishing new data

• Engaging key opinion leaders

• Providing medical education

• Aligning internal communications

Medical information teams matter because marketing authorization holders are required to establish a scientific service in charge of information about medicinal products it places on the market. Furthermore, healthcare professionals rely on this team to relay accurate and high-quality information that is not otherwise provided publicly. Therefore, this allows HCPs to receive information before the product is even sold on the market. Medical information teams are those that are contacted directly by stakeholders and analyze feedback received by HCPs, patients, and payers. This allows the teams to share those insights with the brand and medical teams to help improve medical strategy and improve the patient experience with the products they are selling. In this blog post, we will dive deeper into the role of the medical teams within pharmaceutical companies, the other functions that they serve, and their benefits. We will also cover the advancing technology that mainstreams medical information versus the old school way by phones and emails. Finally, we will cover the ways in which medical information practice can be outsourced to increase medical information efficiency.

Roles, Service, and Benefits of the Medical Information Team

The role of the medical information team has expanded over the past few years. Not only is this team providing responses to external stakeholders, they are also involved in:

• Promotional material review

• Material development for in-field roles

• Creation of product launch tool kits

• Developing training and educational materials

• Clinical trial activities

• Publications

• Develop materials for medical affairs teams as resources for interacting with KOLs

• Call center

The medical information team is crucial to improving patient experience and outcomes and therefore, are responsible in showing high-quality and professional information, advocating for patient-centric view, and improving a product’s safety and efficacy.

The medical information teams also serve in various ways with other members of the Medical Affairs teams. This includes working with pharmacovigilance, clinical research, and MSLs. They also function by working with regulatory affairs, sales, marketing, market access, and publication teams. Beyond serving as a resource for other medical affairs functions, the medical information team members can bring their expertise to the medical writing field. They are responsible for writing standard documents used to answer medical inquiries. Also, some companies ask medical information representatives to take part in a copy review committee for promotional materials. Therefore, as seen, medical information teams have a wide range of responsibilities and areas of serving outside of responding to inquiries.

Conversion to Digital Format

Digital channels for healthcare systems are emerging that are taking the place of emails and phone calls. They include: 
 Video-conferencing Social media platforms (ie, Facebook, Twitter) Online self-service portals Online chats Company-sponsored websites

Some research shows that company-sponsored websites that provide medical and scientific information are the preferred type of interaction. This preference increased significantly and shows that digital conversions are becoming more and more important to physicians compared to emails and phone calls.

The digitalization of medical information can increase the interaction of medical and scientific information to HCPs, patients, and payers. With our increased reliance on advancing technology, these digital channels can continue to expand the world of medical information. Furthermore, by using these platforms, it will reach the otherwise hard-to-reach audience. By simplifying the verbal communication, the pharmaceutical industries can see an increase in success as the responses of medical information teams can be communicated more feasibly and effectively.

Outsourcing of Medical Information

Although Medical Affairs has been expanding tremendously over the last few years, there is still a lack of awareness of what medical information teams have to offer to HCPs and consumers. Outsourcing certain medical information activities to vendors can help manufacturers increase efficiency and profitability. The way this can be achieved is by using third-party technology solutions and skilled human resources that can be used when needed. Research showed that smaller pharmaceutical companies could benefit from outsourcing because their medical information teams have various roles and responsibilities.

When choosing vendors for outsourcing medical information, manufacturers need to first conduct a detailed analysis of the needs and capabilities that exist within the company. The criteria to analyze include:

• Cost

• Scalability

• Service hours or coverage needed

• Channels of inquiry intake and response

• Language capabilities

• Scientific background

One common approach is to outsource only first-line responses while maintaining the capability to respond to more of the inquiries that are received in-house. It might be beneficial for organizations with insufficient resources or organizations that don’t have in-house medical information expertise to outsource and seek support from other medical information service providers. They can offer flexibility and make the medication information service a source of differentiation. This can render a company more successful.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, the dynamic landscape of the pharmaceutical industry has witnessed remarkable growth, with 2022 global revenues reaching an impressive 1.48 trillion U.S. dollars. Amidst the various functions crucial to this success, Medical Affairs is seen as a crucial component through its various functioning teams, one of which is the important role of medical information teams. These teams are efficient at providing accurate and non-promotional information to healthcare professionals, and contribute significantly to strategic communication, data publication, engagement with key opinion leaders, and medical education. As the industry continues to evolve, the expanding role of medical teams in promotional material review, material development, and digitalization becomes increasingly evident. Furthermore, the conversion to digital channels and the potential for outsourcing activities to enhance efficiency further underscore the adaptability and potential growth of pharmaceutical industries. In the future, the collaboration of technology and expertise, whether in-house or outsourced, will undoubtedly play a crucial role in shaping the future of medical information dissemination, ensuring that pharmaceutical companies continue to deliver safe, effective, and patient-centric solutions around the globe.

Related Questions

What are the regulatory requirements and compliance risk of medical information?

There has been an increase of medical information functions scrutiny while also a higher demand for more effective and swift sharing of medical information across geographies to increase consistency. For instance, within 14 days of an adverse event, manufacturers are required to report to the European Medicines Agency. This is to help facilitate a seamless connection between the medical information and pharmacovigilance departments. It is also vital to share standard letters and FAQs along with adverse event information across all countries. Furthermore, regulatory requirements for medical information teams include:

Maintain documentation of who is asking the question, along with their contact information, and a subject and purpose for their information request Must provide written and verbal responses to any inquiry Maintain current knowledge on the latest medical literature about the product Provide responses to nonstandard questions once the team has researched existing data and literature

What does the future of medical information look like?

Medical information teams are now in high-demand, therefore, there is a promising future for this career area. However, this comes with a higher need for the teams to provide highly specialized answers to a broader set of questions more frequently than before. Because there is a high degree of misinformation in the past, companies are required to streamline their information in order to improve their overall brand reputation and be more responsive to patients.

Economic pressure is also on the rise as healthcare spending relative to GDP continues to rise in many countries. Pharmaceutical companies are now under pressure to find more efficient ways to operate and are reacting to this by scaling back on sales teams. One consequence of this is that more requests are now fielded by the medical information teams. Therefore, this is increasing pressure on the medical information teams to operate as efficiently and accurately as possible. Again, manufacturers have to provide high-quality medical information to stakeholders and generate related insights, while decreasing operating costs.

References:

ACMA. (n.d.). https://www.medicalaffairsspecialist.org/blog/medical-information-teams

Evers, M., Hartmann, J. P., Pradel, C., Suresh, B., & Westra, A. (2018, May 9). How pharma manufacturers can enhance their medical information teams. McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/life-sciences/our-insights/how-pharma-manufacturers-can-enhance-their-medical-information-teams

Medical Affairs. (n.d.). https://medicalaffairs.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/What-Is-Medical-Affairs-FINAL.pdf

Mikulic, M. (n.d.). Topic: Global Pharmaceutical Industry. Statista. https://www.statista.com/topics/1764/global-pharmaceutical-industry/#topicOverview

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