As the world emerges from widespread pandemic lockdowns and increased restrictions on medical offices, medical science liaisons (MSLs) throughout the industry are slowly taking on more of the activities they were used to prior to the outbreak of COVID-19. So what will MSL jobs in a post-pandemic world look like?

It’s no surprise that MSL jobs were heavily impacted by the pandemic lockdowns. MSLs were used to spending up to 75% of their time traveling to visit with key opinion leaders (KOLs) and other healthcare providers. During the pandemic, MSLs stopped traveling and had to embrace digital tools to hold virtual KOL meetings. MSLs also travel frequently for medical congresses, internal meetings, and educational lectures. Now that travel is opening up again, medical affairs leaders are wondering what the proper balance is for MSLs to spend their time meeting with KOLs face-to-face vs virtually.

Traveling to Essential Meetings

This article about changes to UCB’s travel policy sheds light on how the industry may approach MSL travel. When UCB employees book trips for meetings that do not involve an overnight stay, they are questioned as to whether they could conduct the meeting through a virtual platform, such as Zoom or Teams. Like most companies, UCB’s employees adapted to virtual meetings since the start of the pandemic, resulting in a 90% reduction in travel for Q1 compared to the same period last year. Questioning the essential value of a meeting that requires travel is part of UCB’s effort to make meetings more meaningful.

We haven’t yet seen an overarching trend within the pharmaceutical industry to limit travel for MSL positions. In fact, many medical affairs leaders speak of the value lost by having all meetings conducted in a virtual setting. In fact, the ACMA held an advisory board meeting earlier this year where medical affairs leaders shared their experiences managing MSL teams who made the switch to all virtual meetings. 

At first, medical affairs leaders found the switch to virtual interactions effective at meeting and having valuable engagements with the medical community. Field medical affairs professionals – also known as medical science liaisons (MSLs) – were able to maintain their existing relationships with key thought leaders. As the pandemic wore on, however, the ability to continue meeting with thought leaders has been inconsistent. KOLs are showing virtual meeting fatigue that wasn’t a challenge for face-to-face meetings. The KOLs’ “Zoom fatigue” limited the MSLs’ ability to progress activities as quickly as they had prior to the pandemic

MSLs Prefer to Travel

And let’s not forget, MSLs tend to enjoy traveling. Most medical affairs leaders understand that part of the reason people apply to MSL jobs is to travel and build relationships through face-to-face meetings. MSLs also enjoy attending medical conferences and engaging with KOLs in those settings. The pandemic’s impact on travel has hurt attendance at medical conferences for the past year, and MSLs are eager to get back to these events. 

Certainly, some benefits have emerged from virtual conferences, such as the ability for attendees to participate from different time zones more easily. But the level of engagement from attendees has dropped significantly. During in-person medical conferences, HCPs stay engaged in the presentations and conversations taking place. Prior to the pandemic, they put their regular work aside to travel and attend these conferences.

MSLs used these events to have more in-depth conversations with KOLs. Virtual conferences, however, often attract HCPs for only portions of the presentations, or just particular talks. Attendees tune into the conference in between seeing patients, or they block their schedules to hear only the speakers they want to learn from. This level of engagement has prevented MSLs from nurturing relationships with HCPs and outright prevented new relationships from forming.

Travel Will Again Become a Big Part of MSL Jobs

An additional challenge for MSL teams has been that newly hired medical science liaisons, or those with less experience, have struggled to build relationships through virtual platforms. Those MSLs will now have a chance to show what they can do in a more traditional setting. Their inability to build deep relationships within the medical community has meant fewer meetings and less consistency accessing the medical community. 

As we continue to emerge from the travel lockdowns and other pandemic restrictions, KOLs will continue to meet with MSLs. There is no doubt that virtual meetings are here to stay. But both MSLs and KOLs will become more interested in meeting with each other in-person. And many medical affairs leaders will deem those meetings essential enough to require travel.