Connecting the Dots: The Difficult and Important Role of Medical Affairs Technology

The role of Medical Affairs Technology is crucial to achieving Medical Excellence. In various organizations, the responsibility of converting the needs of medical affairs teams into technical specifications to select, configure, and implement technology that enhances medical processes can differ significantly. Some teams expect their Medical Affairs leaders with deep process expertise in areas such as field medical, publications, medical information, and operations to communicate these needs directly to an IT professional, whether internally or to an external solution provider. In this scenario, the solution provider is responsible for translating the requirements of medical affairs into technical terms and ensuring solutions fulfill the needs.?

However, many Medical Affairs teams face the frustrating reality that both internal and external technology providers often fail to understand medical affairs sufficiently to design solutions that genuinely meet their needs. This scenario typically plays out when a medical leader engages with a solution provider and, during the configuration meeting, hears "We have 300 fields to configure – how would you like them set up?" Naturally, the medical leader is left thinking, "How should I know? It's your software – you should know how to set it up." Despite this ongoing disconnect, it's exceedingly rare to find providers who understand medical affairs well enough to ask insightful questions, present critical decisions, and offer recommendations based on best practices tailored to the team's unique requirements. When such a provider is found, the conversation changes and sounds more like, "Tell me about your process. I have a few follow-up questions and need to confirm some implications of your decisions." They then proceed to say, "Great, I understand the process, and I'll return to present and demonstrate how our solution will support this process or identify any gaps we need to address."?

To bridge the communication gap between technology and Medical teams, many growing Medical Excellence or Operations departments form an intermediary function. This team's main responsibility is to develop, prioritize, and align a technology roadmap with the evolving needs of medical affairs. They also lead the engagement process with medical process owners to gather business requirements and translate them into technical specifications for technology providers. As this team grows, they may additionally provide technology training, dedicated support for medical affairs, quality assurance, and other services. However, finding individuals for this role who possess both an understanding of medical affairs processes and technological expertise is challenging. Often, these intermediary teams end up offering minimal value, merely serving as a project or vendor management layer, without expertise in either the processes or the technology they are supposed to support. This increases the risk of miscommunication, prolongs deployment times for new technologies, and creates frustration between teams.

If the Medical Technology function isn't a technology expert or an expert in all of the ?Medical Affairs processes, what expertise is crucial for this role? In leading companies that offer enterprise software to businesses, there's a profession called Product Management. In this Medical Technology context, the product manager serves as the professional translator bridging the intricate needs of medical affairs and the technical capabilities of solution providers. This role demands a thorough understanding of both medical affairs processes and how the technology they utilize can address those needs. The product manager must gather and prioritize business requirements from medical teams, then translate these requirements into clear, actionable specifications for IT partners and solution providers. They leverage their knowledge to ensure that the technological solutions not only fulfill but also enhance medical processes, aligning technical functionalities with users' practical needs. This does not mean that they know how to program or even how to set every configuration option in the tool they support, but they are the jedi of how to wield this tool to the needs of the team they support.? This role is essential in promoting effective communication, minimizing misunderstandings, and ensuring that the implemented technologies genuinely improve the impact of medical affairs teams.

?When looking for this role you want to find someone who asks deeply intelligent questions so that they go beyond superficial gathering of what someone is asking for to understanding the process so deeply that they can explain it, improve it, challenge it, and while may not have all the prerequisite medical affairs knowledge to do the job can certainly teach someone with that knowledge how to follow the process.? You want a “techie” who is an early adopter of technology that is so naturally curious of all the different and interesting ways that a technology can be leveraged that they can’t help by put hands on keyboard to experiment and learn.? Finaly, you want someone who can connect these two skills through detailed enough documentation that Medical Affairs leaders have a clear understanding of what they are receiving and technology providers have enough detail to deliver solutions.? They should be the first line of review that can provide testing and feedback with a high-degree of certainty that their direction will meet the need of the medical team and be clear to the provider.

At Acceleration Point, we bring extensive experience in this area. As the provider of Kwello, a premier Medical Affairs Technology, we have demonstrated our expertise by delivering top-tier solutions that transform how Medical Affairs obtain and act on insights. Our clients love our technology, but they express this love by commending us for helping them enhance, quantify, and articulate their true impact. They value the technology because we implement and utilize it to achieve their specific goals. Additionally, our consultants frequently integrate closely with Medical Excellence teams to improve processes and align technologies.?

About the author: Scott Thompson

Scott is the co-ceo of Acceleration Point where he helps Medical Excellence build highly impactful Medical Affairs organizations.? Acceleration Point provides Kwello, the primere Insight Generation solution for Medical Affairs.