Best Practices for Gathering and Distributing Insights within Medical Affairs Organization: Immunology Segment

Industries Profiled:
Pharmaceutical; Communications; Manufacturing; Biotech; Consumer Products; Diagnostic; Medical Device; Chemical; Health Care; Biopharmaceutical; Clinical Research; Laboratories


Companies Profiled:
AbbVie; ApotheCom; Bayer; Boehringer Ingelheim; CSL Behring; Eli Lilly and Company; Genentech; Janssen; Mallinckrodt; Merck KGaA; Merck; Novartis; Orchard Therapeutics; Sanofi Genzyme; Sanofi; Sandoz; Takeda Pharmaceuticals

Study Snapshot

Best Practices, LLC engaged 23 executives from 17 leading life sciences companies focused on immunology for this research. The study insights are mostly from directors and higher management executives, representing nearly 80% of the benchmark participants.

Benchmark data is broken down into two different segments to provide deeper insights. Classifications reflect their approach and standing in immunology medical insight generation:

• Insight Leaders (5 respondents)
• Insight Majority (18 respondents)

• Structure of Immunology Medical Insights and Dissemination Group
• Gathering Immunology Insights: Coordination, Activities and Tools
• Disseminating Immunology Insights: Tools, Activities and Effectiveness
• Immunology Insights Gathering: Training Techniques and Tools
• Innovative and Best Practices
• Actionable Insights and Intelligence Gathering in Immunology
• Key Lessons Learned

• Insight Gathering Process and Its Effectiveness: Only 22% of immunology participants have a stand-alone group dedicated to insights. Most rely on various subfunctions to coordinate multiple activities for gathering and inputting data, often leading to inefficiencies. Coordination across inter-functional groups is attempted but frequently yields limited success.

• Medical Affairs Insight Leadership: Most companies rely on Field Teams (72%) and Medical Strategy (67%) to lead the insight process. However, leading organizations have thought-leader management and operations step in as well.

Sr. No.	Topic	Slide No.
I.	Executive Summary	Pg. 4
	One-page Executive Brief	Pg. 5
	Segmentation Criteria	Pg. 6
II.	Insight Overview and Key Findings	Pg. 9
III.	Structure of Medical Insights and Dissemination Group	Pg. 13
IV.	Gathering Insights: Coordination, Activities and Tools	Pg. 32
V.	Disseminating Insights: Tools, Activities and Effectiveness	Pg. 59
VI.	Insights Gathering: Training Techniques and Tools	Pg. 68
VII.	Innovative and Best Practices	Pg. 72
VIII.	Actionable Insights and Intelligence Gathering	Pg. 75
IX.	Lessons Learned	Pg. 79
X.	Participant’s Demographics	Pg. 81
XI.	Detailed Benchmark Study Data	Pg. 84
XII.	About Best Practices, LLC	Pg. 111

• Business issue, methodology, analysis, and recommendations
• Insight segmentation
• Key factors behind the success of the Insight Leaders group
• The essential medical insights framework for immunology

• Critical steps of immunology insights gathering and dissemination in Medical Affairs – Total benchmark class
• Critical steps of immunology insights gathering and dissemination in Medical Affairs – Insight Leaders
• Critical steps of immunology insights gathering and dissemination in Medical Affairs – Insight Majority

• Presence of a separate group that gathers and disseminates immunology insights for Medical Affairs – Total benchmark class
• Presence of a separate group that gathers and disseminates immunology insights for Medical Affairs – Insight Leaders
• Case Example: Structure and process of insights collection and distribution by a separate group at Company A
• Presence of a separate group that gathers and disseminates immunology insights for Medical Affairs – Insight Majority
• Case Example: Process of insights collection by the global unit at Company B
• Case Example: Insights compilation by a cross-functional group within U.S. Medical Affairs from various sources at Company C
• Case Example: Process of insight gathering and dissemination at Company D
• Role of each of the groups within Medical Affairs for both gathering and disseminating immunology insights – Total benchmark class
• Role of each of the groups within Medical Affairs for both gathering and disseminating immunology insights – Insight Leaders
• Role of each of the groups within Medical Affairs for both gathering and disseminating immunology insights – Insight Majority
• Roles of Medical Affairs sub-functions in gathering and disseminating immunology insights – Insight Leaders and Insight Majority
• Lead and support role of Medical Affairs groups in gathering and disseminating immunology insights – Total benchmark class
• Level of expertise of the person who is responsible for conveying immunology medical insights to other functions – Total benchmark class
• Level of expertise of the person who is responsible for conveying immunology medical insights to other functions – Insight Leaders and Insight Majority
• Strengths and weaknesses of immunology insights gathering and dissemination group structure
• Strengths of insights gathering and dissemination group structure
• Weaknesses in insights gathering and dissemination group structure

• Effectiveness of listed tactics and tools used by the Immunology Medical Affairs group to coordinate work, data, and analyses – Total benchmark class
• Effectiveness of listed tactics and tools used by the Immunology Medical Affairs group to coordinate work, data, and analyses for stakeholders – Total benchmark class
• Highly effective team coordination tactics and tools within Medical Affairs – Insight Leaders and Insight Majority
• Effective team coordination tactics and tools within Medical Affairs – Insight Leaders and Insight Majority
• Highly effective team coordination tactics and tools for stakeholders – Insight Leaders and Insight Majority
• Effective team coordination tactics and tools for stakeholders – Insight Leaders and Insight Majority
• Use of different tools for immunology insight gathering in Medical Affairs; Integration of insights into a unified platform using different tools
• Additional tactics used by participants to generate precise and faster insights
• Percentage of intelligence gathering work involving primary (field) research and secondary research in immunology – Total benchmark class
• Percentage of intelligence gathering work involving primary (field) research and secondary research in immunology – Insight Leaders and Insight Majority
• Effectiveness and importance of primary data collection sources in immunology – Total benchmark class
• Frequency of usage of primary sources for collecting intelligence data within Immunology Medical Affairs – Total benchmark class
• Effectiveness and importance of primary data collection sources in immunology – Insight Leaders
• Effectiveness and importance of primary data collection sources in immunology – Insight Majority
• Frequency of usage of primary sources for collecting intelligence data within Immunology Medical Affairs – Insight Leaders and Insight Majority
• Effectiveness and importance of secondary data collection sources in immunology – Total benchmark class
• Frequency of usage of secondary sources for collecting intelligence data within Immunology Medical Affairs – Total benchmark class
• Effectiveness and importance of secondary data collection sources in immunology – Insight Leaders
• Effectiveness and importance of secondary data collection sources in immunology –Insight Majority
• Frequency of usage of secondary sources for collecting intelligence data within Immunology Medical Affairs – Insight Leaders and Insight Majority
• Effectiveness of internal sources that support intelligence data collection in immunology – Total benchmark class
• Highly effective internal sources that support intelligence data collection in immunology – Insight Leaders and Insight Majority
• Functions and groups used within Immunology Medical Affairs organization to narrow the focus of the issue and discover information gaps – Total benchmark class
• Functions and groups used within Immunology Medical Affairs organization to narrow the focus of the issue and discover information gaps – Insight Leaders and Insight Majority
• Internal limitations to receiving immunology medical insights – Total benchmark class
• Medical Affairs’ barriers to internal insights sharing

• Breakdown of intelligence deliverables types in immunology – Total benchmark class
• Breakdown of intelligence deliverables types in immunology – Insight Leaders and Insight Majority
• Tools used by Immunology Medical teams to deliver insights to other functions – Total benchmark class
• Tools used by Immunology Medical teams to deliver insights to other functions – Insight Leaders and Insight Majority
• Effectiveness and importance of digital tools used by the Immunology Medical Affairs team to gather, evaluate, and disseminate intelligence – Total benchmark class
• Highly effective digital tools used by Immunology Medical Affairs teams to gather, evaluate, and disseminate intelligence – Insight Leaders and Insight Majority
• Effective digital tools used by Immunology Medical Affairs teams to gather, evaluate, and disseminate intelligence – Insight Leaders and Insight Majority
• Importance of digital tools used by Immunology Medical Affairs teams to gather, evaluate, and disseminate intelligence – Insight Leaders and Insight Majority

• Effectiveness of training techniques for insights data collection in immunology – Total benchmark class
• Effectiveness of training techniques for insights data collection in immunology – Insight Leaders and Insight Majority
• Effective online tools used for training

• Analyzing and prioritizing insights – a key step in gathering information and deriving actionable insights
• Innovative practices for leveraging platforms to achieve greater and faster intelligence insights

• Voices from the field: Actionable insights captured by benchmark Medical teams
• Additional methods used by Immunology Medical Affairs teams to gather intelligence (beyond KOL and HCP engagement)

• Constructive insights and learnings

• Geographic responsibility of benchmark partners
• Job titles of benchmark partners