Medical Affairs teams play a crucial role within pharmaceutical companies, serving as a bridge between the scientific/medical aspects of the company and external stakeholders such as healthcare professionals (HCPs), researchers, and patient advocacy groups.  Medical Affairs’ primary focus is on ensuring the safe and effective use of the company’s products while also contributing to scientific advancement and medical education.
As a Knowledge and Information Management consultant, I work closely with Medical Affairs groups to assist them with their efforts. Literature is integral in supporting the work of Medical Affairs professionals within pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device companies—they need access to the latest research and medical literature to stay informed about advancements in their field.
To help Medical Affairs teams easily incorporate scientific literature into their workflows, I often recommend that they use RightFind from CCC. RightFind provides a platform for accessing and managing a wide range of medical and scientific literature in a streamlined and copyright compliant way. Below are some of the key functions of Medical Affairs teams within pharmaceutical companies, as well as the ways that RightFind can help teams fulfill these responsibilities:
1) Medical Education and Training
Developing and delivering educational programs and materials to train internal staff, sales representatives, and HCPs about the company’s products, disease areas, treatment guidelines, and clinical data is vital to the organization. Medical Affairs often has a training role that curates a set of articles to get new employees up to speed on their products and therapeutic areas. Using RightFind streamlines this process, enabling employees in this role to obtain relevant literature and create a custom collection for their training purposes.
2) Medical Information
Medical Information groups provide accurate and timely medical information to HCPs, patients, and other stakeholders in response to inquiries about product characteristics, safety, efficacy, and appropriate use. These responses are backed by references to scientific articles, which are included in the response to the requestor. Often, this type of unsolicited external request for information is covered under the organization’s annual copyright license from CCC. By creating a library for these references, not only are they easily accessible to the Med Info team when they need them, but copyright permissions can be easily verified with each request.
3) Medical Scientific Liaisons (MSLs)
The credibility of an MSL hinges on the capacity to access the latest and most pertinent information. Literature helps facilitate discussions with Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) by providing evidence-based information, supporting data, and references to relevant studies. Whether it’s tracking mentions of the company’s drug or device in scientific literature or preparing for interactions with KOLs, MSLs can keep abreast of the literature through alerts in RightFind. As adept communicators of intricate scientific concepts to diverse stakeholders, the ability for MSLs to swiftly access a cloud-based literature management tool like RightFind is indispensable. This accessibility is particularly crucial when urgent scientific inquiries arise while MSLs are working remotely or in the field.
4) Scientific Communications
Scientific communications play a crucial role in pharmaceutical companies by effectively disseminating clinical data, research findings, and product information to the medical community, HCPs, researchers, regulators, and other stakeholders in the form of posters, abstracts, and manuscripts. Scientists and medical writers can use RightFind to locate and cite articles when drafting new content. Cite It is RightFind’s citation tool. Available for Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint, Cite It simplifies the citation process by offering an easy-to-use tool that automatically formats bibliographies with preferred styles and citations.
5) Health Economics and Outcomes Research (HEOR)
Some Medical Affairs departments have dedicated teams or individuals responsible for conducting or supporting health economic analyses, outcomes research, and real-world evidence generation to demonstrate the value and outcomes of the company’s products in clinical practice. Monitoring literature for this purpose can be simplified by creating alerts in RightFind, so new data won’t be missed.
In addition to the above examples, another benefit of using RightFind to access literature is that users don’t need to drastically change their workflow. Because RightFind integrates easily with the common literature databases used by Medical affairs teams (PubMed, Embase, etc.), users can search with the discovery tools they’ve been using for years and then seamlessly obtain full text articles, manage their content, and collaborate with others, all within RightFind.
Overall, Medical Affairs teams play a critical role in advancing scientific knowledge, supporting HCPs, ensuring product safety and efficacy, and contributing to the success of pharmaceutical companies in delivering innovative therapies to patients. RightFind enables Medical Affairs teams to stay abreast of the most current information as well as organize, manage, and share content within the organization. Using the software platform, teams can create custom collections, set up alerts, verify copyright permissions, and effectively collaborate on research, enhancing their teamwork and productivity.
Related Reading:
Why Scientific Literature and Copyright Compliance Are Essential to Medical Affairs
5 Considerations When Choosing a Reference Management Tool for a Corporate Environment