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Blog: Removing the Pain Points from Overburdened Medical Affairs Teams

Today’s Medical Information (MI) and Medical Affairs professionals are juggling multiple challenges: they must adapt to decentralization, outsourcing and globalization while tackling the rise of digital platforms and other ongoing changes affecting the pharmaceutical industry.

In this dynamic environment, the ability to collaborate, efficiently gather and disseminate content, and respond easily and efficiently to medical information requests is core to a successful medical information function.

These challenges would all be handled more effectively if MI teams had access to supporting tools and systems that offer an integrated approach to Medical Information that leverage industry best-practices to ensure compliance and streamline their activities.

How to Improve Efficiencies in Medical Information Teams

Instead, medical information teams often have to make do with multiple, disconnected systems across the enterprise. Indeed, some teams are working on basic spreadsheets or outdated systems that hamper productivity while others are asked to force fit systems that have been adapted from elsewhere in the organization, primarily CRM (Customer Relationship Management).

With the best will in the world, how can the MI team efficiently and effectively handle the myriad of roles expected of them without a platform that enables them to perform their function effectively? At the same time, medical information groups are required to comply with a raft of regulations that impact MI, including data privacy, transparency, pharmacovigilance (PV), and copyright amongst others, all while providing greater efficiency and offering actionable relevant intelligence.

If all they have is a spreadsheet or disconnected tools, how can they be expected to engage healthcare professionals and patients and provide them with the information they need? Without the simplicity of a unified medical communications platform, how can they respond professionally and effectively to MI requests and ensure consistency of responses while complying with data privacy and corporate PV obligations?

The short answer is that companies need to understand the value of an effective LifeSphere® Medical Information Management Solutions, not just for the MI function, but also in terms of ensuring compliance with pharmacovigilance reporting and PV surveillance requirements. If used effectively, reports from medical information systems can also provide commercially relevant insights.

Regionalization or globalization places further demands on systems, requiring MI teams to work from a central repository, but with the ability to accommodate both local processes and product approval data, e.g., Labelling.

Cloud-Based Medical Affairs Platform

A cloud-based Medical Information platform with a simple user interface helps to increase productivity, making it easier for MI professionals to gather insights, share those insights with healthcare professionals as well as with colleagues within the business, and ensure the company meets compliance requirements.

Having a single platform and validated source of truth makes it easier for medical information professionals to work with outsourcing partners or with other global offices, such as call center management hubs, while continuing to support the company by providing specialist insights.

As change continues to impact all aspects of medical affairs, we believe that it’s vital that MI departments have the flexibility to adapt to the shifting landscape. We believe a solution that combines better decision-making capabilities with best practices in managing compliance should not put undue pressure on the business, and we also believe that the role of the Medical Information team is a crucial function within life sciences that mandates a solution purposely designed to support the MI function. That’s why we’ve launched LifeSphere® Medical Affairs an integrated platform that fosters collaboration between departments while addressing key compliance challenges such as data privacy, copyright, transparency and pharmacovigilance.

Learn more about ArisGlobal’s LifeSphere Medial Affairs Platform solution and find it how it can help improve compliance and medical information consistency.

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