In recent years, Medical Affairs has begun to take its place alongside Commercial and R&D as the essential third pillar of life sciences organizations. Medical Affairs teams specialize in receiving, analyzing, and sharing information. As such, they are an essential connection among departments within a life sciences company and between the organization and others.
As Medical Affairs (MA) takes on the full responsibility of becoming a communications hub, MA teams need information that is streamlined, easy to access, and simple to share — without compromising security. A single source of truth for medical information can help Medical Affairs teams improve healthcare outcomes through effective communication and collaboration.
Medical Affairs: An Essential Communications Hub
Healthcare providers, researchers, and other medical professionals face an avalanche of information. Clinical care and research have become more complex, and the amount of available data continues to expand.
As practitioners face this onslaught of information, Medical Affairs teams play a vital role. By communicating ways to integrate scientific evidence into daily clinical practice, MA teams help support healthcare providers (HCPs) and other life sciences professionals, write Elias Thorp, Casey Carey, and Jason Evers at Bain & Company.
HCPs aren’t the only parties who benefit from a Medical Affairs emphasis on communications. Site sponsors, principal investigators, and other stakeholders now demand more thorough analysis of clinical trial data, real world data, and information like adverse events and patient complaints, write Kurt Conger and Ming Shen at Deloitte.
Medical Affairs teams that use digital solutions to streamline these information sources into a single source of truth can then utilize it to meet increasingly complex demands for information, communicated in an accessible manner.
How a Single Source of Truth for Medical Information Helps MA Teams
Information is more readily available, and more plentiful, than ever before. At the same time, the rise of digital analysis tools and improved ways of performing clinical research have led to a demand for more complete, thorough, and generalizable clinical trial results — as well as a demand for more real-world data extending beyond trials.
Medical Affairs plays an indispensable role in managing this information within a life sciences organization. To do the job, MA teams need a single source of truth for medical information.
A single source of truth can:
- Help MA teams draw connections among key opinion leaders based on past and present research, presentations, and publications.
- Clarify the patient journey from clinical trial recruitment through product launch, adverse event reporting, and complaints.
- Connect with HCPs, patients, and other stakeholders throughout both clinical trials and post-launch treatment.
- Identify and integrate data to advocate for innovation.
- Keep clinical research and launch activities grounded in practical budgets and resource constraints.
- Ensure that data remains consistent across the organization, no matter which system is used to collect information initially.
Medical Affairs plays an essential role throughout the clinical trial, product launch, and post-launch processes, write Uche Iloeje and fellow authors in Clinical Leader. By using a single source of truth, Medical Affairs teams can become a reliable communications hub within the organization. Medical Affairs can also speak more confidently with parties outside the organization, presenting consistent, accurate information.
Tools and Strategies for Enhanced Healthcare Communications
As the current gold standard of Medical Information Solutions, Anju’s IRMS MAX enables Medical Information (MI) teams to access and share accurate, up-to-date medical information to improve decision-making processes and patient care strategies. IRMS MAX enables MI teams to:
- Perform faster, more streamlined deployments at a local, regional, or global scale with configurations and multilingual support.
- Centralize case intake with Adverse Event and Product Complaints modules, creating a single source of truth related to medical information and patient contact details — one that connects seamlessly with existing Safety and Product Complaint systems.
- Gain deep, actionable business insights with Anju Data Visualization (AnjuDV), creating rich data visualizations for keener insights and better reporting.
- Utilize robust security, auditability, data protection and privacy measures to meet all applicable compliance standards without compromising the usability of information.
- Integrate IRMS MAX’s capabilities with any third party application or Anju product via AnjuBUS.
By connecting with other systems through AnjuBUS and providing information intake modules, IRMS MAX can function as a single source of truth for Medical Affairs teams. All information is available within IRMS MAX, allowing for more complete data visualization and better communication.
Finally, IRMS MAX may be hosted in Anju’s cloud to allow organizations to use their existing infrastructure.
By utilizing a “single source of truth” for medical information, Medical Affairs teams can improve communication and collaboration to boost healthcare outcomes.
Images used under license by Shutterstock.com.
Authored by John Ferguson, VP of Product Management for Medical Affairs
John Ferguson, VP of Product Management for Medical Affairs at Anju Software, boasts over 15 years of experience, holding various titles such as business analyst and director. In his role, he oversees project management and software implementation for global pharmaceutical companies, ensuring seamless integration and optimal performance. With a background in finance and an MBA from DePaul University, John’s dedication to continuous improvement drives innovation and success in the medical affairs sector. Connect with John on LinkedIn to explore his achievements further.