At Acceleration Point, we’re seeing Medical Science Liaison (MSL) teams leverage social media to generate valuable insights that ultimately lead to better patient outcomes.

What do MSLs have to do with social media in the first place? More than you might think.

Using Social Media to Find Key Opinion Leaders

First and foremost, Medical Science Liaisons are building relationships with digital opinion leaders (DOLs), the online version of the tried-and-true key opinion leader (KOL). As HCPs with an online following, these opinion leaders are fast becoming very influential within their peer group. We have published the definitive guide for how to find and build relationships with digital opinion leaders, so refer here for additional reading.

Using Social Media to Prepare for KOL Meetings

The typical Medical Science Liaison meets with thirty to forty key opinion leaders every year, usually once per quarter. To make the most of the one- or two-hour meetings, MSLs can invest time reading up on the KOL’s scientific social media activity. What have they shared? What have they commented on? Has the KOL participated in any online journal clubs? How else are they using social media for medical education? Have they presented at any congresses recently? If the physician has poured blood, sweat, and tears into publishing something, the MSL sure as heck better read it before the meeting. The last thing Medical Affairs ever wants is to give the physician the idea that the relationship is a time-waster.

Medical Science Liaisons can also Google the opinion leader’s name or search their username or Twitter handle online. MSLs can see what others may be saying or find where the KOLs have appeared, perhaps in interviews with the press to educate the public on an important issue related to their practice area. Knowing all of this—or even some of it—sets the meeting up for success.

But what about the relationship? It’s almost impossible to remember vast real-time data about forty different individuals, which is why we advise all Medical Affairs teams to configure a customer relationship management (CRM) system like Veeva.com. We recommend incorporating scientific social media feeds into your Veeva CRM system to make it easily available for their MSL.

We mention CRM configuration because Veeva does not provide this auto-capture out-of-the-box. With a configured back end, a system like Veeva can quickly prepare the MSL for their upcoming interaction with one or two clicks around the front-end interface.

At Acceleration Point, we provide a service where we leverage social media tools to scan for scientifically relevant social media activity from KOLs. We then integrate this with Veeva and provide an ongoing feed to keep the system up-to-date. Then all the MSL must do to prepare for the visit is open Veeva, click the person’s name, and review their recent activity.

If you would like to learn more about KOL management or Veeva customization to help your Medical Science Liaisons prepare for these important meetings, please contact Acceleration Point with your questions today.