Last month Scott Thompson, Co-CEO of Acceleration Point, led a webinar on the important role of the Medical Insight Lead within Medical Affairs teams. Drawing from over a decade of experience working directly with medical affairs teams, Scott shared three essential strategies for Medical Insight Leads to excel in their roles. In this blog article we focus on the strategies that insight generation leaders must master to take their teams’ insights process to the next level.
Insights Strategy
One of the fundamental responsibilities of a Medical Insight Lead is to proactively manage the insights strategy. Scott pointed out that many teams take a reactive approach to insight generation, often bringing back random insights based on what they happen to hear in engagements. He emphasized the importance of a strategic approach:
"In order to make insights insightful, we have to understand who we're bringing those insights for, what decisions they're trying to make, and then go get data that helps support that decision." - Scott Thompson
This means aligning the insights strategy with the organization’s decision-making needs. Insight Leads should work closely with strategists and other key stakeholders to identify critical areas requiring data, formulate key insight questions, and ensure that the data gathered is both relevant and actionable.
Gather Confidence Building Data
Confidence in data is crucial for making informed decisions. Scott stressed the importance of collecting comprehensive and reliable data from various sources. To build this confidence, Medical Insight Leads should integrate structured and unstructured data collection methods, leveraging multiple sources such as field medical insights, advisory boards, social listening, and medical information from sources like MedInfo. Combining data from diverse sources into reports based on key insight questions ensures a robust dataset that is actionable.
"We need volume, we need specifics, we need breadth. We need it from specific specialties and different sources because the more of that we have, the higher our confidence is in that data so we can make a decision off of it." - Scott Thompson
Facilitate Action from Insights
Transforming insights into actionable strategies is a critical step that often gets overlooked. Insights-to-action meetings are necessary to evaluate the data’s confidence level, potential impacts of actions, and ensure commitment to specific actions.
"Big organizations struggle to take action on insights unless there is a documented, facilitated, planned, purposeful process for getting that done." - Scott Thompson
These actions could range from strategic changes in medical plans to prioritizing education or generating further insights based on emerging signals. Documenting decisions and providing feedback to all contributors is vital for maintaining engagement and continuous improvement.
Revolutionize Your Insights Process
Kwello is uniquely positioned to support Medical Affairs teams in their overall insights process. Kwello’s Accelerated Insights Method™ ensures that every piece of data collected is actionable and aligned with strategic priorities, helping teams move from data collection to impactful decision-making seamlessly. With Kwello, you can enhance the accuracy, efficiency, and effectiveness of your insights process, empowering your team to make decisions that drive meaningful change. Visit our website to learn more.
Click here to receive the full recording of Scott’s webinar on the Medical Insight Lead.
