Think of Medical Affairs as an umbrella term for any function that deals with the exchange of scientific data. Medical Affairs lies between R&D and commercial - it ensures clinical trial data and scientific information are presented accurately and fairly while being delivered to key stakeholders (your HCPs, payers, and patients). This is the most natural place to be for those with a medical background, and while it can vary from company to company, it typically has the following sub-departments:
Medical Communications/Publications: Posters, manuscripts, posters, congresses (aka conferences), symposiums, and did I say POSTERS???
Medical Information: The Yahoo! answers of pharma, the Janet for your call centers; sends you the tldr in a crispy response letter.
Field Medical (Medical Science Liaisons or MSLs): Gathers insights from and explains new data to key opinion leaders (KOLs) – lives at the airport.
Medical Education: Makes sure all our internal peeps know what they’re talking about. All facts, no BS.
Health Economics Outcomes Research (HEOR): STRATEGIC VALUE, REAL WORLD EVIDENCE, MACHINE LEARNING, MARKET ACCESS, FOCUS GROUP, VALUE BASED AGREEMENTS, BUDGET IMPACT MODEL, COST-EFFECTIVENESS, VALUE DOSSIERS…ever wondered who gets to throw these buzzwords around on the daily? It’s these wicked smaht kids. Typically flex their extra degrees.
Stay tuned for more snippets on other functional areas. 😉