Article updated November 2023.
In 2020, life science companies mounted a quick response to restrictions enacted during the COVID-19 crisis – with clinical trials on the line and the need for even more coordination and collaboration as the pandemic unfolded, teams turned en masse to virtual communication to engage large groups online.
Post-pandemic, organizations continue to leverage the flexibility of a virtual engagement platform, and industry professionals agree that virtual advisory boards and steering committees, in particular, lend themselves to asynchronous online formats.
But what if your team is planning a virtual engagement that’s more complex than a 10-person advisory board? Large groups have unique needs that go beyond a Zoom link or webinar. Here are four best practices we’ve developed that you can use to engage and communicate with large groups in a virtual environment.
Add asynchronous discussion to real-time interaction
Real-time meetings – one-time webcasts, video conferences, or even in-person events that require every attendee to be available at the same time – have their share of roadblocks: schedules that differ due to work hours or time zones, the (often false!) assumption that everyone will be able to give their full attention for the duration of the meeting, and that all agenda items will fit into the time allotted.
Using over-time meetings to supplement live events preserves the personal touch of peer interaction while being friendlier to everyone’s schedule. Live meetings can still occur via video conference, but participants who can’t attend can watch a recording and participate in an asynchronous discussion. Another option is to hold a kickoff webcast to make introductions and set an agenda, or a wrap-up webcast to discuss the results of an over-time session.
Create 24×7 communication hubs
With employees located all over the world, global organizations often struggle with internal communication. Time zone and language differences can stand in the way of keeping large teams up-to-date on critical projects or obtaining feedback from key employees.
Life science teams increasingly turn to virtual engagement platforms to augment or replace inefficient methods, like mass emails or hard-to-navigate intranets. A customized online resource center or community available 24/7 from any connected device allows internal personnel or invited group members to view resources, ask questions, read news, or interact with experts.
Take later-stage clinical trials online
Any application where life science companies seek to interact with large groups of physicians or patients is a good opportunity for online engagement. For example, later-stage clinical trials can involve large numbers of investigators, sites, and patients. Staying connected with these disparate groups can be challenging, but bringing different aspects of clinical trial activities into an over-time discussion platform can decrease internal workloads, accelerate insight gathering, and increase the number of touchpoints with physicians and nurses.
Establish working group hubs for long-term projects
Long-running projects like steering committees, publication teams, and clinical trial protocol development can involve participants worldwide. Traditional approaches to engaging these groups include inefficient email chains, poorly attended web conferences, and outdated document portals. Shifting these projects to an online discussion platform allows organizing resources in one place and gathering resources while significantly reducing the pain of scheduling, managing, and completing key pieces of work – even if the group includes internal and external stakeholders.
Treat in-person, live virtual, and asynchronous as part of a single strategy
Whatever method your team or organization uses to gather insights, all that valuable information needs to be shared, analyzed, and eventually used to drive a business strategy and make critical decisions. By considering these insight streams as part of a holistic insights management strategy, your team will be positioned to work more efficiently and achieve better results.
To learn more about how to get started with insights management, download our white paper, “Best Practice Guide: Turn Insights into Business Value.”
