We attended MAPS Americas 2026 – and left energized. The Medical Affairs Professional Society (MAPS) celebrated its 10th anniversary with the event, which brought together medical affairs professionals from all across the continent for a series of talks, workshops, and networking opportunities. In this article, we’ll summarize our key findings and top takeaways from one of the biggest events in pharma.
AI adoption accelerates
Unsurprisingly, AI adoption was a major topic among MAPS speakers and attendees. However, while AI use is increasing, the consensus view is that generic adoption does not generate value. Instead, having specific AI use cases in mind before adopting the technology was identified as a critical success factor. Likewise, leadership clarity on AI usage was seen as fundamental. Contrary to widespread belief, failing to adopt AI within Medical Affairs teams may not be due to cultural resistance, but rather a lack of clear direction from senior leadership.
For launch teams, the provocation as it relates to AI was clear: teams must push past initial failures in pursuit of lasting value, recognizing that while AI isn’t perfect, it’s highly adaptable. Governance is equally top of mind when it comes to AI. While it may feel safer to adopt AI slowly across the organization waiting until every box is checked, the real risk is “shadow AI” – which is the unsanctioned use of consumer-grade LLMs to keep pace with demands. The answer isn’t to slow down; it’s governance by design, built into the product as a standard feature. That way, governance isn’t a speed bump, but how you scale. Even with the right governance in place, operationalizing AI isn’t painless. Teams cannot simply ‘buy’ operational excellence – they have to earn it through experimentation. Teams that use AI daily are the ones building real confidence in the technology, and ultimately getting better treatments to patients, faster.
One final point on AI adoption: teams now recognize that in pivotal moments – such as launch – AI is only effective when it’s capable of being directly tied to strategic decisions. If it isn’t, then it’s merely accelerating existing inefficiencies.
Learnings on launch excellence
One of the key themes to emerge from MAPS Americas 2026 was that while only 5–10% of all launches can be deemed “excellent,” achieving that standard requires Medical and Commercial teams to operate as “co-equal partners.” Another reality check-stat shared at the summit includes that 80% of launches maintain the trajectory they set over the first six months of commercial life – meaning just 20% are capable of course-correcting after a poor start.
The complexity of today’s launches only raises the bar, meaning you need to get more things ‘right’ to have a great launch. Of the launches in the last five years, 85% have been specialty products, and half of all FDA approvals now fall in the orphan or rare disease space, which equates to more complex mechanisms of action, multidisciplinary care pathways, and smaller, harder-to-reach patient populations. The margin for error is shrinking.
While that first half-year post-launch is critical, teams recognize that the real hard work happens far earlier – with success dependent on the first two to five years of pre-launch planning. With timelines shortening, budgets shrinking, and the stakes increasing, Medical Affairs is positioned to be a fully-fledged launch partner, contributing:
- Pre-launch education and HCP preparation
- Early engagement around MOA and clinical data
- FAQ development from field experience
- Scientific substrate laying for commercial messaging
However, MAPS speakers highlighted a lag between question, data collection, and finally strategic decision-making, identifying more than 15 steps that separate field observation from strategy impact. Several improvement strategies were discussed here, including:
- Democratizing insight access to commercial teams
- Enabling self-service querying vs. packaged monthly reports
- Creating an enterprise view to link insights to specific accounts
- Implementing an accountability layer for insight follow-through
Engaging patients, engaging stakeholders
A key topic of conversation at this year’s MAPS Americas involved new ways to engage disease communities. Interestingly, while it seems as though the ways that patients access information are changing, the most recent Edelman Trust Barometer found that 82% still put the majority of their trust in doctors. Younger demographics, however, consume content in 30–60-second bursts, and it’s by employing these short videos that medical affairs and HCPs can combat misinformation.
Digital Opinion Leaders (DOLs) continue to be a stakeholder segment that Medical explores and recognizes as a force of influence in disease communities. The main question remains on how, exactly, Medical works with DOLs, KOLs, HCPs, and patients in a valuable and compliant way. On the novelty front, the term ‘Micro-influencer’ emerged at MAPS 2026, referring to digital opinion leaders (DOLs) who are tied to a specific disease area and can be highly effective when used for community engagement. And a new question emerged: should Virtual Opinion Leaders (VOLs) have a seat at the table? While the use of virtual bots (aka a “Virtual Opinion Leader”) in healthcare and their influence remains to be seen, a trend observed with MAPS attendees is that AI is an opportunity to humanize healthcare – freeing up time for work that truly moves the needle.
Turning insights into impact
Siloed insights remain a major pain point for medical affairs teams across the board, where the majority of attendees reported that they struggle to unify different data sources and produce actionable insights. While the Field Force remains Medical’s muscle behind every big decision, it was widely agreed that the benefits of integrated insights can raise the bar of decision-making, increasing both validity and quality of insights from the medical organization.
There’s recognition that medical affairs has moved beyond the need to justify its existence. Instead, the time has come to demonstrate strategic impact. A gap identified? 83% of companies currently lack formal validation rubrics for insights – eroding confidence in the insights they do have. For Medical Affairs, insights must be actionable – and linked to specific outcomes.
One of the most praised sessions at MAPS 2026 was a presentation by Boehringer Ingelheim on quantifying care gaps across the patient journey. Their approach – mapping patient flow through screening, diagnosis, and treatment, then using claims-based metrics to measure progress – drew widespread interest as a model for tying medical affairs activity directly to patient movement through the health system. The takeaway: Medical Affairs needs to show contribution – not attribution – and measure it in cycles short enough to act on.
Tony Page, Within3’s own SVP of Insight Analytics, co-led a workshop on ‘Insights and Launch Excellence: Accelerating Medical Impact by Turning Signals into Strategy,’ which explored the importance of building strategic frameworks so insights directly support strategic decision-making. Drawing on a military analogy, teams must recognize that while planning is critical, ‘no plan survives contact with the enemy’, so a continuous flow of insights provides the needed regular course-correction opportunities based on real-time market conditions.
What we heard at MAPS confirmed what we see every day with our customers, and aligns with Within3’s raison d’être and our guiding force to develop Launch Intelligence™. The Launch Intelligence™ platform unifies field insights, stakeholder engagement, social, claims, and market signals into a single connected view that surfaces what matters most. Our platform helps teams move with clarity and speed, turning complex evidence into decisive action. If you would like to know how Within3 can equip your launch team with the intelligence to act decisively, connect with our team today.
