Pharmaceutical advisory boards have changed. It’s no longer necessary to hold in-person meetings to capture insights from your panel of experts. Since the pandemic, virtual and hybrid advisory boards have become increasingly commonplace – and depending on your perspective, this can be both a positive and a negative. Some people miss the networking opportunities and sense of collaboration in-person advisory boards provide. But on the other hand, hybrid and virtual engagements enable us to connect with advisors from across the globe – broadening our perspectives and unlocking diverse insights from a whole new cadre of experts.
Let’s explore how virtual and hybrid advisory boards can help you engage global advisors, and examine a few best practices to help you uncover the most valuable insights.
Preparing for an advisory board with global advisors
An advisory board featuring global or international advisors may require you to prepare a little differently than you would for a more traditional advisory board. Consider how your preparations might change in terms of the format and agenda. Could engaging global advisors affect your choice of moderator, or the process of KOL identification?
Planning and setting an agenda
If you’re used to planning live, in-person advisory boards, engaging global or international advisors will inevitably require a different approach. It wouldn’t be cost-effective or practical to expect these experts to travel, so you’ll want to engage them virtually – perhaps even asynchronously (more on which later). Your advisory board might be entirely virtual, or hybrid – allowing local experts to engage in person.
“First and foremost, understand company objectives for holding the advisory board before deciding who should be invited.”
During the planning phase, ensure you:
- Define your objectives, and ensure they align with wider organizational goals.
- Define the purpose – whether it’s clinical trial design, developing a launch strategy, gathering product feedback, etc.
- Set measurable goals that can help you determine success and optimize future efforts. Consider using the SMART framework (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) to make your goals more impactful.
Identifying and engaging KOLs
Engaging global advisors means you won’t need to rely on the same old experts for insight. By definition, you’re casting a wider net. But if you’re operating in territories that may be new or unfamiliar to you, how can you find the right people to engage for your virtual advisory board?
KOL mapping is a process that looks beyond publication data to uncover the ‘invisible college’ within a disease community. By using advanced data analytics, it’s possible to determine the connections between individuals and organizations, uncover their sphere of influence – thereby identifying the most powerful influencers within that community. Often, these individuals aren’t who you might think. They may be publishing HCPs, but they’re just as likely to be patients, patient advocates, or DOLs (digital opinion leaders) with a dedicated online following. KOL mapping can help you to identify and engage the tier-one advisors within a new territory, making your advisory board more impactful.
“Expert identification is about making sure you’re really targeting who’s going to help impact the things that matter the most to you.”
- Sam McAloney, SVP Product Management, Within3
The challenge of engaging global advisors
Engaging advisors from across the globe is a great opportunity to unlock fresh perspectives and new insights – but it’s not without its challenges. Engaging virtually can help us bridge geographical distances, but what about the other barriers to engagement, like time zones, language barriers, and cultural differences?
“If you’re someone who’s junior, if you’re someone who’s not comfortable with the language, then you might be less likely to counter somebody or share a dissenting opinion, because you want to be tactful and polite. And oftentimes you’re trying to craft an argument thoughtfully in your head, and by the time you have that argument thoughtfully crafted, you’re on to the next agenda item.”
- Sylke Anderson, Senior Director, Client Strategy Lead, Within3
Crossing time zones
The main drawback of live, in-person advisory boards is that advisors often have busy schedules, and finding space in their calendar for a two-hour session at a set place and time is a major challenge. Add the complicating factor of international advisors operating in different time zones and this challenge becomes practically insurmountable.
The best solution is to engage your advisors asynchronously. An asynchronous virtual engagement platform allows your advisors to engage in their own time and on their own schedule – wherever they’re based. This flexibility eliminates schedule conflicts and ensures that more of your tier-one advisors will say yes to participating, providing you with more valuable insights to inform your medical and commercial strategy.
Asynchronous engagement also gives advisors time to consider their responses. Live meetings put advisors under pressure to respond in the moment, and some may choose to stay silent rather than risk saying the wrong thing, or offending or undermining another advisor. By engaging asynchronously, you’re giving advisors time to craft their responses and consider the discussion at length – encouraging maximum participation from a broader spectrum of advisors.
“We found that HCPs prefer to meet at least 2–4 times per year using a mix of web meetings and virtual discussion forums where they can contribute on their own time over a 2-to-3-week period.”
Breaking down language barriers
“The odds of gaining meaningful or actionable insights from an in-person advisory board meeting can be significantly reduced as a result of language and cultural barriers.”
- Natalie DiMambro, Vice President of Learning and Development, Within3
In a live meeting environment, there’s little that can be done to overcome the language barrier. If you’re engaging international advisors in a live setting, then inevitably, some will have to engage in their second or third language – if at all. These advisors may struggle to articulate their thoughts clearly or in time, giving them less opportunity to contribute to the discussion.
Within3’s asynchronous engagement platform features in-platform translation – allowing all advisors to engage in their native language. Ensuring that every advisor can contribute to the discussion means you can capture more insights from a broader, more diverse pool of experts.
Today’s advisory boards look different
They’ve evolved beyond exclusively live, in-person events to include hybrid and virtual sessions — making it easier than ever to engage experts from anywhere in the world. Expanding your reach means capturing fresh insights from new voices and further refining your medical and commercial strategies.
But to do that, you need an asynchronous virtual engagement platform.
Within3’s Virtual Advisory Boards offer 40+ flexible engagement applications to support your workflows and connect with advisors effectively — wherever they are.
