GOALS
A medical affairs oncology team wanted to engage a group of hematology and oncology specialists to gather insight on various topics around a rare type of cancer. Specifically, the team wanted to understand their drug’s impact on treating the disease. There were multiple objectives for the oncology engagement for medical affairs:
- Obtain feedback on FDA-approved label for the disease, and understand the potential impact on clinical practice
- Understand current treatment practices for the management of the disease and the impact of a specific drug’s placement in clinical practice guidelines
- Understand what meaningful clinical benefit looks like for the disease
- Discuss the evolving role of pathology reports and molecular profiling
- Learn which data from recent medical congress events are most interesting to meeting participants
HOW DID THE ONCOLOGY TEAM GET DEEPER INSIGHTS?
The team used the Within3 insights management platform to design a three-part advisory board, beginning with a one-hour kickoff webcast to review key data and set expectations for the next part of the meeting. After the kickoff webcast, the team launched a two-week asynchronous session.
The medical affairs team customized the asynchronous session to get the most valuable oncology insights without overwhelming the participants. Half of the questions were open during the first week of the session, with the remaining questions released in the second week. Example questions included What is your experience with or impression of the safety profile of certain drugs used to treat this type of cancer? and How are you evaluating responses to specific therapies in your patients? For some questions, PDF resources were available in a secure viewer, so participants could review and consider them before responding. Moderators could view participation metrics by participant and follow up where necessary.
After the two-week asynchronous session concluded, a closing webcast allowed participants to review areas of consensus and discuss additional thoughts and details.
WHAT WERE THE RESULTS?
Session moderators were highly engaged throughout the asynchronous engagement session, and 100% of the contracted participants contributed to the discussion. The team met its stated objectives for the advisory board and collected key learnings about the insights management approach:
- Using the asynchronous approach for HCP insights provided participants the opportunity to be more thoughtful in their responses and work around their existing schedules
- Participants who preferred the asynchronous format to in-person advisory boards reported they were able to think more clearly about their comments and more thoroughly consider their colleagues’ remarks
- The phased approach to questions felt less cumbersome and was well-paced
Get Insights Management for Medical Affairs: a Guide to Operational Excellence (one-click download) to learn how medical affairs teams navigate the top oncology challenges in pharma.