Garth Sundem 

Welcome to the Medical Affairs Professional Society Podcast Series, Elevate, gathering the voices of Medical Affairs thought leaders and stakeholders to explore current trends, define best practices and empower the Medical Affairs function. I’m your host Garth Sundem, communications director at MAPS. And today we’ll be speaking with Robert Groebel, John Pracyk, and Pete Piliero about the role of data and analytics in leading and managing Fied Medical teams. Robert is VP of global medical strategy at Monocl. Monocl, A MAPS partner circle member company is a cloud based stakeholder platform enabling professionals in life sciences to confidently identify and engage the right experts across the world. By continuously analyzing a large amount of data across all therapeutic areas and regions. monocle provides scientific context and actionable insights. John is Integrated Leader of Preclinical and Clinical Research and Medical Affairs at Depuy Synthes Spine and President of the MAPS Americas Region. Pete is VP and Head of Medical Affairs, Americas at GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Health Care. Today, Robert, John and Pete highlight how diverse organizations are evolving the ways they view and leverage data to improve broader strategies both externally and internally. Robert, John, Pete, welcome. Thank you all. And, Robert, let’s start with you. Can you set the stage? So how does data drive the value of Fied Medical teams more broadly?

Robert Groebel 

Well, I think I think data drives drives value in Fied Medical in any number of ways. Whether it’s around the accuracy of a scientific exchange, or a scientific exchange that is really derived from the recency of data, I think it becomes incredibly important that field teams find the right data sources and leverage them to to really address the needs that their experts are having, or are looking to answer and becoming a partner with them in a in a deeper scientific relationship.

Garth Sundem 

Oh, that’s interesting. So I was imagining that we would be talking about how data is used to sort of manage the efforts of Fied Medical teams, what you’re saying is that individual Fied Medical professionals also need data to have these scientific conversations with with the people that they’re engaging. So maybe we’re talking about a bunch of different levels here.

Robert Groebel 

Well, I think I think there’s so much data that’s out there, and there’s so many different applications of it. I think we can have conversations go on for hours about how to use it in many ways. But it’s, you know, that’s one example. I think that becomes really important. And in fact, I you know, I think part of the challenge we all have is that there is so much data out there, both data that we can use our Medical Affairs, including Fied Medical professionals can use in having a discussion with a key opinion leader. But also then on the other side of that, what is the data that we get? Or the insights, it’s just the type of data that we get from all of those discussions with caol? So yeah, lots lots of data sources we could probably talk about here today.

Garth Sundem 

Oh, so that’s a good point you’re adding, you know, even a third layer of data to our discussion today. And that is the data generated by Fied Medical teams that comes back in house for decision making purposes. So John’s over here on the med tech side of things, you know, data is blowing up on the on the pharma side. You know, john, where is med tech in this ahead? at the same place? You know, catching up? Well, how is the exploding are the exploding sources of data influencing Fied Medical and med tech?

John Pracyk 

Right question Garth, I think it can be answered in a bifurcated way. We are behind in some ways, with the actual therapies because, for example, in the pharmacology, excuse me, the pharmacy space with regards to psychiatry, they have been doing this for seven. And there’s going to be providing insights, things like that, being able to determine if there are differences in practice between significant medical centers, and I think this is the dividend, that the electronic medical record in some ways, perhaps another version of data is now being able to being paid forward, hospitals are looking to monetize the information that they’re sitting on, whether that be pharmaceuticals or medical device. On the flip side, on the device side, I think now with the advent of robotics, there’s going to be at first the data that surrounds the perioperative period, let’s say the surgery, but it’ll also be used for the preoperative period and the post operative rehabilitation. Now giving us greater insights if you can will, too. Essentially digitize the surgical journey of the patient.

Garth Sundem 

If that makes sense. Okay, so. Okay, so it sounds like data. Well, I mean, so data is exploding. Robert, is it is the headline, just that data is exploding and teams are scrambling to figure out what the heck to do with it? Or do we have, you know, actionable best practices right now, that that some of our teams know, and some of our teams don’t know that that, you know, people listening could benefit from today?

I mean, the word exploding is just such a significant, significant way to characterize this. I mean, in in 1980, the available medical data, scientific data was doubling about every 10 years, as of today, it doubles every every 73 days, I mean, electronic medical records is playing a part wearables are playing a part, there’s so much more that that we have at hand, harnessing that data becomes the challenge and connecting the various data sources become the challenge to generate an insight. You know, I think there are people there are organizations out there that use data quite well in the medical space to to really understand not only the needs of the experts, but but the dynamics of what’s happening across the therapeutic area. But I still think that there’s a lot of change management, and that is going to be necessary in medical to really be able to, to consume and act on the vast amount of data that could drive activity could drive insight. We’re still, you know, trying to get there. I mean, I think about, you know, most recent conversations I’ve had about, you know, expert data in particular, you know, this is going to be a leverage point, when you’re trying to generate new relationships, when a company goes into a new therapeutic area, you really have to understand those those experts within that that ta so that you can engage in an initial relevant conversation about that person in particular. And that’s change management. Also, I think there’s there’s a lot of opportunity, though.

Pete Piliero 

Yeah, that’s a very good. That’s a amazing statistic, Robert, all the doubling time. Kind of scary, actually. But if we circle kind of back to feel medical, and how can we use data to help manage them, and they’re focused? I think there’s a number of things that are worth mentioning. So first of all, who are we going to meet with? And really, the area of caol, or expert mapping has also either exploded or certainly got more refined and sophisticated over the last, say, three to five years such that I think Fied Medical programs should be utilizing one of the possible sources of that information. I think, you know, we we went from being less sophisticated kind of doing Google searches for caol. To now having tools like, like what Monaco offers, and other companies offer, to really dive into the caol and understand all of the data surrounding them, and how to prioritize who we need to speak to based on our medical strategic imperatives. So that’s a big one. For me. I think there’s other things like competitive intelligence, most of the companies that we work for at have competitive intelligence teams that are gathering data and information, market research, my goodness, there’s a lot of market research going on. And some people may say, Well, that’s for marketing, it doesn’t have to be for marketing, medical can utilize that information as well. And so and publication updates and publication summaries, which again, a lot of companies put together, another source of data, if you will, that the teams can use to develop their executional plan. So I think on the front end, we can manage our teams more consistently and in a more sophisticated way, using those data sources. And then on the back end, it’s really using what we’re capturing in our CRM, related to the scientific exchanges that we’re having to mine the insights, the golden nuggets that can come out of these conversations.

John Pracyk 

I agree with you Pete. I mean, now you can be using this information to identify geographic trends, identify population trends, does this information, validate or help inform medical strategy as it pertains to outcomes? I think that that it’s absolutely innumerable when you hear terms, looking at Roberts numbers, when they say that there is exhaust data, that means there is so much that that is the stuff that is blowing by that really doesn’t get a chance to get analyzed.

Garth Sundem 

Oh, I love that term. Yeah. And if you go ahead, Robert,

Robert Groebel 

But if you also think about that, that exhaust it’s almost incumbent on Medical Affairs to get a handle on some of that data so that they can bring that in a synthesized way back to an expert to say, I brought you everything that I think is going to be relevant and new. That becomes critically important. So we think about the volume of publication and the volume of abstracts that are coming at us the volume of just non peer reviewed data that all of this stuff that’s come out around the Coronavirus. I mean, how can we capture all that and bring it back to someone in a in a really consumable way? I think the other way that that Fied Medical should consider using data and it goes to something john john had said earlier, his claim state I mean, this these electronic the electronic health record data is available in real time almost. And if you think about the medical science liaison bringing value to one of these experts, can you use different types of diagnostic codes, biomarker codes to indicate that that physician is considering making a diagnosis? And if that diagnosis is related to the compounds that you are you are kind of bringing to the market? Do you have a more relevant conversation with that expert when he’s actually trying to make a decision, as opposed to doing something in a standard quarterly deployment? You know, bring the science when it’s going to be most relevant and be most you know, applicable to a potential patient?

Pete Piliero 

And it gets to understanding your customer, your caol, what are they interested in? It’s not just about what our interest is, it’s what’s their interest in given all of the information that’s out there? And the exhaust? I do like that term? I haven’t heard that before. How can we make sense of this for that? caol? How do we give how do we do personalized scientific exchange? I’ll coined that phrase here. Because I think, you know, one, one approach does not fit all caol.

John Pracyk 

Pete, you’re absolutely right, because that personalization, really gets down to think about what may be taking place at the university may not be taking place at a regional referral center. Now, what you have is almost customized clinical decision support. And if you see now a company, whether it be device or pharma, bring that type of decision support, you’re intuitively adding value just by the nature of your delivery.

Garth Sundem 

Okay, so it sounds like it reminds me of the 90s. Right, everyone was building websites. And all of a sudden there was this explosion of website data. And we ended up with what is effectively, effectively a filter, which was Google, you know, it can find you the the website that you want to be at. Now, are we at a stage with just exploding health and pharma and medtech data, where we’re looking for, you know, all of the different layers filter layers like Google that’s going to give people the information they want from this data? You know, is that where we’re at right now?

Robert Groebel 

I don’t think we’re there yet. Because I think this is still an opportunity to kind of reimagine how data connects together and what one filter data set means when it’s combined with another filtered data set. I mean, if you if we go back to kind of traditional ways of looking at this, and if we just focus on that, that profile data, you know, organizations would use a certain set of key elements to say, Oh, this is a rising star, or this is someone who’s established or, you know, this type of persona of an expert. And I think you can look at other levels of behavioral data now and really understand what makes you know, an expert tick what their focus becomes. But it’s it’s then also the data that the MSL brings in as way of insight. And can we combine that with, let’s say, the information that comes in from your medical call center? And does one validate the other? And it’s so it’s the additive power of multiple data sets? I

Pete Piliero 

That’s a great question, Garth, I think that a number of organizations are trying to create these data lakes, where you can put all of these different types of data in one place, and make those connections, analyze it, and have a more impactful way of using the data, whether it be used externally, with customers or internally for strategic purposes.

Garth Sundem 

One of that that’s interesting. So it sounds like there’s a big push to centralize data, get everything in one place, and see how it synthesizes and then bring insights out of that pool of data. You know, is that something that you three, you know, Robert, Pete and john would would recommend, as a best practice to listeners, you know, to get all your data in one place, and then figure out how to draw insights from it.

Pete Piliero 

I think it’s certainly one approach. There probably some other approaches, but I again, I would say, this is one of those things that’s been a hot topic at a number of organizations I’ve been at over the last few years as a way to really Utilize the data in the most effective way. Okay,

John Pracyk 

I’d like to talk about and I think Pete and Robert had some really good insight and your question is spot on Garth. But there’s gonna be some headwinds, I think as well. At the same time that I had heard the term exhaust data, I also heard that certain physicians and surgeons are not necessarily comfortable with their information now being pooled. And they are worried and this we saw this maybe when just terms of traditional registries that their data would be weaponized against them. Now, what do I mean by that? I mean, perhaps, information about their practice would be used to the payers for steerage and things like that. So Pete has different outcomes than john. So therefore, one of the major insurance companies will use that information for storage purposes. So I think there’s going to be some headwinds and tailwinds with the data arise that we’re seeing.

Garth Sundem 

Okay, well, you know what, I wish we had 15 hours instead of 16 minutes to explore this, but I think we need to, I think we need to leave it there for today. So thanks, Robert, Pete and john for joining us today. And to learn more about how monocle can help your Fied Medical teams connect with experts around the world. To drive these impactful outreaches and strategic engagements. Visit monocle.com. That’s mnl.com We hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of the Medical Affairs Professional Society Podcast Series elevate MAPS members, join us at the community portal to continue the conversation and don’t forget to subscribe. And we will see you next week in our next episode of elevate. Thank you all