Garth Sundem   00:00

Welcome to this episode of the Medical Affairs Professional Society podcast series: “Elevate”. I’m your host, Garth Sundem, Communications Director at MAPS. And today we’re speaking about digital listening with Scott Thompson, Co-Chief Executive Officer at Acceleration Point. This episode is sponsored by Acceleration Point, the makers of Kwello, the first social monitoring platform designed specifically for Medical Affairs. So, Scott, it’s good to talk to you. And I was hoping that maybe we could get started just by sharing what is digital listening? What are the basics that we’re talking about here?

Scott Thompson   00:41

Sure. Thanks, Garth, it’s great to be here. You know, digital listening is a process you might have actually heard it referred to as social monitoring. But it’s a little bit broader than that. See, what we’re finding in the social space is that it goes beyond social media. So digital listing includes social media, but also consumer and industry specific news, forums, blogs, video sites like YouTube and other places on the web. There’s a lot of relevant content that are being talked about by your KOL and other experts that can really help influence strategy.

Garth Sundem   01:16

That’s interesting. So, not just social media, but almost traditional media as well. You’re talking about listening to industry relevant news sources. So, what blogs and news sites?

Scott Thompson   01:30

Yeah, so if you look across all of the social, digital content that is out there, you know, by far Twitter tends to be the global leader in the dissemination of scientific content. But the second is actually news. And it could be anything from oncology today, to CNN or BBC.

Garth Sundem   01:53

Interesting. So, can you listen, you know, I can imagine how things like natural hazards, natural language processing or other digital tools could help make sense of sort of the printed word? Do we have the capability to listen to the talking heads on the news as well?

Scott Thompson   02:12

We do. So, most sources that are publishing video-based content have some type of underlying transcript that all of the AI tools are going at and are able to process.

Garth Sundem   02:24

Okay, cool. So, we have all this content, all these places? Does it also matter, now, who is saying it? Who are these contributors?

Scott Thompson   02:37

Absolutely. So. So when I think about the basics of digital listening, it comes down to two things, content, and contributors. And so, the first thing, whenever you’re starting a digital listing strategy is to focus that content down to things that are scientifically relevant. The challenge is that the digital space is so broad, and there’s such a large volume of content, it’s coming in so fast, that they can create a lot of noise. And so, by starting with a scientific search about the specific indications you care about, you can weed out a lot of the noise about, you know, people’s favorite restaurants, or their kids’ birthdays, favorite bottle of wine, and make it relevant to the work that you’re doing.

Garth Sundem   03:23

Oh, interesting. So, you, you identify these people, but then you also kind of filter what they’re saying. It’s not just that you’re listening to everything that your key opinion leader is saying. It’s that you’re listening to a filtered subset of what your key opinion leader is saying.

Scott Thompson   03:42

Yeah, absolutely. It helps make it a lot more actionable faster, and easier to use. But it’s also important that you’re listening to the right people. Yeah. Okay. So, after you filter down content, then go look at who sharing that content, because not everyone talking about those indications should be influencing a medical strategy really comes down to two people that you should be focusing on, one is your existing key opinion leaders. I mean, it’s interesting over this past year, we actually hit a benchmark a momentous occasion because in 2021, across 50,000 KOLs that we’re monitoring, we’ve now hit this milestone where over half have scientific contributions in the digital space. So, it’s not just a handful of them that are speaking now or contributing in the digital space. We’re actually seeing that it’s now the majority.

Garth Sundem   04:41

Okay, sorry, what, let’s dig in on that a little bit. What do you mean so? So, you’re monitoring 50,000 KOLs, and they have scientific contributions in the digital space. What do you mean by that?

Scott Thompson   04:53

Yeah, so, as we’ve been monitoring KOLs now for the last couple of years. We’ve now got over 50,000 that we’re looking at as kind of a benchmark group. And so, within that group of 50,000, over half of them now either talk about a disease, a treatment or a mechanism of action, study in the digital space across all of those sources. And what’s been really interesting is it’s not that they’re all talking about COVID, or they’re all talking about rare disease is about 60% of their contributions are focused on a single disease that aligns with their specialty.

Garth Sundem   05:33

Okay, so over half of these 50,000, KOLs are bringing their scientific expertise to the digital space. And you can, you can hear them doing it that that makes sense. It’s not just the, I don’t know publishing a link to their paper or something. It’s their, they’re talking about their disease specialty in the digital space.

Scott Thompson   05:53

That’s right. And then that’s not even the DOLs

Garth Sundem   05:57

Oh, that, oh, right. So, we’re talking KOL. So, who are DOLs, digital?

Scott Thompson   06:03

So, where KOL are the people that you probably already know, right? They’re already relevant in publications or speaking congresses, or involved in trials, there’s this newer group of digital opinion leaders that are creating a significant amount of content from their own accounts. And what we typically mean for medical is that it is a credentialed expert, discussing relevant science with a large reach to other HCPs.

Garth Sundem   06:33

Okay, that’s interesting. So, we’re not talking about a celebrity who becomes an advocate for a disease, you’re talking still about credentialed healthcare professionals? Is, is there a reason that, that we would, as Medical Affairs professionals want to restrict ourselves to credentialed professionals? Or, or do we just want the people with the widest reach?

Scott Thompson   07:02

Great question. You know, as I’ve worked with Medical Affairs teams, this is a good place to start, they already have processes, it’s already within their, their purview to engage with HCPs. Now, we do have some that have started bringing in other DOL advocacy groups, you know, even patients and caregivers, sometimes, and I guess what I would say is, as long as it matches your strategy, it’s somebody to be listening to

Garth Sundem   07:31

Interesting, so strategy driven, and it also sounds like maybe compliance driven.

Scott Thompson   07:37

Absolutely. And, you know, on the compliance topic, this is still fairly new for Medical Affairs. You know, there’s still a lot of processes and policies that haven’t caught up to this channel of influence. And so, I know a lot of our clients are kind of going through this cycle, now the first time to start getting alignment and common understanding across the organization of how you’re going to engage why you’re engaging, and making sure it’s appropriate for medical.

Garth Sundem   08:07

Okay, so these digital opinion leaders, do they all sort of do the same thing? Do? Do they have the same? I don’t know, purpose or function for Medical Affairs? Or does Medical Affairs, look at subsets within digital opinion leaders?

Scott Thompson   08:24

Yeah, absolutely. So, in addition to those different types of segments, I think holistically, what our clients are finding is that there’s really two types of digital influencers, and how you engage with each will be different. The first is what a lot of them and we started calling data disseminators. And you’ll find a lot of these folks that you look at their posts. And what they do is they will announce something that’s coming up. So, let’s say check out this new data that’s being released, or I’m excited for this session and upcoming Congress, or hey, did you see this start up a new trial. And what’s interesting is that they don’t add a lot of thought to what they post, they just kind of re announced they disseminate stuff that’s already out there. And for medical teams that start to engage with them, what they find is that this is really the best channel for increasing awareness of your scientific content and your scientific platform.

Garth Sundem   09:25

Oh, sure. Yep. They’ll spread the word.

Scott Thompson   09:29

They spread the word. Right. And, and if you engage with them, similar to your other KOLs, you know, build a trusting relationship, make sure that they have access to the most relevant and recent science. It then becomes something that they talk about, and other HCPs become more aware of your content.

Garth Sundem   09:47

Okay, so we’ve got disseminators, who you said there’s another type.

Scott Thompson   09:51

Yeah, so, the other group that we find is really content generators. These are folks that may not post quite as often but it’s still quite frequent. But when they do, they don’t just share, here’s other things that are happening, they’re actually contributing and generating new thought in that digital space. As an example, they could be sharing their opinion on a new mechanism of action I, we’ve seen examples, and our clients have pulled out examples where they see somebody challenging the design of a study. Or maybe they’re talking about clinical outcomes that they’re seeing. As a result. This is really kind of the space where for teams that want to use digital listening for insight generation, this is where you go, because you’re seeing new insights, you’re seeing discussion across HCPs. And what’s been really exciting is to start seeing clients bring these experts out of the digital space into their existing advisory boards, I’m engaging with them at congresses, I’m doing things that help provide a platform to those experts, but also bring more insights in.

Garth Sundem   11:01

Okay, so you’ve got the disseminators that Medical Affairs could interface with, to, to communicate Medical Affairs data to put your information and out into the world. And then you have content generators, who maybe you’re listening to more, you know, you’re listening to them for, for insights. So, I guess, let, let’s so now we know who these people are. And maybe the general shape of them. Medical Affairs, if we’re doing social listening, we’re getting all this data in from these people. And now, what in the world do we do with it?

Scott Thompson   11:46

Sure. You know, I, that’s a great question. And you know, it is a lot of data, right? It’s it’s significant volumes, it comes in every day doesn’t just show up once a quarter. And it’s varied, right, there’s a difference between a tweet and a video and a news article is so different, that you need a way of collecting it all in one place and processing it so you can find the insights quickly. That’s why we actually built Kwello for Medical Affairs, you know, it’s really a place where it goes out across all of those different sources every day, multiple times a day, brings in all of the content, filters it down to that scientifically relevant piece, and then uses artificial intelligence and natural language processing, to help teams find those insights quickly, and to drill into what individual people are saying.

Garth Sundem   12:41

Okay, so the digital data requires digital solutions. You know, I wanted to just ask about, so again, we have the goal of Medical Affairs, one goal being to disseminate data, and we have another goal of Medical Affairs being to generate insights from data coming in. How do you then strategize around digital listening to ensure that what you’re doing supports Medical Affairs and organizational strategic priorities?

Scott Thompson   13:20

Sure. So, I think there’s three steps. The first is that you want to start by listening, not talking. So, by bringing in insights, just like you do in your other sources, bring those together and consider what the message means for your medical team. Second, is that when you’re engaging with these digital opinion leaders, it’s important to remember they’re experts in their space. And they’ve worked very hard to build a trusting reputation and a trusting relationship with their followers. And so, you don’t want to jump in too fast and try to go straight to how do we work together digitally, just like any other KOL start with introductions, building trust, bringing value to them through scientific exchange, and then eventually the relationship can evolve to do something more in the digital space. Okay. And then that third step is when you do get there, or maybe it’s with a KOL you already have that relationship with, then you can start looking at more digitally relevant types of engagements. We see examples in our tools all the time of, of Medical Affairs teams partnering with DOL on a podcast, facilitating live web-based events, co-authoring content, and even engaging with some of these experts to attend sessions at congresses and share their thoughts again, all under a compliant way and with the right disclosures, but it’s very similar to the types of interactions you might have with your traditional KOLs.

Garth Sundem   14:54

This sounds like a good strategy for engaging with anyone you meet, by listening, not talking, you build the relationship, bring value, build trust, and then look at how you can partner together. It’s so interesting when you have these cutting-edge digital tools, and the structure or framework is still built on the basics of human interactions.

Scott Thompson   15:22

That’s right. We’re all people and it’s just another channel.

Garth Sundem   15:27

We’re all people, and it’s just another channel, albeit a very important channel, both for communication out and for insights in. Alright, Scott, let’s leave it there for today.

Scott Thompson   15:27

That sounds great.

Garth Sundem   15:27

To learn more about how your organization can partner with Acceleration Point to generate insights, engage KOLs and ensure effective operational processes, visit AccelerationPoint.com. MAPS members, don’t forget to subscribe. And we hope you enjoyed this episode of the Medical Affairs Professional Society podcast series: “Elevate”.