Boehringer Ingelheim and Takeda: Evolving Medical Content for Omnichannel Success
Note: The views expressed in this post are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of Boehringer Ingelheim or Takeda Pharmaceuticals.
Content is currency in the world of medical affairs, and delivering relevant, impactful content ensures high-quality, peer-to-peer scientific exchange. A recent survey by BCG shows that 40% of healthcare professionals (HCPs) would like to receive medical and scientific information more frequently.
Omnichannel has emerged as a solution for medical affairs to meet the growing demand for medical and scientific information and deliver consistent, tailored content. Once seen as an opportunity to differentiate from competitors, omnichannel execution is now less about differentiation and more about keeping up with the competition. While many medical affairs organizations have not executed omnichannel strategies, most are actively exploring plans to move forward.
During a recent session on this topic at Veeva Summit, Europe, Jennifer Haddon, global medical content strategy lead at Boehringer Ingelheim, and Georgios Tramountanis, global head of medical information, medical review, and digital strategy at Takeda Pharmaceuticals, shared the ways their organizations are evolving medical content to support omnichannel success.
Consistent messaging is key to an omnichannel foundation
Scientific communications teams need to align on a clear vision for content creation that ties directly back to the overall medical strategy and the needs of the stakeholders. Integrating scientific data and treatment landscapes under scientific themes or pillars ensures that messaging about a product, therapeutic area, or company and its clinical profile is consistent wherever used.
When considering content strategy, Haddon’s colleagues focus on the data. She shares, “You have to hold your team accountable and ask them if they use the content. And if not, why not? Look to the data to drive change in your content strategy.”
Organizations must also ensure consistent messaging with commercial colleagues as interactions overlap with stakeholders. This can often be done at the brand level so that created materials follow the alignment of both medical and commercial, at least at the top level. Then, if deviations are necessary, this can be done based on specific tactics, the phase of strategy, and individual targets.
Tramountanis has prioritized consistent messaging over the past two and a half years. He says, “It’s critical to have alignment across functions but also alignment within medical for all content. If you don’t do that, your content will appear very fragmented to the customer.”
Tramountanis leverages the Veeva platform to support content consistency across his organization. “We gave marketing colleagues access to medical content to view specific strategy documents so they can compliantly ensure alignment with their plans.”
Omnichannel content is dynamic throughout the lifecycle
Recognizing that content is alive and dynamic, medical affairs teams must establish well-defined criteria and approval processes for content use, reuse, and retirement. Establishing business rules is essential, particularly considering the resource constraints medical affairs teams face. If it doesn’t meet the criteria, Haddon says, “You have to look at the content and make decisions about retirement, as that is the only way to help stakeholders find the most relevant content.”
For medical teams often met with limited resources, maximizing content reuse is essential to a successful omnichannel strategy. Science is science no matter where you are in the world, but variations in local regulatory and approval processes across different countries can create roadblocks.
To overcome this challenge, Tramountanis offers, “You’re never going to have the perfect material that meets all country regulations. We leverage our global team to create content that most countries can use with the slightest changes possible.”
Creating content quickly is essential to delivering relevant, exciting content to HCPs. If new scientific data emerges and your organization spends three weeks producing related content, you may have missed the window to communicate critical information about your product.
To produce new content as quickly as possible, Tramountanis recommends investing time in internal alignment. When executing their content strategy, he and his team leverage concept meetings to discuss content direction, understand goals, and create content that can be readily approved.
Maximize omnichannel reach efficiently and effectively
Producing relevant and dynamic content is key, but to maximize reach, organizations must engage HCPs in their preferred channels at the right moment. Building a truly omnichannel approach requires a detailed plan for content distribution that understands the right channels to use and delivers content to those channels as quickly as possible.
Often, the first step for medical content distribution is sharing content quickly with field teams. Automating the distribution of new content to field medical and medical science liaisons (MSLs) ensures they have immediate access to the most relevant and up-to-date content for interactions with HCPs. Then, by understanding how field teams use the content, medical teams can make changes that ultimately impact customer experience positively.
Tramountanis has noticed an uptake in customers using self-serve content portals and has shifted the distribution plan accordingly. He says, “We launched a portal about two years ago and has been surprised at the uptake. We didn’t know what to expect or predict how many people would use it. It has gone above our expectations.” He notes that connecting their portal directly to Veeva Vault was critical because it enabled HCPs and KOLs to search and find approved content and avoid different sources of truth.
Medical teams must also gather feedback from HCPs and KOLs and gain insight into channel preferences. That way, they can use data to distribute content effectively. Where data is available, Haddon’s colleagues use it with stakeholder feedback to support successful content consumption, “We look at our digital landscape to understand what channels physicians are using and identify what materials we have to meet their content and channel needs. The processes and people need to be set up to ensure we can put the content they want in the right place.”
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