Novo Nordisk: Modernizing the Insights Process to Increase Medical Effectiveness

“We are on a quest to modernize our medical insights process,” says Natalie McCorkle, director, medical affairs, liver health central at Novo Nordisk. “As medical affairs, it’s our job to understand the beliefs, opinions, unmet needs, and data gaps to improve relationships with our HCPs and, ultimately, patients.”

Medical insights are foundational to the medical affairs function and key to the broader organization. However, manual processes are not efficient and slow down the management of these insights and important follow-up actions. Novo Nordisk has established a strong medical insights culture, which the rest of the organization relies on for key learnings. The medical affairs team recognized a more modern approach could help them remove barriers and optimize the entire insights process.

The right time to modernize

A company-wide initiative to modernize key processes presented an ideal opportunity for the medical affairs team to explore how to capture and analyze insights more efficiently. The team had proven the beneficial effect of insights, which earned them leadership backing for the project. With the scientific landscape and HCP expectations rapidly evolving, McCorkle knew a more efficient way to organize and analyze information from scientific exchange was needed.

The goal was to use technology to augment the process, providing a seamless user experience for field medical and closing the loop for them on the insights they generate. “Our medical teams are great at collecting what we need to learn for insights,” says Christine Castro, director of medical omnichannel engagement. “We needed to ‘get out of their way’ and give them a frictionless way of entering and analyzing the information.”

“Our medical teams are great at collecting what we need to learn for insights. We needed to ‘get out of their way’ and give them a frictionless way of entering and analyzing the information.” – Christine Castro, Director of Medical Omnichannel Engagement

The results

The team at Novo Nordisk chose to implement Veeva Link Medical Insights. McCorkle says that modernizing the insights process has increased efficiency and accuracy. “We can deliver an even stronger package to our internal customers, whether it’s making suggestions on changes to strategy or reinforcing something we are already doing,” she says. “We learn a lot from the data.”

Standardized metadata across the organization

Manual processes often lead to over-analysis of insights through topic tagging, creating overlapping tags and unclear trends. Link Medical Insights uses a combination of machine learning and human review to accurately tag and curate the data, quickly surfacing insights. Novo Nordisk simplified tagging and now focuses on five to seven strategic themes. By implementing more precise tags, the team has standardized the metadata and created one source of truth across the enterprise. This helps the team uncover patterns across geographies and TAs and surface those insights in a simple way that teams can understand and digest. All of this leads to accelerated action on those insights.

Getting more out of data

For Castro, it’s about having a simplified but integrated process and connected data. “Learning from holistic data helps us see the potential blind spots,” she says. “If you’re looking for something specific in a certain data set, you may miss another data set or not ask the right question.”

Moving beyond burdensome data spreadsheets gives expert medical teams time and focus to query the data and be more curious about how they approach it. “We all risk asking too narrow a question or enriching our data through over-processing data collection,” she says. “Using the appropriate technology enables you to step back and search for other signals that may be present.”

Better data delivery to internal customers

Link Medical Insights provides full visibility of insights across the organization, which McCorkle believes enhances the medical team’s ability to deliver more learnings to colleagues. “Medical affairs has richer discussions with our publications, clinical development, and med info teams, so we can decide what change needs to happen,” she says. “Our modern system allows us to share the data quickly, but also package and present it based on the interests of different stakeholders.”

Real-time analysis

Historically, Novo Nordisk’s field directors approved every insight in the system to ensure completeness and appropriateness. Thanks to ongoing training and a modernized process, the team removed this step, allowing them to perform real-time analysis and speed up potential actions. “It means many hours back in a month,” says McCorkle.

“Medical affairs now has richer discussions with our internal teams, so we can decide what change needs to happen.” – Natalie McCorkle, Director, Medical Affairs, Liver Health Central, Novo Nordisk

Steps for successful modernization

McCorkle attributes the smooth transition to modernizing their medical insights to three things. The first is to secure senior leadership endorsement and support. Novo Nordisk’s leadership was onboard to modernize and continue to grow its insights process.

The second is to involve key stakeholders early and often. Novo Nordisk brought a wide range of colleagues along the journey including MSLs, field directors, IT, legal, and compliance. “It’s important for all stakeholders to understand how these changes will potentially impact them,” says McCorkle. “Asking for input and circling back with potential solutions helped make the change successful.”

The last is to cultivate advocacy and trust from champions. Novo Nordisk performed several head-to-head comparisons of its traditional tagging and Veeva’s automated tagging. “After seeing it, living it, and believing it, we gained trust,” says McCorkle. “Now we’re able to have more precise tags that give us better data to take action on.” Castro agrees and stresses that transparency and frequent communication is important when transitioning to a more modern system. “Know there’s going to be change, and that change is tough,” she says. “Be open to pressure and test the technology and be willing to come back and say it’s better than what we are doing.”

Driving impact on long-term strategy

Working with Veeva helped the medical affairs team at Novo Nordisk simplify their insights process, connect data across the enterprise to surface patterns faster, and ultimately perform real-time analysis. With this new system in place, McCorkle and Castro look forward to how it will continue to benefit their organization.

“Faster and easier access to insights can help drive strategy changes that impact our teams, patients, and HCPs,” says McCorkle. “The impact on our patients will be even more tangible now.” Castro hopes that quicker access to data will help get the team back to the essence of what medical affairs does best. “You can get buried under hundreds and thousands of insights and the process,” says Castro. “I’m excited about our medical affairs professionals’ freedom to return to their scientific curiosity and expertise”

Learn more about Link Medical Insights here.