The DIA Medical Affairs and Scientific Communications (MASC) Forum is created for medical affairs professionals by the best in their field. The annual forum is designed to provide information and guidance on all things affecting medical affairs. This includes regulatory, compliance, medical communications, medical writing, and more.

This year’s forum stretched over five days and featured a diverse agenda that showcased medical affairs and life sciences professionals discussing what they do best. With so much information to take in, we decided to provide a comprehensive event wrap-up with some of the key takeaways from the event. If you didn’t get a chance to attend, here’s what you missed.

1. Artificial Intelligence will Play a Significant Role in the Future of Medical Affairs

As we see a drastic increase in cluster and trend analyses for aggregated information and insights, artificial intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) are gaining popularity in the medical affairs sector. While many areas of – of the pharma industry have begun to adopt AI with implementations in drug discovery, clinical trial operations, and finance, there has been little progress made with AI in medical affairs. However, this trend won’t continue given the tremendous benefits. AI tagging allows companies to capture large amounts of field data in one place, produce real-time data entry and views and identify trends quickly. Meanwhile, NLP provides an on-demand summary, customization and minimizes any potential bias by the reviewer bias.

2. Chatbots are on the Rise

The use of Chatbots, either scripted or with AI, is undoubtedly on the rise. Chatbots have become the 3rd most-used engagement channel in medical affairs utilizing AI to answer questions, talk, and help users in manner mirroring rational discussion. We’ve seen the number of phone inquiries decrease due to this evolution and the younger generation of health care professionals are more comfortable with chat. With chatbots, teams have the option to decide between conversational and scripted. The ability to tailor your choice is the future of medical affairs. With the proper framework, this is much more effective than phone conversations and increases efficiency.

3. Digital Transformation is Important

One prevailing theme from various speakers at this year’s MASC forum was the importance of digital transformation in medical affairs. Leveraging technology to satisfy shifting customer expectations in the digital era must be a significant focus for life sciences professionals moving forward. For instance, HCPs found the correct information 33% faster using infographics. Additionally, Medical Intelligence Departments emphasize the importance of a proper omnichannnel digital strategy for delivering content. This calls for more research in the patient area to provide better results. Then there are social media opportunities. Several companies found Twitter compelling for HCPs/Patients/Caregivers to provide medical information.

4. Investing in Training is Essential

As companies evolve to meet the demands of a rapidly growing medical affairs sector, companies will have to train employees to stay up to date. No matter how much technology is leveraged, the system is only as good as the people who know how to use it. The idea is to continuously capture institutional learnings and best practices so that the learning curve can be less steep.

5. MA will Grow With Analytics

Analytics has helped future pharma trends, and the medical affairs sector is no exception. Digital and analytical tools have transformed medical activities, and this trend will continue. Analytics is essential because it helps with medical engagement – tailored information focused on improving outcomes. It is also crucial in performance management. With the accurate statistics available, you can maximize the impact of medical activities while quantifying and comparing. We hope that these five points, derived from some of the industry’s most trusted voices, provided helpful insight into the immediate future of medical affairs. As you can see, both people and technology will play a vital role with medical affairs elevating performance across medical functions. To learn more about ArisGlobal’s solutions and approach to Medical Affairs, click here.