As a scientific interface between pharma and physician/patients and payers, Medical Affairs and Health Outcomes have the potential to improve product development as well as manage what is becoming an increasingly complex healthcare system. Sharing actionable outcomes data with customers and gaining customer feedback on the data is becoming a role that more and more companies are considering to have handled by Medical Affairs, whether it is through a Health Outcomes group or specialized science Liaisons who can talk to the science and the economics of drugs.
With the growing emphasis on tracking and utilizing health outcomes data with payers and other external stakeholders, pharmaceutical companies are finding that Medical Affairs must play a significant role in health outcomes (HO) information exchanges with such groups.
To build robust Health Outcomes capabilities, Medical Affairs leaders have developed field and in-house capabilities, as well as sought ways to customize outcomes data so that it reaches stakeholders at the right time to make decisions.
As such, Medical Affairs now actively owns many Health Outcomes activities, including presenting pharmaco-economic data, developing clinical protocols for outcomes research and training speakers on the outcomes data.