The 2016 Medical Affairs Strategic Summit (MASS) West began on 14 September in San Diego, California, USA. The 3-day summit hosted professionals involved in all aspects of medical affairs including clinical research, health economics, key opinion leadership, medical communications and publication planning.
Plenary sessions focused on the current state of medical affairs within the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. The first plenary session highlighted the importance of communication channel management and the value of developing an integrated medical affairs strategy for effective product life cycle planning. The second plenary session described the shift from using qualitative to quantitative approaches when assessing the value of medical science liaisons (MSLs) in the pharmaceutical industry. The third plenary session focused on the use of big data and network analytics in the development and optimization of the industry’s MSL and key opinion leader (KOL) engagement strategy.
Following the plenary sessions, the summit partitioned into three tracks. The Medical Affairs Executive Forum track featured a robust panel discussion focused on the development of strong internal firewalls between medical affairs and commercial teams to ensure compliance regulations are followed. The Medical Science Liaison Best Practices Congress track focused on MSL training and development, the implementation of quantitative key performance indicators for measuring MSL value, and the utilization of KOL influence mapping services to broaden and strengthen MSL–KOL relationships. The Research Collaborations and Investigator-Initiated Studies Symposium track centered around the utilization of operational strategies and innovative tools for monitoring investigator-initiated trials within small and large pharmaceutical organizations.
Oxford PharmaGenesis was pleased to attend and sponsor MASS West, a comprehensive interdisciplinary conference designed for medical affairs professionals to learn best practices and gain critical insights into the trends and developments affecting the medical affairs field.
