Clinical SCORE presents an innovative process for measuring the effectiveness of Medical Affairs (MA) teams. Partner of Choice addresses the pharmaceutical industry's need for a non-monetary way to assess performance while maintaining regulatory compliance and to assist teams with the critical insights necessary to deliver greater value to key opinion leaders (KOLs).

"We've watched Medical Affairs groups play an increasingly important role in recent years. At the same time, tighter budgets put them under tremendous performance pressure," said Gary Kaplan, vice president of Medical Affairs Research at Clinical SCORE. "Today's consultative model is highly nuanced, measures like call numbers aren't adequate. This new paradigm calls for a new approach to metrics."

Unlike traditional approaches, Partner of Choice uses non-monetary metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) to quantify the value of medical affairs initiatives. It achieves this goal in conformance with compliance requirements for medical science liaison (MSL) objectivity. The exclusive process provides an MSL-independent way to assess KOLs' views of various scientific approaches to disease states. It does not name any specific product, company or MSL team—an agnostic approach that meets compliance standards.

Research results are presented via Clinical SCORE's proprietary KPI Konsole. This unique format helps MA teams answer questions regarding how KOLs in a given specialty area view the advantages or disadvantages of a medication's mechanism of action or whether they agree on a common approach to treatment. It then tracks decision metrics over time, providing a means to gauge how events such as a product launch impacts the decisions.

"Partner of Choice meets the industry's need to quantify the value of Medical Affairs through non-monetary metrics and KPIs in a way that is designed to meet the requirements of the organization's compliance department," Kaplan said.