The Big Shift: Medical Affairs Value Has To Be Designed Up Front

One thing was clear at Fierce Pharma Engage San Diego 2026: Medical Affairs does not need another reminder to do more with less.

The bigger opportunity is showing what all that work changes.

If impact is not thought about until the end, the value story is already harder to tell. That is why showing Medical Affairs value is a communication problem, not a metrics problem. Before doing anything, teams need to ask:

• What are we trying to change?
• What decision are we trying to inform?
• What would make this useful enough for someone to act on?

That is the difference between activity and impact. These 4 themes from Fierce made this feel especially practical.

1️⃣ Use External Trust To Get Medical Involved Earlier

The need to involve Medical Affairs earlier was a recurring theme (there were marketing sessions on this too!).

It wasn’t the usual “Medical deserves a seat at the table” conversation. Several senior leaders shared examples of how they broke down silos and got Medical involved earlier. The common thread was external trust. Medical Affairs brought something other functions could not easily access on their own: deep scientific relationships, what HCPs actually think, and a clearer view of what was happening in the landscape.

Vic Abler from Acadia said, “Medical Affairs owns external trust.”

That is the asset. The opportunity is using it internally. Many teams are not doing this effectively.

The trick is to bring external perspective and relationships into internal conversations in a way that builds trust and helps the organization make better decisions sooner.

That is how Medical successfully gets involved earlier:

By bringing something to the table that everyone else needs.

2️⃣ Make The Rules Of Collaboration Specific

Getting Medical Affairs involved earlier only works if how to collaborate is clear. This was another big theme this year. Wednesday kicked off with 3 sessions in a row about collaboration.

It came through strongly in the conversations on cross-functional partnership. In one panel, with Ralph Rewers and Chris Cahill, a VP of Sales, shared several practical reminders that Medical Affairs teams should pay attention to.

One was that collaboration starts with the leadership team. If leaders are not aligned, the field feels it fast. Another was being careful with language that signals ownership instead of partnership. Phrases like “my relationship” can raise red flags because patient care takes a village. No one function can do the work alone.

That is where Medical Affairs has to get specific.

If Medical is coming in earlier, the rules of the road need to be clear. Who owns what? What can be shared? Where does Medical lead? Where do our partners lead? Where do teams need alignment before anything moves forward?

This is exactly what we worked on in my Level Up Your Sandbox Skills working session.

We did not just talk about collaboration in theory. We built actual collaboration playbooks. Telling folks to “get along” doesn’t work.

Check out this on-demand 60-min workshop on how to build a collab playbook. Or ping me about bringing this workshop to your team.

3️⃣ Stop Hoarding Data And Start Using It To Show Impact

Data overload came up repeatedly. At both Medical Affairs sessions and marketing sessions. Everyone has more information than ever. The issue is no longer access to info, it’s what we do with it.

Brian Raineri made this practical in the context of medical education. He talked about how teams often focus on getting as much information out as possible, but more information does not automatically create  better outcomes.

That is optimizing for activity, not impact.

Adeola Davis made a similar point from an L&D perspective: publishing evidence does not mean the field is ready to discuss it.

That is the gap Medical Affairs can close.

Start with the end in mind. What should this data help someone do differently? What decision should it inform? What conversation should it improve? What behavior should change?

4️⃣ Make The “So What?” Test Standard Practice

This is where Leonie Brown and Maria Urso shared one of my favorite practical examples.

Their team was overloaded with new papers, so they created the SNAP system to help everyone get aligned quickly. It’s a call where they reviewed the paper, clarified the take-home message, looked at the evidence, and then asked the most important question:

So what?

I love this because it forces prioritization.

Not every paper needs to become part of your message. If there are crickets when asked, “So what?” it gets the boot.  That is how Medical Affairs turns information overload into clarity.

And the fact that 130 people routinely joined their meetings says a lot. People do not just want another link to another paper. They want help understanding what matters and what to do next. Boom, Medical Affairs value unlocked.

How To Take Action In Medical Affairs’ Prove-It-Through-Partnership Era

Fierce was like looking into a crystal ball on how to show value in Medical Affairs. 

The field is not short on data, tools, meetings, dashboards, or “strategic priorities.” There’s plenty of all that. Possibly enough to qualify as hoarding.

The opportunity now is to turn those assets into value that people can see and use.

Start here:

1️⃣ Use external trust to get Medical involved earlier

2️⃣ Make the rules of collaboration specific

3️⃣ Turn data into action by starting with the end in mind

4️⃣Use the “so what?” test on everything. 

That’s how you get a jump start on the prove-it-through-partnership era. Showing value should not feel like duct-taping a story together after the work is done.

It should be built into the work from the start. Great value stories are built backward. Learn how to do this in my session on how to build effective value stories.