If you’re in Medical Affairs and haven’t heard about MSL insights, you must be living under a rock! They’re the lifeblood of Medical Affairs:

→ Driving strategy

→ Improving patient outcomes

→ Showcasing the true value of the work of Medical Affairs

When gathered and used effectively, MSL insights empower Medical Affairs teams to shape strategy and deliver better outcomes.

Yet, there’s trouble in paradise. MSLs often struggle to understand what an insight really is, leaders express frustration that insights aren’t actionable, and many MSLs miss out on grasping the full insights cycle. In this definitive guide to turning MSL insights into impact, we’ll walk through each stage of the insights cycle, from strategy to sharing, and provide practical advice to help you avoid common pitfalls and maximize the impact of insights.

Why MSL Insights Matter

Insights are the main way Medical Affairs teams add value. They’re the key to understanding the gaps that need filling, whether that’s missing data, HCP education needs, shifting trends, or smaller things that help the field perform better. By gathering and sharing insights, Medical Affairs teams aren’t just collecting information; they’re driving decisions that can shape strategy and make a real impact. Without decision-grade insights, Medical Affairs would be missing its biggest opportunity to show its value and influence. That’s why getting the insights cycle right is so important. It’s the backbone of delivering value in Medical Affairs to drive outcomes and bring patient-centered solutions forward.

The Definition of an MSL Insight

Defining an MSL insight can be tricky because there isn’t a universal definition. Each company has its own interpretation, and these definitions can change over time. In my MSL Insights Course, an insight is defined as:

“The identification and generation of decision-grade information that impacts the understanding of a therapeutic area and/or the use of a therapeutic agent.”

In simpler terms, insights are more than just data. They’re valuable pieces of intelligence that can influence how a company navigates a therapeutic landscape. For the purposes of this guide, when we refer to insights, we’re talking about the raw data, observations, or statements collected by MSLs. Once these are analyzed, they are transformed into decision-grade insights that inform strategy and drive decision-making.

On top of this, what qualifies as an insight at one point in time might not qualify later. The relevance of certain insights can shift with the company’s strategy, therapeutic advancements, or changes in the healthcare landscape. Something that was once a valuable insight might lose its strategic impact as priorities change, underscoring the importance of continuous alignment with the medical strategy.

Don’t have a medical strategy? Here’s how to think about insights in this case. 

Common Challenge: Everything is Called an Insight

One of the biggest challenges in Medical Affairs is that everything tends to be labeled as an “insight.” This overuse can make it difficult for MSLs to know what they should be collecting and how to present it effectively.

If you are confused by insights nomenclature, don’t feel bad, it is confusing! Check out this 30-min webinar on “The Differences Between Raw Data and an Insight” to help clear things up and guide you toward collecting impactful insights.

Unlock Decision-Grade Insights by Understanding the Insights Cycle

The insights cycle is a structured process that transforms raw data into decision-grade insights. This cycle ensures that the information gathered aligns with organizational goals and can be used to drive strategic decisions.

The Four Stages of the Insights Cycle

Please note that the insights cycle might be defined slightly differently at different companies. Some organizations may have more stages, while others combine certain steps. For simplicity, we’ll break down the insights cycle into these four key stages: Medical Strategy, Gathering Insights, Analyzing Insights, and Sharing Insights.

Stage 1 of the Insights Cycle: Medical Strategy

Definition of Medical Strategy Stage

Medical strategy is the foundation of all MSL activities. It outlines your organization’s key objectives and strategic goals, guiding MSLs in identifying which insights are most valuable. It’s your guiding star!

Medical Strategy Stage: Why It Matters

A clear medical strategy is essential because it defines what you should focus on. When leaders complain that insights aren’t actionable, it’s often because they aren’t tied to the strategy. This misalignment leads to wasted effort and makes insights harder to act upon.

Medical Strategy Stage Common Challenge: Lack of Strategic Alignment

Many MSLs dive into gathering insights without fully understanding the strategic objectives, leading to insights that don’t support the bigger picture.

Medical Strategy Stage Actionable Tip

Make it a habit to review your medical strategy documents regularly. Align your insights-gathering efforts with the strategic priorities of your organization to ensure relevance and impact. If you’re an experienced MSL, take time to mentor new team members on strategy. It’s not something we’re taught in grad or med school.

A powerful way to support MSLs in gathering actionable insights is by establishing Listening Priorities. These strategic focus areas, also known as Key Insight Questions (KIQs) or Key Insight Topics (KITs), insights themes, strategic themes, etc are designed to help MSLs focus on what matters most for the organization’s strategy. By aligning MSL conversations with these predefined priorities, Medical Affairs teams can guide MSLs toward gathering insights that are directly relevant to strategic goals.

Listening Priorities: Focusing MSL Efforts on High-Impact Insights

Listening priorities help focus conversations and make it easier for MSLs to navigate complex interactions. With clear topics to explore, MSLs can frame their questions around strategic assumptions, allowing them to capture insights that directly validate or challenge the current medical strategy. For instance, as Ralph Rewers, the Yoda of Medical Affairs, suggests, using key questions during field engagements can ensure that insights data is cleaner and easier to analyze.

To make this process seamless, consider integrating these key questions directly into your CRM or insights tool. By doing so, MSLs can refer to them during pre-meeting planning and capture the information in a structured way afterward. This approach not only improves the relevance of insights but also enhances their quality, making it easier for the analysis team to derive actionable outcomes from the data.

Listening Priorities Tips for HQ Teams

When creating Listening Priorities, create clear requirements around them:

• Exactly what info the company is looking for
• Why the info is desired
• How much data you need in what time frame
• What potential decisions will be made

Regularly communicate the impact of insights gathered from listening priorities back to MSLs. This feedback loop reinforces the importance of their work, helping MSLs understand how their insights contribute to the larger goals of Medical Affairs.

Stage 2 of the Insights Cycle: Gathering Insights

Definition of Gathering Stage

Gathering insights involves collecting valuable information from scientific exchange between MSLs and HCPs/KOLs. This stage is where MSLs engage with KOLs and HCPs to uncover their thoughts, preferences, and observations.

Gathering Stage: Why It Matters

The quality of insights MSLs gather directly affects Medical Affairs’ ability to make strategic decisions. Gathering insights isn’t just about collecting data. It’s about uncovering meaningful, actionable intelligence. You can’t just Google or ask ChatGPT (ok, you can ask ChatGPT but it might make something up) how doctors make treatment decisions or why they prefer certain guidelines. MSLs are the key to unlocking this knowledge.

Capturing MSL Insights: Free-Text vs. Surveys

When gathering insights, companies typically use two main methods: free-text entries and surveys.

Free-text insights allow MSLs to capture detailed observations, including the context and the “why” behind an HCP’s perspective. In practice, this means MSLs write a few sentences about their interaction, often in a CRM, Excel sheet, or other insights tool. This approach provides depth but can be more challenging to analyze consistently.

Surveys, on the other hand, offer a structured format that makes it easier to collect and analyze large volumes of data systematically. MSLs guide the conversation around the survey questions and record responses after the interaction. Crucially, the MSL completes the survey themselves rather than handing it directly to the HCP.

Each method serves a unique purpose: free-text for capturing depth and context, surveys for scale and consistency. Some teams rely solely on free-text, others stick to surveys, while many combine both. Be sure to understand your team’s specific process and follow all guidelines, as this will make a significant difference in the analysis stage down the road.

Why Timing Matters for MSL Insight Capture

The window for retaining critical details after an interaction is small. MSLs should aim to capture insights immediately to preserve context and accuracy. Delaying this step can lead to forgotten nuances and missed opportunities. For MSLs who struggle with this, adopting a structured routine is key. Whether it’s scheduling time post-meeting or pre-loading meeting details into your CRM, capturing insights efficiently can make all the difference. This habit not only benefits your organization by supporting strategic decisions but also helps you build trust with HCPs by remembering essential details for future interactions.

Using AI to Enhance Pre-Meeting Planning and KOL Engagement

AI offers MSLs a unique advantage in pre-meeting planning and KOL engagement by helping identify HCPs’ interests, values, and communication preferences. Tools like ChatGPT can help MSLs brainstorm personalized engagement strategies and fine-tune questions that resonate with HCPs’ current focus areas. By utilizing AI for pre-meeting planning, MSLs can walk into interactions more prepared and relevant, setting the foundation for insights that have depth and actionable value.

For instance, AI can speed up the pre-meeting planning process by analyzing recent publications, news, or conference activity to offer conversation starters, relevant publications, or emerging trends aligned with the HCP’s interests. However, it’s important to remember that while AI can generate ideas, it’s up to the MSLs to review these closely and experiment with what works during scientific exchange. This makes it essential for MSLs to stay well-informed and sharpen their insight-gathering skills.

Are you more old school when it comes to pre-meeting planning and like good old pen and paper? Check out this Pre-Meeting Planning Template and get the MSL Pre-Meeting Planning Checklist by entering your info in the form below.

Common Challenge: Incomplete MSL Insights

One of the most significant pitfalls in MSL insights gathering is the tendency to collect observations that lack the full context, making them difficult to analyze or act upon. For an insight to be valuable, it needs to be more than just a data point. It should contain the:

• Context of the interaction
• “Why” behind the HCP’s thinking
• Potential implications for the company

Incomplete insights often miss these critical elements, resulting in information that HQ teams struggle to interpret or apply strategically. Leaders frequently express frustration with insights that feel vague, disconnected from strategic priorities, or not actionable enough to drive decisions.

Solution: Capturing Insights with Context, “Why,” and Implications

To gather decision-grade insights that help generate decision-grade insights, MSLs need to focus on capturing the full story behind an observation. This means going beyond surface-level data and delving into the motivations and implications behind what HCPs share.

• Enhance Your Training: If you’re unsure about how to gather complete insights or want to improve your skills, consider enrolling in the MSL Insights Course or seeking coaching and additional training (contact me about my live insights workshops for Medical Affairs Teams, they’re awesome!). Understanding the end-to-end insights cycle and learning how to include context and strategic relevance in your insights can make a big difference.
• Plan Effective Conversations: Using a pre-meeting planning template can help you enter meetings with a clear strategy and agenda, ensuring that your conversations are not only aligned with the KOL’s interests but also focused on extracting insights that meet the company’s strategic goals. This planning enables you to ask targeted questions that uncover the “why” behind HCP decisions and capture insights that add value.

For further guidance on this, check out my hack on examples of what insights are not. This can help clarify the difference between an incomplete and a well-rounded insight.

Recognizing and Using Pre-Insights

Pre-insights are early observations from MSL engagements that hint at deeper information but aren’t quite ready to be shared internally yet. For example, “Dr. is excited about the phase 3 data” lacks context and implications. These observations should be noted and revisited in future interactions to gather context, the “why,” and potential strategic implications. This practice helps turn initial notes into decision-grade insights that support strategic goals and demonstrate the MSL’s value.

Gathering Insights Actionable Tip

After entering your insight, ask yourself if someone who wasn’t present could understand the insight’s significance. If not, make sure to add context, the reasoning behind the HCP’s statements, and any potential implications for your organization. By ensuring each insight is complete, your insight will add more value.

Stage 3: Analyzing Insights

Definition of Analyzing Stage

Analysis is the bridge between data collection and decision-making. This stage transforms raw data (insights) into decision-grade insights by connecting the dots and identifying trends.

Who Analyzes Insights

Depending on the organization, insights might be analyzed by a dedicated insights person, a medical director, or even a senior MSL. Understanding who is responsible can help you tailor the way you collect and report insights to make the analysis smoother.

Analysis Stage: Why It Matters

Without proper analysis, insights remain just data points and cannot drive decisions. Understanding what happens at this stage helps MSLs gather insights that are easier to analyze and ultimately more valuable.

AI for Insights Generation

One of the most exciting applications of AI is for insights generation. AI can significantly streamline the process of “mining” through large sets of insights to surface relevant themes and patterns, accelerating the path from data to decision-grade insights. Using natural language queries like “show me all insights mentioning [topic]” enables quicker, more targeted analysis of insights, helping teams uncover connections and emerging trends. However, AI cannot transform incomplete or poorly captured insights into high-quality, decision-grade information. In fact, as more teams adopt AI-assisted insight generation, the gaps in incomplete insights will become even more apparent, reinforcing the need for high-quality data from the outset.

To prepare for this AI-enhanced future, MSLs should prioritize thorough training on what constitutes a strong, complete insight and develop skills to capture the essential context, “why,” and implications in each interaction.

Common Challenge: Insights That Can’t Be Analyzed or Aren’t Used

Many MSLs’ insights aren’t analyzed because they lack context or don’t align with the strategy. When insights aren’t utilized, MSLs may feel that their contributions aren’t valued, which can lead to disengagement.

Analyzing Stage: Actionable Tip

When gathering insights, think about how the data will be analyzed later. Ensure that your insights are clear, specific, and tied to your medical strategy. This approach will streamline analysis and make your insights more actionable. Understand exactly how the analysis occurs and then do everything you can to make it easy on that person.

Stage 4: Sharing Insights

Definition of Sharing Stage

The sharing stage involves communicating decision-grade insights to relevant stakeholders within the organization. This ensures that the insights gathered and analyzed are put into action to drive decisions.

Sharing Stage: Why It Matters

Even the most valuable insights are useless if they aren’t communicated effectively. Sharing insights ensures that the knowledge gained is leveraged across the organization to improve outcomes and inform strategy.

Common Challenge: Ineffective Communication and Lack of Feedback (The “Insights Blackhole”)

MSLs are not always involved in the sharing stage, as this is often handled by leadership. However, it’s crucial that MSLs receive feedback on how their insights are being used. Without this communication loop, MSLs might feel disconnected from the impact of their work.

Sharing Stage: Actionable Tip

Proactively seek feedback from leadership on how your insights are being utilized. This not only helps you understand the impact of your work but also guides you in refining your approach for future insights collection. Remember, the best insights don’t matter if they aren’t communicated and acted upon!

Sharing Stage Bonus Tip: Reviewing and Reflecting on Insights for Continuous Improvement

A yearly review of insights activities can significantly elevate an MSL’s effectiveness. High-performing MSLs regularly reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and why. This practice helps ensure insights are strategically aligned and impactful. Using tools like an Insights Yearly Review Template, MSLs can assess how their insights influenced decisions, adapt strategies, and set new priorities for the coming year. Regular reviews help connect the dots and identify opportunities, making insights a powerful strategic tool for better patient outcomes and enhanced decision-making.

Measuring Success: Metrics that Matter for the MSL Insights Cycle

Tracking metrics is essential for understanding and improving the impact of insights gathered by MSLs and the insights cycle. The right metrics ensure insights are not only relevant and high-quality but also actionable and aligned with the organization’s strategic goals. Below are several key metrics that provide a well-rounded view of the effectiveness of the insights cycle:

These metrics, when viewed together, offer a comprehensive view of how insights are gathered, analyzed, and applied. By regularly reviewing these indicators, MSLs and Medical Affairs teams can ensure that their insights not only meet high standards of quality but also contribute meaningfully to the organization’s strategic goals and drive impactful outcomes.