Is Medical Omnichannel Poised for Growth?

Published December 10, 2024

79% of respondents are predicting an increase in spend in Omnichannel capabilities for Medical Affairs in 2025, according to a recent TGaS survey fielded in September 2024.*

This predicted increase for Medical Omnichannel indicates that there is a real need to find ways to inform, educate and engage HCPs beyond the traditional in-person channel.   

What is Medical Omnichannel? 

Medical omnichannel is an orchestrated approach to scientific engagement, leveraging analytics and insights to optimize educational content and channels in a customer-centric way. This approach allows teams to support a growing audience. 

Applying Medical Omnichannel is a rapidly growing best practice that allows teams to improve customer coverage and access to educational information. Leading teams are taking an orchestrated approach to scientific engagement to provide each stakeholder with the right information through their preferred communication channels at the right time and frequency. By coordinating all available channels, teams deliver personalized messages tailored to the educational needs of their audiences and effectively and efficiently address knowledge gaps. 

How should savvy companies get started on their Medical omnichannel journey? 

Trinity’s view on what “good” looks like in Customer Engagement was explored in a prior blog. Explore it here. 

Life sciences companies moving towards “good” will need to focus on the 4 C’s. As more teams stand up omnichannel capabilities within Medical Affairs, Insights and analytics are being leveraged to identify stakeholder needs, measure performance and effectiveness, and refine messaging. This data-driven approach improves engagement, decision-making, and resource allocation, leading to more efficient and impactful engagements by delivering the right information through the most effective platforms. 

Are there any commercial approaches/tools that could apply to Medical? 

Yes: Establishing capabilities to understand the customer journey, defining KPIs to understand effectiveness, use of insights and analytics to provide a more comprehensive view and understanding of customer preferences and key knowledge gaps will inform a more effective approach to external engagement.  

What needs to be different for Medical Omnichannel versus Commercial? 

As teams stand up omnichannel capabilities, it is essential to consider the nuances of external engagement led by medical affairs, particularly the channels and content unique to medical, and the reactive and proactive approach engagement. It is also vital to consider the ways in which engagement changes over the lifecycle of an asset.  

How should Medical Omnichannel impact be measured? 

A combination of leading and lagging are necessary to effectively measure the impact of Medical Affairs Omnichannel capabilities. In addition to assessing which content and channels are most useful and resonate the best with HCPs (e.g., content downloads on a medical website, time spent per page, number of engagements with an MSL), understanding impact on HCP perception, behavior—and ultimately patient outcomes— will inform the impact of an engagement strategy.  

Should Medical Omnichannel only be applied after approval/launch? 

As Medical Affairs external engagement begins several years ahead of launch, it is important for Medical Omnichannel capabilities to be deployed as well. Establishing a data-driven, orchestrated approach to scientific engagement while an asset is in development allows for a more strategic approach to engagements with investigators and clinical trial sites, as well as identification of key knowledge gaps and evidence generation needs. Building strong relationships with HCPs ahead of launch allows for more time to change perception, attitudes and behavior—and ultimately supports improved patient outcomes.  

Medical omnichannel enables Medical Affairs to make data-driven, strategic decisions 

As the role of Medical Affairs continues to transition from being tactical to more strategic, it is important that the approach to external engagement evolves as well. Implementing an orchestrated approach to scientific engagement and leveraging insights and analytics in an impactful way allows Medical Affairs to make data-driven, strategic decisions to meet customers where they are. It will also drive collaboration across not only medical affairs functions, but cross-functional partners.  

With a mindset shift, Medical Affairs teams will be better able to provide target audiences with the right content on their preferred channels in a cadence and frequency that suits their needs.  

Authors: Sarah Odeh and Nancy Phelan

* “The Current and Future State of Customer Experience.” TGaS Advisors. November 2024. 

This blog is part of the One Chapter Ahead blog series, a Customer Engagement-focused thought leadership initiative to bring an informed, inspired point of view.  Our intent is to bring a fresh perspective, driven by data, benchmarks, insights and expertise.

Other blog posts in this series:

• What Does “Good” Look Like in Customer Engagement? 
• Get Ready to Orchestrate a Better Customer Experience
• Integrated Data + Hyper-local + Cross‑channel = Customer Engagement
• Foundational Differentiation: CE Requires Efficient Operationalization of Data
• Key Takeaways and Learnings from HLTH 2024 
• Are Pharma Brands Really Transformational?
• Culture and Collaboration: Keys to Customer Engagement Success
• Medical Affairs Customer Engagement: What’s Next?

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