When looking to come up with novel treatments for a specific therapeutic area, it can help to have connections with experts that are well versed in those conditions. LEO Pharma, a drug company specializing in dermatology treatments, recently expanded its partnership with Veeva Systems by leveraging Link for Key People, technology designed to help the company’s connections with dermatology experts in the medical community.
“As we work to advance the standard of care in medical dermatology, it’s crucial our teams have the latest insights from scientific, digital, and clinical leaders around the world,” said Joshua Corriveau, senior director of global field medical excellence at LEO Pharma. “As we innovate in medical dermatology, we need accurate, timely data on the experts who are at the forefront of related research and development; Link for Key People will help us deepen relationships with known experts and identify new experts to foster scientific exchange that advances patient care.”
To learn more about the technology and how it is being put to use by organizations like LEO Pharma, Outsourcing-Pharma connected with Kilian Weiss, general manager for Veeva Link.
OSP: Could you please tell us a bit about how Veeva Link for Key People works, and how it helps organizations overcome specific challenges/obstacles with engagement?
KW: Now that scientific and medical experts are active within a new mix of digital and scientific channels, life sciences companies are under greater pressure to be highly relevant and targeted in their communications. This makes it crucial for companies to stay current on the fast-changing scientific landscape, have access to accurate data, and understand the activities of existing and emerging opinion leaders.
Yet, while most companies collect this information, many lack the foundation to connect all of their data sources so they can get a complete view of the customer and their surrounding ecosystem. The data is often siloed, out-of-date, or manually tracked, making it difficult to keep up with today’s level of scientific output and maintain a complete view of experts in their therapeutic areas.
Veeva Link for Key People provides a real-time view of key medical and scientific experts and their activities across scholarly publications, clinical trials, medical congresses, associations, and social media. For example, it can identify the digital opinion leaders leading conversations around products or disease areas on Twitter, demonstrate the scientific collaborators of experts, map publication activity and trending topics, and track their congress contribution. This helps to paint a holistic profile of each opinion leader, empowering more personalized and timely engagement that ensures effective commercial and medical strategies.
OSP: Please talk about your perspective on LEO Pharma’s decision to implement Veeva Link for Key People—what problems and concerns came up in the conversations that led to the decision to bring the tech in?
KW: Companies turn to Link for Key People to identify, profile, and keep track of the experts they are targeting across therapeutic areas and better understand their collaboration networks and scientific research. Today, customer engagement in life sciences means meeting the customer where they are with the right message at the right time. Yet, this has become increasingly complex with the surge of digital platforms now available to disseminate scientific information.
By leveraging real-time customer intelligence, companies can more closely follow experts’ scientific activities across myriad channels and provide timely follow-up that strengthens field force relationships and advances research and care. Link for Key People also provides a richer look at international, national, and local congress coverage, enabling companies to execute global strategies at an affiliate level–ultimately, helping reach more of the right patients, faster.
LEO Pharma’s commercial and medical teams play a vital role in engaging with dermatological experts globally. Link for Key People gives them a deeper look at the activity of their key experts, leading to highly meaningful conversations that take into account each expert’s research, what trials they are collaborating on, the peers they frequently connect with, and their social media activity.
OSP: Could you please share some additional detail about Link for Key People and how it serves to help staff improve engagement and understanding of important issues?
KW: With Veeva Link for Key People, companies can better prioritize which experts to engage with and stay up-to-date on their field of interest. By having a real-time understanding of an opinion leader’s engagement across the scientific landscape, or what’s being said about a product, field teams can make the most of each interaction with experts. Not only does it prepare them with more relevant, tailored exchanges, but helps them identify new opportunities to engage.
Link for Key People’s real-time intelligence also empowers companies to leverage analytics when structuring their engagement plans. Field teams can embed data-driven insights into internal sales workflows directly from Link for Key People to more effectively orchestrate the entire customer journey. It helps them take better, but also faster, actions–adapting in real time to optimize engagement activities.
Lastly, Link for Key People enables companies to identify experts who are leading research on health disparities. By analyzing social determinants of health data, companies can identify the right people to engage with to drive equitable care initiatives. By doing so, life sciences brands can look beyond a single patient’s experience and do more to help underserved patient populations. Ultimately, this data can help improve diversity in clinical trials and ad boards, as well as identify relevant policymakers who support health equity programs–enhancing the efficacy and reach of medicines across more diverse patient groups.
OSP: Do you have anything to add?
KW: Understanding the actions and sentiments of scientific experts and prescribers has become an essential part of the industry’s efforts to strengthen field engagement and drive better patient outcomes. With such an expanded need for real-time intelligence applications, we recently announced four new Link data applications for Key Accounts, Scientific Awareness, Medical Insights, and workflow and relationship management with, Link+. All of these can help companies gain real-time intelligence across a growing number of areas.
Veeva Link is one of a group of applications in Veeva Data Cloud, built on a common data architecture to drive go-to-market success. Used along with Veeva OpenData customer reference data and Veeva Compass longitudinal patient and prescriber data, sales, medical and marketing teams can work together in a more coordinated, customer-centric, and compliant way. Data is key to achieving commercial excellence, informing all interactions for a customer-centric approach.