2025 Year in Review: Six Trends Reshaping Medical Affairs

Every December, Medical Affairs leaders take stock of what actually changed in the past year. In this year-end episode, Scott Thompson looks back across a full year of OnPoint conversations to identify the shifts that redefined how Medical Affairs teams lead, operate, and demonstrate value in 2025.

Scott's central thesis: "Medical Affairs isn't waiting for the future anymore. We're building it." He organizes the year into six themes: AI as an everyday skill, the move from alignment to integration, impact measured by changed beliefs, transformation built in sequence, omnichannel maturity, and what the modern MSL should be mastering. Along the way, he revisits voices from earlier episodes, including Annamaria Crisan (Pfizer), Rishi Ohri (Astellas), and Wendy Fraser (Merck) on generative AI, Chris McNabb (Bayer) on Medical Excellence, and Paul Minne (Neurocrine) on measuring impact. Joe Giuliano and Matt Nelson (both Amicus Therapeutics) speak to transformation, while Justin Kulovsek, now Head of Digital and Omnichannel Engagement at Acceleration Point, and Joyce Lo (Blueprint Medicines) speak to omnichannel. If you're setting priorities for the year ahead, start here.

Key Takeaways

• Treat AI as a skill, not a software purchase. Scott says the biggest mistake teams make is "waiting for the big AI solution, the perfect platform, the enterprise rollout." His view: "AI isn't a software. It really is a skill, and that skill comes down to one thing, clear communication." Strong prompts give the tool a role, context, content to reference, a clear task, and a defined output.
• Integration is where excellence lives. "Alignment is a good start, but alignment is just agreements on paper. Excellence is when everything starts to connect." Scott recommends making the operating model visible and being "obsessive about language," using the same words across strategy, content, insights, and systems.
• Measure what changed, not what you did. "Impact by definition isn't what you do, it's what changed because you did it." Scott describes a team that defined the beliefs it needed to change in the medical community, then organized field insights and content around them. The shift is broad: in the ZS Medical Affairs Outlook Report 2025, 65% of internal respondents said their organizations track outcomes-based measures.
• Transformation means changing the vessel. "It's not about pushing people to do what the organization isn't built for. It's about changing the vessel itself." Scott's sequence: start with the destination, align at the top, and build transparency by publishing decisions where teams can find them.
• Omnichannel maturity is built one step at a time. "Start with a campaign, not always on omnichannel. You don't need to change everything for everybody forever." Set goals around the action you want to create, not the activity. That incremental path fits where most teams are: the same ZS report found 78% of respondents consider their organizations still in the ideation or foundational phase of omnichannel engagement.
• The modern MSL transforms understanding. Scott's foundation for mastery: "You need to know what they believe, why they believe it, what stands between those beliefs and better outcomes in practice." From there, ask powerful questions, because "our insights are only as strong as our curiosity," and use AI to prepare for engagements and summarize new data.

Scott also notes that eight capabilities have to work together to enable omnichannel. Curious how this applies to your organization? Let's talk.

Resources Mentioned

Microsoft Copilot: One of the everyday AI tools Scott points to as a practical starting point, alongside internal GPTs.

Kwello: Acceleration Point's insights platform, which Scott references as an example of a purpose-built tool for insight work.

FAQ

What are the six trends reshaping Medical Affairs in 2025?
Scott Thompson identifies six themes from a year of OnPoint conversations: AI moving from theory to an everyday skill, cross-functional alignment giving way to true integration, impact measured by changed beliefs rather than activity volume, transformation that starts small and scales, omnichannel maturity built through coordinated steps, and an MSL role focused on transforming understanding rather than only transferring data.

How should Medical Affairs teams start using AI?
Scott recommends starting now with tools teams already have, such as Microsoft Copilot and internal GPTs, rather than waiting for an enterprise rollout. He treats AI as a communication skill: give the prompt a role, the right context and content to reference, a clear task, and a description of the output you need. Guests also stressed keeping a human in the loop to review and refine AI-generated drafts.

How should Medical Affairs measure impact?
Scott defines impact as what changed because of the work, not the volume of activity. He describes a team that defined the beliefs it needed to change in the medical community, organized field insights and content around those beliefs, and then showed leadership what the medical community believes and why. That shifted leadership conversations from interaction counts to how to accelerate belief change.

How can a Medical Affairs team get started with omnichannel?
Start with a single campaign rather than an always-on program. Scott advises setting goals around the action you want an HCP to take, not the activity your team will perform, and recognizing that several capabilities must work together to support omnichannel engagement. In one example he shares, a rare disease team focused a 90-day effort on one congress.

What should the modern MSL be mastering?
Scott points to three areas: a deep understanding of each HCP, including what they believe, why they believe it, and what stands between those beliefs and better outcomes in practice; the ability to ask powerful questions; and consistent practice. He also encourages MSLs to use AI to prepare for engagements and summarize new data, so more of their time goes to applying their expertise.

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OnPoint: The Medical Excellence Podcast delivers insightful conversations on the most pressing issues facing top Medical Affairs professionals. Listen to stay ahead of industry trends and be inspired by leaders shaping the future of Medical Affairs.

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