Measuring Medical Affairs Impact with Paul Minne

Medical Affairs leaders broadly agree that call volume does not capture what Field Medical contributes, yet activity counts remain the default measure of MSL performance. In a 2025 global survey of 1,023 Medical Affairs professionals published in Pharmacy, 92% of respondents reported the number of KOL engagements among the metrics their organizations use, while only 3% rated current KPIs as "very effective."

In this episode, Scott Thompson talks with Paul Minne (Neurocrine Biosciences), a Field Medical leader with more than 20 years of experience across biotech and pharma, about why impact remains so hard to define and what teams can measure instead. Paul offers a working definition: Medical Affairs impact refers to "variables and outcomes that demonstrate that progress or effectiveness towards a desired outcome," such as improvements in diagnostic rates or shifts in treatment paradigms. From there, the conversation covers why that definition shifts with company size, product lifecycle, and therapeutic area; the leading indicators that signal whether HCP understanding of the evidence is changing; how a hybrid model balances activity metrics with qualitative measures; how AI can support pre-call planning; and why a common KPI across functions could help Medical Affairs operate as the "third pillar" alongside Commercial and R&D. If your dashboards count interactions but can't show what changed, this conversation is a practical place to start.

Key Takeaways

• Impact needs a shared definition first. Paul names the root problem directly: "One of the big issues to me is that no one agrees on what impact necessarily looks like." That definition can also change with company size, product lifecycle stage, and therapeutic area.
• Purpose comes before measurement: Scott shares the purpose statement one Medical Affairs team arrived at: "Medical Affairs exists to change clinical practice for the betterment of patient outcomes." The means, in his words, is "introducing new science, new evidence."
• Ask why, not just whether. When an HCP responds well to a data point, Paul encourages MSLs to keep the conversation going: "Tell me more. Why is this a great data point for you? Is this going to change how you practice?"
• Leading indicators live outside the call log. Paul looks at real-world evidence, congress presentations, care pathways, protocol adoption, and surrogate endpoints such as screening rates. As he puts it, "Are there changes in literature showing that knowledge transfer is actually now on the page?"
• Use a hybrid model: Activity metrics still set a baseline expectation for field engagement, but on their own they can be gamed and don't show impact. "At the end of the day, we can't abandon one and just go with one."
• Let AI handle preparation, then bring the human element. Paul describes using AI in pre-call planning to identify questions for different HCP audiences after a new publication, "because we can then take what AI gives us and humanize it."

About Our Guest

Paul Minne is a Field Medical leader with more than 20 years of experience in biotech and pharma. Most recently, he served as National Senior Director, Field Medical at Neurocrine Biosciences, where he was responsible for field medical strategy, building high-performing teams, and partnering across global functions. His career spans multiple product launches across neurology, psychiatry, oncology, and rare disease, in both large pharma and smaller biotech organizations.

Connect with Paul on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulminne/

FAQ

What is Medical Affairs impact?
In this episode, Paul Minne defines Medical Affairs impact as the variables and outcomes that demonstrate progress or effectiveness toward a desired outcome, such as improvements in diagnostic rates or shifts in treatment paradigms. This differs from the common practice of measuring impact by the number of KOLs a team has seen.

Why is Medical Affairs impact so hard to measure?
Organizations define impact differently depending on company size, product lifecycle stage, and therapeutic area, and the outcomes Medical Affairs works toward often take years to materialize. In a 2025 global survey of 1,023 Medical Affairs professionals published in Pharmacy, 67% said MSL performance is difficult or very difficult to measure accurately.

Should MSL teams stop tracking activity metrics?
No. Paul Minne recommends a hybrid model. Activity metrics set a baseline expectation for field engagement, while qualitative measures show whether HCP understanding of the evidence is changing. He suggests placing somewhat more weight on qualitative measures and somewhat less on quantity.

What leading indicators can Medical Affairs teams track?
Examples discussed in this episode include shifts in real-world evidence, how data appears at congresses and in the published literature, care pathway and protocol adoption within health systems, and surrogate endpoints such as screening rates or monitoring tests. Insight capture matters too: following up on why an HCP values a data point and what they plan to do with it. For more on this topic, listen to our episode on advanced insight generation strategies with Brant Jarrett.

How can AI support MSL teams without replacing them?
Paul Minne describes using AI for preparation, such as reviewing a newly published article and identifying questions to raise with different HCP audiences during pre-call planning. The MSL then adapts that output for a live conversation, reading tone and body language in ways AI cannot. Any AI use in Field Medical should follow company-approved tools and compliance policies. For more, listen to our episode on AI adoption in Medical Affairs.

Questions about this topic? We're happy to help.

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