Automated Alerts for Medical Affairs | Acceleration Point | Resources

Key Takeaways

An automated alert is a system-generated message triggered by a defined event, such as a new KOL publication, a congress presentation, or a digital scientific mention.
Medical Affairs teams can set up two kinds of alerts: alerts about a defined group of people (for example, the KOLs in a territory) and alerts about specific scientific topics (for example, a product, mechanism of action, or study).
Alerts serve three purposes: giving an early warning to act, curating relevant information, and prompting review of data a person might not check on their own.
The volume of scientific information is large and growing. MEDLINE surpassed 30 million journal citations in December 2022, up from 25 million in mid-2018, which is part of why manual monitoring is hard to sustain.
Well-configured alerts deliver new content by email on a set schedule, reducing the need to log into multiple systems to stay current.

An automated alert is a message a system sends when a specific trigger is met, proactively informing the people who need to know instead of waiting for them to log in and look.

As Medical Affairs continues to invest in systems and data, keeping up with all of it can quickly become overwhelming. While working with an MSL recently, the Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) in their territory had over 1,200 publications, 1,400 posters and oral presentations at congresses, and over 4,000 digital scientific mentions across social media, news, blogs, and forums. That is in addition to all of the internal information about those KOLs arriving from multiple systems.

This volume is not unusual, and it keeps climbing. MEDLINE passed 30 million journal citations in December 2022, up from 25 million in mid-2018, and bibliometric analyses estimate the broader scientific literature grows by roughly 4 percent a year, doubling about every 17 years. For a Field Medical team, that makes it difficult to log into each system consistently enough to stay aware of the information that helps you prepare for engagements, identify new opportunities to engage, and surface KOL insights.

The most reliable way to get the most value from the data and systems available to you is to set up automated alerts.

What is an automated alert, and why use one?

An automated alert is a message that proactively informs you when there is something important you should pay attention to. Alerts are automated in your systems based on a specific trigger, and they either notify everyone who might be affected (a wide-area broadcast) or only those who could benefit (a local broadcast).

There are three reasons you might want to set up an alert. You probably already use alerts in your everyday life for each of these:

Warning to act. An alert can provide an early warning to take action that might be missed if you waited until the next time you logged in. Think about how the weather app on your phone warns you of severe conditions so you can decide whether to prepare.
Curate what you want. Alerts let you curate the information you want to see. Your favorite news app sends you updates on topics you have already shown interest in, rather than making you read through everything to find what matters to you.
Pull your attention when you would not look on your own. An alert can remind you to review important information you may not check often enough. This is similar to the monthly email telling you the value of your 401(k).

The same is true of your work in Medical Affairs. Alerts can notify you when your KOLs are speaking at a congress, have recently published, or have engaged in a digital conversation. These alerts prompt you to engage, save you time by curating the content that matters to you, and remind you to review data you might otherwise forget to check.

How do automated alerts work?

Setting up alerts is an integral part of getting started in any new system or with any new data source. There are two types of alerts you can set up: alerts about people and alerts about topics.

1. Alerts about a group of people

On any team, you will have subgroups of people you want to stay informed about. This might mean following the KOLs in your territory, keeping up with the top global KOLs, monitoring the activity of your speakers, or getting updates on specific KOLs coming to an advisory board.

Well-designed systems let you create lists of your experts. That list should let you receive an email notification when new content is available for anyone on it, without having to return to the system every day. This is one of the ways modern Medical Science Liaisons stay prepared without adding to their manual workload.

2. Alerts about specific topics

An alert on a specific topic curates the content from the day, week, or month and delivers it to you by email, saving you the time of searching across all of the systems you use.

To do this, you first create a meaningful search. The search could be about your product, competitors, specific mechanisms of action, specific congresses, mentions of a study, or anything else being discussed that aligns with your strategy. After saving that search, a capable system gives you a way to have that alert delivered on a scheduled basis by email.

Conclusion

You are busy. Even when certain data is genuinely valuable, without alerts you will miss important details, delay urgent insights, and spend more time than you need to on the tools you use. An alert system helps you work more efficiently and puts the information you need in front of you when you need it.

Curious how alerts could keep your team current on what Key Opinion Leaders and Digital Opinion Leaders are publishing and discussing online? Let's talk.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an automated alert in Medical Affairs?
An automated alert is a message a system sends when a defined trigger is met, such as a new KOL publication, a congress presentation, or a digital scientific mention. It notifies the Medical Affairs or Field Medical users who need the information, so they do not have to log into each system to find it.

What types of alerts can Medical Affairs teams set up?
There are two types. Alerts about a group of people track activity for a defined list of experts, such as the KOLs in a territory or a set of advisory board attendees. Alerts about specific topics curate content matching a saved search, such as a product, mechanism of action, congress, or study.

Why are automated alerts useful for MSLs?
Automated alerts give MSLs an early warning to act, curate the content that matches their strategy, and prompt review of information they might not check regularly. This helps them prepare for engagements and use their existing systems more efficiently.

How do topic alerts work?
A topic alert starts with a saved search built around a strategically relevant subject. Once the search is saved, a capable system delivers matching content by email on a scheduled basis, whether daily, weekly, or monthly.

The Power of Alerts: Automated KOL and Topic Monitoring for Medical Affairs