How to Coach MSLs for Better Medical Affairs Insights

Medical Affairs teams often describe insights as the fuel for medical strategy, yet many field insights still record what an HCP believes without explaining why. A 2025 global survey of 1,023 Medical Affairs professionals published in Pharmacy found that 67% selected the quality of actionable insights as a preferred MSL performance measure, while only 40% said their organizations currently measure it.

In this webinar, Linda Traylor, PhD (Vice President of Medical Excellence, Acceleration Point) presents an encore of the coaching workshop she co-led at the Medical Affairs Professional Society (MAPS) Americas and EMEA meetings, with Scott Thompson (CEO, Acceleration Point) moderating and joining the Q&A. Linda Traylor walks through a hypothetical psoriatic arthritis pre-launch case study, shows how to assess an insights process, and builds a coaching plan around the Four Powerful Questions. The Four Powerful Questions is a framework that sorts follow-up questions into four types (information, clarification, implication, and discrepancy) so Field Medical teams can move from what an HCP believes to why the HCP believes it. Linda Traylor calls this "separating the what from the why." The session closes with practical ways AI can support coaching for insights. If your team collects plenty of insights but struggles to act on them, start here.

What You'll Learn

• Coaching for better insights belongs to every stakeholder in the insights process, not only managers, because insight generation is a team sport. Coaching still cannot replace foundational processes: clear roles and expectations, clear processes, and useful, easy-to-use tools.
• A clear listening priority defines why the team is listening, what it is listening for, who it needs to learn from, how many, and by when, so the team knows when it has enough data to make a decision and move on.
• Structured insights combine a quantitative measure of HCP alignment with an aspirational mindset and a qualitative free-text explanation of why the HCP holds that belief. In the hypothetical case study, 50% of 200 target rheumatologists are neutral on unmet need, and only the free text explains why.
• Three recurring problems weaken free-text insights: repeating the what instead of the why, using the field for call notes, and generic statements that give the team nothing to act on.
• The Four Powerful Questions exercise gives teams a structured way to review real insights together and build a shared library of follow-up questions. Scott Thompson adds a five-minute weekly version: each MSL suggests one more question that would have made a shared insight more insightful.
• AI tools can assess the quality of free-text insights, provide feedback, support role-play practice through digital HCP simulations, and analyze insights at scale so teams no longer read them manually for quarterly reports.

Curious how this applies to your organization? Let's talk.

About Our Speakers

Linda Traylor, PhD is Vice President of Medical Excellence at Acceleration Point, where she leads the Medical Affairs team. Linda Traylor has more than 25 years of industry experience, starting in clinical and regulatory roles before moving into Field Medical as an MSL, MSL manager, and executive. In 2025, she co-led the Coaching for Better Insights workshop at MAPS Americas and MAPS EMEA.

Connect with Linda on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/linda-traylor-76a467a/

Scott Thompson is CEO at Acceleration Point. Scott Thompson has collaborated with more than 40 Medical Affairs and Field Medical teams and manages a LinkedIn community of more than 5,000 Medical Affairs professionals.

Connect with Scott on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/medical-excellence/

FAQ

What is a listening priority in Medical Affairs?

A listening priority is a defined insight objective that tells Field Medical teams why they are listening, what they are listening for, who they need to learn from, how many HCPs, and by when. In this webinar, Linda Traylor explains that clear listening priorities are the foundation for coaching better insights, because a team that treats everything as a priority cannot focus its engagements.

What are the Four Powerful Questions for MSL insights?

The Four Powerful Questions is a framework for reviewing real insights and writing better follow-up questions. Information questions go deeper or broader when the MSL understands what the HCP said. Clarification questions apply when the MSL cannot fully picture what the HCP meant. Implication questions follow words such as "reasonable" or "logical" that suggest another option is not. Discrepancy questions apply when two statements from the HCP cannot both be true.

Why are MSL insights often not actionable?

Linda Traylor identifies three recurring problems in free-text insights. The first is repeating the what instead of explaining the why, such as restating that an HCP is neutral. The second is using the free-text field for call notes. The third is generic language, such as "HCP follows guidelines closely," that gives the team nothing to act on.

How can Medical Affairs managers coach insights in a team meeting?

Scott Thompson recommends a short exercise during the weekly MSL team call. The manager shares one real insight, asks the team not to evaluate it, and asks each person for one more question that could have made the insight more insightful. After several weeks, MSLs begin thinking of those questions before the engagement instead of after the insight is submitted.

How can AI support coaching for better insights?

Linda Traylor describes several uses of AI in the insights process. AI tools can assess the quality of free-text insights and suggest follow-up questions, run compliance checks on entered text, support role play through digital HCP simulations, and analyze insights at scale so teams no longer read insights manually to build quarterly or biannual reports. Organizations should work with their IT teams on guardrails for AI use.

About Acceleration Point Webinars

Acceleration Point webinars bring Medical Affairs and Field Medical leaders together to share practical insights, emerging strategies, and real-world perspectives on the challenges shaping the industry. Each session is designed to support the professionals driving scientific exchange, field medical excellence, and Medical Affairs transformation.

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