How Medical Affairs Engages KOLs on Social Media and Why It Matters

At every pharmaceutical company, the Medical Affairs (MA) team provides scientific and clinical support for the company's products. Medical Affairs shares data about the product and the disease state with physicians, and Medical Science Liaisons (MSLs) gather and share that data by meeting with healthcare professionals (HCPs). Social media gives Medical Affairs a practical way to increase the frequency and volume of the insights those physicians share.

What is a digital opinion leader (DOL)? A digital opinion leader is a healthcare professional who has built an engaged audience on a public social media platform and uses it to discuss clinical and scientific topics with peers. Medical Affairs identifies DOLs through social media data analysis and engages them the same way it engages any key opinion leader.

How Medical Affairs Engages KOLs on Social Media

Social media data gathering helps Medical Affairs find potential opinion leaders, including digital opinion leaders, or DOLs, to build relationships with.

DOLs are HCPs with an online audience on a social media platform such as X (formerly Twitter). Even though these physicians share insights with peers in the digital space, Medical Affairs engages them in the traditional sense. After MA leadership identifies a DOL through social media data analysis, a Medical Science Liaison can meet with that physician one-on-one, share scientific information, answer any questions, and become a resource when the physician needs one. If the physician was unable to attend a recent conference, for example, the MSL can provide a summary of the key points presented. Physicians often disseminate that information to their own audience, furthering the goal of relevant medical education. This is one reason thought leaders are increasingly going digital, and why Field Medical teams are building the skills a digital-ready MSL needs.

Other forms of DOL engagement include participation in a clinical study, an advisory board seat, and medical education partnerships.

Why Is Social Media Important to Medical Affairs?

Social media has two advantages over traditional data-gathering methods: speed and volume. Using social media analysis tools, Medical Affairs can search vast numbers of public online conversations for insights. Teams generate these insights by keyword, including product keywords, practice-area keywords, keywords tied to physician feedback on a recently launched product, and keywords related to specific physicians. The insights available from social media include discussions of key scientific topics, perspectives on recent data releases, and commentary on new product launches.

Peer-reviewed research reflects how routine this channel has become for clinicians. In a Journal of Medical Internet Research survey of 203 healthcare professionals, 53.6 percent reported using social media to exchange medical information with peers (JMIR, 2018). A more recent cross-sectional survey of 340 oncology professionals across eight countries found that 67 percent viewed social media as a good source of awareness about recent treatment approaches (Future Oncology, 2025). The scale of scientific conversation is growing as well: ASCO-related Twitter impressions rose from 468.2 million in 2016 to roughly 1.12 billion in 2020 (PMC, 2022). These figures describe the broader environment Medical Affairs teams now monitor, not any single product or outcome.

Consider how this plays out in practice. It is not always clear how a new pharmaceutical product may fit into physicians' treatment decisions. If a patient is currently taking drug A and their physician is considering moving them to a new drug B, questions can arise about the implications. When physicians are discussing those questions on social media, that is something the Medical Affairs team should be aware of. Medical Affairs might then decide that more research, publishing, and education around the move from drug A to drug B are warranted. This kind of listening is also valuable at scientific meetings, where social listening at medical congresses surfaces real-time reactions to new data.

A valid concern for Medical Affairs is overwhelming volume. Two or three keyword searches on a platform like X can return more than 20,000 results, and most posts lead researchers into an even deeper dive. To manage searches at that scale, Medical Affairs professionals can delegate the research, and the insight generation that follows, to a medical operations partner. Structuring the work this way is part of how aligned teams generate better insights without pulling MSLs away from the field.

Key Takeaways

• Medical Affairs teams use public social media data to identify digital opinion leaders (DOLs), the healthcare professionals who discuss clinical topics with an online peer audience.
• Once a DOL is identified, engagement follows the same standards as any Field Medical interaction: a Medical Science Liaison meets one-on-one to share scientific information and answer questions.
• Social media adds two advantages to traditional insight gathering, speed and volume, letting teams surface relevant scientific conversations by keyword.
• DOL relationships can extend beyond one-on-one engagement to clinical study participation, advisory board roles, and medical education partnerships.
• The main challenge is volume; a single set of keyword searches can return tens of thousands of results, which teams often manage by delegating analysis to a medical operations partner.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a digital opinion leader (DOL)?
A digital opinion leader is a healthcare professional who has built an engaged audience on a public social media platform and uses it to discuss clinical and scientific topics with peers. Medical Affairs teams identify DOLs through social media data analysis and engage them the same way they engage any key opinion leader.

How do Medical Affairs teams engage KOLs and DOLs on social media?
Medical Affairs teams use social media data to identify relevant opinion leaders, then engage them through traditional Field Medical channels. A Medical Science Liaison typically meets the physician one-on-one to share scientific information, answer questions, and serve as an ongoing resource. Engagement can also include clinical study participation, advisory board seats, and medical education partnerships.

Why is social media important to Medical Affairs?
Social media gives Medical Affairs two advantages over traditional data gathering: speed and volume. Teams can search large volumes of public online conversations by keyword to surface scientific discussions, perspectives on recent data, and commentary on new product launches, generating insights faster than conference-based or one-to-one methods alone.

How do Medical Affairs teams handle the volume of social media data?
Public health conversations are vast, and a few keyword searches can return tens of thousands of results. To manage this, many Medical Affairs teams delegate social media analysis and insight generation to a medical operations partner that can filter the noise and surface the conversations that matter.

Does social media engagement replace in-person KOL engagement?
No. Social media helps Medical Affairs identify and prioritize opinion leaders, but engagement still follows established Field Medical practices. The insights gathered online inform how and when a Medical Science Liaison connects with a physician directly.

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

Further Reading:

• The World's Most Powerful Social-Listening Platform Just Got Better → https://www.accelerationpoint.com/resources/the-worlds-most-powerful-social-listening-platform-just-got-better/
• How to Coach MSLs for Better Medical Affairs Insights → https://www.accelerationpoint.com/resources/fueling-medical-strategy-how-coaching-creates-better-insights/
• How Medical Affairs Professionals Can Build Their AI Skills → https://www.accelerationpoint.com/podcast/how-medical-affairs-professionals-can-build-their-ai-skills/