Top 10 Ways to Engage Digital Opinion Leaders

Key Takeaways

A Digital Opinion Leader (DOL) is a healthcare professional, often a physician, whose scientific credibility and peer influence are amplified through social media and other digital channels.
Medical Affairs engages DOLs for the same reason it engages traditional Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs): to gather and disseminate scientific insight.
DOLs can share findings with thousands of clinicians within hours, compressing dissemination timelines that traditionally took months.
Compliant DOL engagement keeps Medical Science Liaisons (MSLs) in an insight-gathering and educational role; MSLs do not script or direct a DOL's public statements.
Common DOL engagement formats include insight generation, scientific dissemination, medical education, advisory boards, and social media roundtables.
Surveys of physicians report that roughly two-thirds use social media for professional reasons, and most clinicians see a role for it in sharing research evidence.

A Digital Opinion Leader (DOL) is a healthcare professional whose credibility and reach extend through social media and other digital channels, alongside or instead of traditional podium and publication channels.

Every Medical Affairs professional understands the value of working with Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs): healthcare practitioners (HCPs) whose voice carries credibility, whose work demonstrates expertise, and whose perspective shapes constructive scientific discussion. Traditional engagements with KOLs generate data that the KOL can then share with the scientific community, ultimately to improve patient outcomes. If you are new to the term, our primer on what a Key Opinion Leader is sets the foundation.

The social media era introduced Medical Affairs to a new class of KOL: a digitally fluent HCP with a platform. Known as Digital Opinion Leaders (DOLs), or Connected Opinion Leaders, these physicians are viewed as go-to experts in their practice areas by hundreds or thousands of doctors who follow them on X (formerly Twitter), read their updates on LinkedIn, or subscribe to their newsletters.

The reason to engage both KOLs and DOLs is the same: the collection and dissemination of valuable scientific insight. Conversations between MSLs and KOLs have long produced two-way education and collaboration, including advisory boards, clinical trial participation, and published findings. Conventional KOLs carry significant reach and influence. DOLs reach and influence through different channels. A KOL speaks to groups, at conferences, or by video conference. A DOL can reach thousands of physicians with a single post, update, comment, or reply. When Medical Affairs engages a DOL, the DOL's voice extends the reach of shared science.

There are additional reasons to connect with DOLs. For more on how to identify the right ones, see our guide to analyzing and identifying opinion leaders. The focus here is the "how." Several of these ten approaches are not out of the ordinary, but you will likely find one you had not yet thought to do digitally.

1. Insight Generation

Digital Opinion Leaders tend to be niche voices who may become future mainstream leaders in their therapeutic area. Consider dermatologist and internist Dr. Steven T. Chen, a clear example of the modern DOL. Dr. Chen tweets medical insights to thousands of followers, a considerable share of whom are physicians, and he holds dozens of PubMed credits. He serves as Vice Chair of Clinical Affairs at Mass General Brigham (MGB) Dermatology. (For a fuller profile, see our piece on how DOLs like Steven Chen use social media.)

From HCPs like Dr. Chen, Medical Affairs can gather data that becomes medical insight. Approach a DOL for that reason: to hear their perspective on emerging trends. Like KOLs, DOLs engage in large numbers of conversations with peers in their practice area, so insight generation is a realistic expectation of DOL engagement. DOLs are motivated to help advance the science. Their social media activity is rarely self-promotion, though that misconception is common. The DOLs we speak with have become the medical community's version of a subject-matter aggregator: they surface the latest findings from their peers, confirm they have the most current data, and advance their profession. That is a new way for physicians to work toward better patient outcomes, and it mirrors the reason KOLs research, publish, and present.

2. Scientific Dissemination

A Digital Opinion Leader's audience, along with their local physician community, turns to them for guidance, so DOLs want current research to answer those questions. This is where Medical Affairs adds value, by providing up-to-date science. Engage a DOL as you would any other KOL to bring new data to their audience.

DOLs value fair, balanced, current information and access to MSLs to ask questions about a disease, a new product, or a timely topic. Equipped with those answers, DOLs often distribute the research to other HCPs through their platforms. The turnaround from information gathering to information sharing, via a status update, blog post, newsletter, or tweetorial, can be days or even hours. Compare that with traditional dissemination timelines, where presenting at a congress or publishing in a journal can take months or years. The appetite is real: in a survey of health researchers and clinicians published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, 80% reported using social media for professional purposes, and 95.9% saw a role for it in disseminating or obtaining research evidence.

3. Medical Education

DOLs "speak internet" and think about content differently. They have a talent for distilling large bodies of information into small, digestible pieces. That quality alone makes Digital Opinion Leaders strong partners for targeted medical education, so Medical Affairs is wise to engage DOLs in developing new educational content.

For example, MSLs often share presentations and approved materials with established KOLs. Given a seventy-five-page deck, a KOL might deliver state-of-the-art disease training to a room of ten. When MSLs bring the same material to a digital leader, the outcome can look different. That DOL may not present in person at a conference at all. Instead, the DOL might summarize the material into a tweetorial or status update and share the most important points with thousands of doctors.

A virtuous cycle begins. After educating their followers, the DOL receives replies, questions, and requests to clarify. The DOL can bring that feedback to the Medical Affairs field team, which then develops further material. When Medical Affairs collaborates with a DOL, education leads to more education, all intended to inform the medical community and support better patient outcomes.

4. Social Media Roundtable

The difference between medical education and a roundtable is intent. Education facilitates learning; a roundtable generates discussion. Medical Affairs teams are facilitating social media events, such as live broadcasts, in which a DOL informally discusses a topic of interest while fielding real-time follower questions. Sometimes the DOL is joined by an established, well-respected KOL as co-facilitator. Medical Affairs field personnel help organize, schedule, and monitor these roundtables, and they can develop approved materials and train the DOL beforehand.

Compliance boundaries matter here. MSLs cannot feed the DOL or a co-facilitator scripted or spontaneous answers to audience questions, and MSLs cannot reply to comments directly, even on a public platform. Medical Affairs takes the silent-observer role, which still holds real value. Many data points surface during a single roundtable, and each can run through the standard insight process to reveal patterns that inform Medical Affairs strategy.

One concern our clients raise about social media roundtables is worth noting. If a live broadcast is public, and most are, to reach the widest physician audience, anyone can listen, including competitors, regulators, and patients, and there is a lasting record of what is said. Even so, our clients consistently conclude that the value is worth the effort and that the drawbacks can be managed.

Another form of roundtable is the online journal club, a digital version of the traditional gathering where physicians discuss an article, finding, or trial. See our guidelines for bringing a journal club online.

5. Advisory Boards

A typical Medical Affairs advisory board brings together a group of physicians, in person or by video conference. The team presents new information on a disease, drug, or medical development and gathers the members' reactions.

Formal insight from DOLs through advisory board engagement is valuable because DOLs bring a different perspective. At Acceleration Point, we see that DOLs who join advisory boards contribute feedback shaped not only by their own view but by the thousands of doctors they engage with on social media each month.

While nondisclosure agreements keep DOLs from discussing advisory board content online, the private forum allows for deeper discussion, which makes the format worthwhile for everyone involved.

6. Study Investigators

Every study site has minimum participation requirements. A physician who is not board-certified to provide chemotherapy infusions, for example, cannot serve on an infusion-based drug trial. Some Digital Opinion Leaders qualify as study sites, and their digital presence offers a complementary channel for distributing study results.

We advise clients to identify and engage socially active DOLs who qualify for studies in the relevant therapeutic area, because a DOL involved in a study is often motivated to write and speak about the findings for their online audience, quickly and at scale.

7. Reporter

Some Digital Opinion Leaders also serve on medical congress organizing bodies. After contributing to presentations, reading a new publication, or hearing other HCPs' perspectives, these DOLs share what they learned with the medical community online. In this way, DOLs function as reporters.

We have seen Medical Affairs invite DOLs to discuss with leadership what they learned during a congress, staying in contact throughout the event as the DOL shares learnings with their audience.

8. Internal Education

Digital Opinion Leaders whom Medical Affairs has engaged can, in turn, educate internal MA teams on DOL engagement itself. Who else in the medical community is active online? How can MSLs engage younger HCPs? Generation X and Millennial physicians often think about and prefer engagement differently than earlier generations, and DOLs can speak to those differences.

A partnered DOL can also introduce Medical Affairs to trusted thought leaders and invite them to a team meeting, where that expert can share the latest research on a disease, a treatment, or how a pharmaceutical product has been received.

9. Emerging Experts

DOL engagement is one of the fastest ways to find emerging experts, the KOLs and DOLs of the future. Some are already working under an established KOL, perhaps running or writing about a study. Medical Affairs should seek out these emerging experts early.

Durable strategies are built before they are needed. Medical Affairs can develop a long-term DOL engagement strategy by asking the DOLs and KOLs it already meets with, "Who will the medical community be paying attention to over the next five to ten years?" Then MSLs can ask for an introduction. In our experience, these physicians are glad to provide it. The more physicians are connected, the faster critical insight is shared.

10. Mentoring

Digital Opinion Leaders value their relationship with Medical Affairs, primarily for insight generation and dissemination. Another way Medical Affairs strengthens that relationship is through mentorship. Because DOLs tend to be earlier in their careers than many peers, they are eager to learn. Medical Affairs can match a DOL with an expert in the same field and therapeutic area and provide a meaningful project for them to work on together, whether a social media roundtable, medical education, or a formal advisory board relationship.

Often the DOL and KOL end up mentoring each other. Medical Affairs can help the DOL build scientific expertise, a process the KOL knows well, and can encourage the DOL to share a few practical tips on getting started online in return.

How should Medical Affairs get started with DOL engagement?

Whichever of these ten approaches your Medical Affairs teams try next, they will likely discover more. The shift is well underway. As recently as 2017, industry observers estimated that fewer than one in five KOLs maintained a meaningful social media presence. That picture has changed markedly. The move from in-person to online engagement carried medical opinion leaders with it, so much so that one of our clients, a veteran of KOL engagement, observed that "all DOLs are KOLs now," and the reverse is increasingly true as well.

Today, physicians are more likely than ever to get their information from online sources, and digital fluency has become a distinct advantage for opinion leaders and for the Medical Affairs teams who work with them. Surveys reflect the same trend: a survey of more than 4,000 physicians reported in The American Journal of Medicine found that over 90% use some form of social media personally and about 65% use it for professional reasons. The practical question is how to begin.

First, monitor Key Opinion Leaders' behavior online. Several Medical Affairs organizations work with Acceleration Point to monitor KOLs and DOLs online. For a preview of how this works, here is an excerpt from a conversation with one of our clients:

"Leveraging external vendors like Acceleration Point and others has allowed us to begin to develop dashboards where we can better understand who are the people that have both expertise as well as influence and are sharing information across social platforms, everything from Twitter to Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit, YouTube, etc."

Second, focus digital engagement on the KOLs with the right expertise. A physician with 5,000 followers does not automatically have the right platform for a Medical Affairs engagement. Here is the same client's perspective:

"The expertise is more important than anything else. We need to make sure we're grabbing people that have the expertise, that know the science and are specialists in the area that we're working in, rather than picking just someone that's going to be a great aggregator of new science. We want a person that is a trusted source of information in that expert, in that specific area."

At the same time, a highly regarded KOL with only a handful of connections may not fit a digital engagement. A KOL and DOL monitoring view helps on both counts: it shows at a glance which medical influencers share the most relevant, educational content and which reach the most relevant audience.

Third, start small with a manageable engagement. If your organization is building digital KOL relationships for the first time, choose a familiar starting point: scientific dissemination. The advantage of digital over traditional becomes clear quickly. A peer-reviewed study takes months; a well-constructed thread takes hours. After a meeting with an MSL, a physician with a relevant peer audience may share thoughts on new research the same day.

Acceleration Point partners with Medical Affairs to support the DOL engagement process, from identifying the right DOL to establishing a formal working relationship, so teams can operate more effectively and within compliance boundaries.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a Digital Opinion Leader (DOL)?
A Digital Opinion Leader (DOL) is a healthcare professional, often a physician, whose scientific credibility and peer influence are amplified through social media and other digital channels. DOLs are also called Connected Opinion Leaders.

How is a Digital Opinion Leader different from a traditional KOL?
A traditional KOL builds influence largely through publications, podium presentations, and in-person engagement, while a DOL extends that influence through digital channels such as X, LinkedIn, and newsletters. Many opinion leaders are now both, and the two roles increasingly overlap.

Why should Medical Affairs engage Digital Opinion Leaders?
Medical Affairs engages DOLs for the same reason it engages any KOL: to gather scientific insight and disseminate current, balanced information. DOLs can reach thousands of clinicians quickly, which shortens the time between generating research and sharing it. Physician surveys reflect this shift, with roughly 57.9% of one physician sample reporting that social media helped them care for patients more effectively, per the Journal of Medical Internet Research.

What are compliant ways to engage DOLs on social media?
Compliant engagement keeps MSLs in an insight-gathering and educational role. During public formats such as social media roundtables, MSLs do not script the DOL's statements, do not supply answers to audience questions, and do not reply to comments directly. Medical Affairs takes a silent-observer role and processes what it learns through its standard insight workflow.

How can Medical Affairs teams start engaging Digital Opinion Leaders?
Start by monitoring how relevant KOLs and DOLs behave online, focus on physicians whose expertise fits your therapeutic area rather than follower count alone, and begin with a familiar, low-risk engagement such as scientific dissemination.