Only three weeks until the DIA meeting in Brussels, the agenda is final, and I am in the midst of writing presentations and finishing up workshop preparations. We have a large group of attendees from all over the world coming to be with us in Brussels, I hope to see you there. If you’d like to chat with me at the meeting consider dropping me a line so we can plan ahead.

Today’s blog topics:

• Best practice for scientific content provision in an omnichannel environment
• Med Info and Med Comms meeting Brussels 2023
• Healthcare systems in crisis – the NHS as a case study
• Leadership: The role of unconscious bias in the Lucy Letby case

Best practice for scientific content provision in an omnichannel environment

Customer access is a challenge for the pharmaceutical industry. Physicians have limited time and many companies vying for their attention. As access becomes harder, the provision of service on demand via the channels of the customer’s choice is becoming an important business differentiator. In addition, companies are looking to reduce cost and improve impact by making better use of available headcount and by using integrated data analytics to inform strategy. Taken together these factors explain why many pharmaceutical companies are rolling out omnichannel solutions.

Unfortunately, these solutions often fall short of their potential because they don’t factor in the human element. An area where inefficiencies are frequent is content generation, management and harmonisation, which is often managed by different teams. As structures and customer engagement evolves it is worth reflecting on whether the right people are engaged in the right activities at the right time. For example, used well, a Medical Information team can be the beating heart of scientific content generation in a company, working efficiently across teams and departments in the service of all.

Medical information professionals are product experts who excel at communicating scientific information tailored to the customer’s needs, they understand internal and external customers and support internal colleagues, including medical affairs colleagues and sales representatives with scientific enquiries. They write response documents, perform literature searches, and consult with teams including quality and safety. As Medical Information teams receive unsolicited enquiries from a broad range of customers, they are also in tune with customer needs, and able to offer valuable insights.
If you want to find out how best to provide scientific content and how to do more with less join us in Brussels at the Medical Information conference) We will discuss models, channels, solution providers, content generation cross-functional collaboration, pragmatic use of resources and how to generate meaningful metrics and insights

Key take way: As your business model evolves review if you are using your resources effectively and whether you are making the most of your Medical Information team’s ability to free up your in-field team in order to improve overall impact.

Medical Information and Medical Communications meeting Brussels September 2023 – Last call

Preparations are ongoing for the Medical Information and Medical Communications DIA meeting that will take place in Brussels. Thanks to the stellar submissions we received we have put together a great agenda.

Topics cover contact centre management, evolving the medical information structure, the value of medical information, putting theory into practice, digital content, content dissemination, a workshop on navigating medical information and an open microphone session, where we welcome participation from the floor.

If you haven’t signed up yet, do consider coming. You can also still submit a poster to the meeting. Every year a group of experienced individuals in the industry, as well as smaller companies, or biotechnology companies that are identifying how best to meet customers information needs meet, this is a good opportunity to increase your knowledge, share best practice and make connections. The meeting is especially useful for individuals who are new to medical information or who are tasked with building a medical information approach from scratch and want to fast track their efforts.

You can find out more about the speakers, and the agenda as well as sign up here.

Key takeaway: Instead of finding your own path why not stand on the shoulders of those who came before?

Healthcare systems in crisis – the NHS as a case study

During the pandemic health care professionals (HCPs) were celebrated. People stood on balconies clapping. HCPs worked long hours under difficult conditions wearing insufficient or faulty personal protective equipment in the service of patients and the healthcare system. Yet despite being officially feted health care professionals’ working conditions in many countries remain challenging. Frequently, those who provide healthcare to others do not work in a healthy environment which is one of the reasons, I suspect, why there is a global lack of healthcare staff.

In the UK the situation has come to a head as junior doctors and consultants prepare to strike. A 2022 survey by the British Medical Association of 4000 junior doctors, who are in the first 6-10 years of training after getting their degrees, showed that almost 90% are concerned about the impact of the rising cost of living on their personal situation. More than half the respondents said they had struggled to pay for utilities and lighting in 2022 and 45% said they struggled to pay for commuting, essential travel and rents and mortgage. Eighty percent of those surveyed reported that if they had to reduce their income at all they wouldn’t be able to meet their essential outgoings.

Almost 80% of respondents are considering, and 65% have actively researched, leaving the NHS in the past 12 months. A third of these is planning to work abroad. More than three quarters of respondents had friends and colleagues who had already left the NHS and gone to work as a doctor in a different country. Reasons for considering to leave the NHS include pay and pension schemes, deteriorating working conditions and personal well-being, increased workload, lack of recognition, workforce supply shortages and a lack of flexible working patterns.

The NHS is already in crisis: according to a recent article in the Times “More than half of people who died in England last year were on an NHS waiting list. The estimated toll of 340,000 was up from 240,000 five years before, a 42 per cent rise. The figure represented more than 60 per cent of all deaths in England, according to data provided to The Times by NHS trusts under freedom of information laws”. Patients are already being affected but now the doctors’ strikes will further compound the problem. While the leading issue cited in the media is salary, the BMA survey highlights many other topics, that are relevant for the UK but also beyond the UK’s borders.

An article written in the (Swiss Medical Weekly) by three Switzerland based physicians with experience of the NHS. discusses the results of the BMA survey. Although they acknowledge that young Swiss doctors are in a better position than their UK peers, they note that according to survey data, junior doctors working in the Swiss healthcare system experience similar areas of dissatisfaction. Their conclusion matches mine: the BMA survey results are worth paying attention to. As we face a global shortage of HCPs, and HCPs vote with their feet moving to locations with more favourable working conditions and salaries, the challenges in accessing healthcare faced by underserved populations, such as those in Africa increase.

While recruiting HCPs from other countries may temporarily address developed nations’ healthcare system woes, in the absence of a change of strategy to solve this problem we are heading into challenging times.

Key take-away: The situation in the NHS may seem relevant only for the UK, however, doctors the world over are turning their backs on local clinical practice to work overseas. In many cases the drivers underlying this decision will match those highlighted by the BMA survey. If we want patients to have access to healthcare, we need to reinvent healthcare provision.

Leadership: The role of unconscious bias in the Lucy Letby case

Last week British nurse Lucy Letby was convicted of murdering infants in her care. While widely covered in UK media it was not widely covered by the media elsewhere so I will summarise some key aspects.

The case is tragic because initial concerns about the nurse were raised in the month after the first child was killed, yet it took another year, four more murdered babies, and six known murder attempts until action was taken.

Physicians working at the hospital raised concerns about the nurse repeatedly during this time as she was the single common denominator in each case. Autopsies were not performed in every case and some autopsy results were lost in the post, absent a digitalised system. The head nurse and clinic manager defended the young nurse and the doctors who raised concerns were threatened with sanctions by the management team and forced to apologize. There are currently other cases ongoing in the NHS where physicians have been suspended for raising concerns with the quality of care provided to patients.

The reason I am highlighting this case is because there are some important lessons to be learned here. The first is about unconscious bias, where we tend to trust those who are like us, and there is a risk that we protect those who appear to need it most. In this case a young female nurse, who was the subject of complaints by the entire team of senior male physicians. In addition, there are different reporting lines in hospitals, nurses report into a senior nurse, doctors report in through a different structure, this can lead to an “us” versus “them” mentality and a protection of “one’s own”. The lack of availability of objective data, in this case autopsy reports, which would have confirmed suspicions, is a systemic process error. And lastly, it appears that senior leadership was reluctant to promptly investigate the allegations, possibly due to the anticipated consequences if the claims were verified; while this hesitancy was likely unconscious, it had very real impact on many lives. The NHS is now reviewing its whistleblowing policy.

Key takeaway: Companies value an external perspective when new individuals join their teams. In conflict situations, or situations where team members’ mental health is at stake, or allegations are serious, it is worth bringing in an external individual to support, mediate, moderate and assess as it is impossible to be unbiased as a leader in this situation.

Thank you for reading, I enjoy sharing my thoughts and I love hearing what piqued your interest or any feedback and thoughts. If you are currently working on a demanding project in the fields of medical, digital, systems, analytics, channels, or facing any team or personal challenges, feel free to reach out to me for an informal chat. I am always happy to explore how I might be able to support you.

Best wishes

Isabelle C. Widmer MD

Photo Credit: National Cancer Institute @ Unsplash