Leveraging the Influence of your Key Opinion Leaders

In the Pharmaceutical world, Key Opinion Leaders (“KOL”) are pivotal resources dedicated to the successful launch of new products, introduction of new indications or ongoing support of existing products. To leverage this important resource, companies must identify relevant KOLs and manage the relationship over time.

From an information perspective, each company needs to sift through volumes of data that include some obvious sources, such as publications, clinical trial data and grant information, as well as information on recent conference participation, affiliations to specific institutions and other less accessible data points.

The Challenge

Leveraging the influence of your key opinion leaders is a complex process that requires an understanding of your KOL’s contributions to their line of work, the ability to identify and understand their existing collaborations with one another, as well as, their involvement with various institutions and organizations.

In addition, the process required must be flexible enough to account for the lifecycle of a product and the changing data needs across this continuum. So, for example, you might want to place greater emphasis on KOLs that are involved with numerous clinical trials at one phase, but focus on those with many publications at another. You might want to focus on certain key words in reference to grants, but use other key words for searches related to conferences.

To do this right, your solutions needs to be flexible and comprehensive, but at the same time should not be overwhelming to use.

Key issues that need to be considered in implementing solutions in this area include:

1. Process: What is the process you want to implement to collect, manage and view this information? Who should have access to view, update, or share information? What information should be locked, editable or shared amongst colleagues? The process definition phase is critical to a successful implementation. Defining the processes and business rules is often overlooked in these types of projects.
2. Data: What information is important to you and to the decision making process? What are the reports that you use, or would like to use, to drive this process and base you strategic decisions on? How often should you update this information? How do you turn this information into knowledge?
3. Supportability: Can these information sets and processes be implemented and can they be updated on an ongoing, relatively easy basis? Is the system easy enough for the average user to access and benefit from, without significant handholding efforts?
4. Flexibility: Can you easily add content to the process as new needs arise.
   
5. Integration: Can the system integrate with existing Enterprise applications so that customers can be linked and information shared across the systems? This effort is critical as you try to link internal and external sources, while at the same time provide users with the ability to manage and maintain core information such as contact data.
   

The Solution

Publicis eHealth Solutions’ new Relationship Mapping (“R-Map”) module allows users to quickly generate relevant lists of KOLs for targeting purposes based on customizable search criteria (e.g. publication date).

R-Map allows you to easily traverse large amounts of relevant data in an easy to use and dynamic interface. The visualization tool provides a graphical view of KOL relationships (Figure 1) in a dynamic and interactive interface that allows you to traverse these relationships and learn about the details of the KOLs in question.

Figure 1 - Visualization

Users enter the visualization mode by one of two “paths”. First, having identified a specific KOL, you might launch the tool and view the individual KOL’s relationship map. From there, you can traverse the map by simply moving from one KOL to another. At the same time, you have instant access to large volumes of detail that sit behind each of the items and, in some cases, the links themselves.

The second method of launching this tool is to select two KOLs, one you know and work with on a regular basis, and the other someone you are trying to connect with. Launching the visualization tool in this mode, will display the map that links the two KOLs (if such a link exists) and allows the user to see the details of the relationship.

So, for example, if you know Dr. Smith, and want to introduce yourself to Dr. Jones, you might see that a third doctor had published with both of them and could provide the “bridge” to a friendly introduction.

How it Works

Creating an R-Map implementation requires a four step process:

1. Discovery: Users identify the various criteria that define their current project - the overall objectives, timeframes, update frequency, target product and therapeutic category, key words that define the target subject, conferences and institutions that impact this area and other defining data points.
2. Data Pull: Based on the identified criteria, PeHS will pull the relevant data from structured databases where possible, use web crawlers to pull data from websites and perform custom searches regarding identified organizations where the first two approaches are not effective.
3. Integration: Using a number of sophisticated algorithms, PeHS will combine the data from multiple sources, including client provided information, so that accounts and KOLs are linked appropriately (Dr. Smith, identified in a publication, might be the same KOL as Dr. Smith identified in a Clinical Trial).
   
4. Data Load: The combined data are loaded into the system and made available to authorized uses.

Once the above steps are completed, the users will have access to current data and the latest information about the known and identified KOLs.

Background

This module sits on top of a comprehensive relational database that allows you not only to pull from external data sources but to continuously add and edit your own information regarding the KOL’s and your interactions with them using KMAP™.

KMAP, which provides the basis for these tools and is designed to be used across your organization, no matter what its size, is a centralized repository designed with customization in mind. This allows new teams, new projects—any new enterprise—to get started quickly and cost-effectively.

KMAP’s granular, role-based, and context-sensitive security allows you to provide tailored access to system features based on user responsibilities. And, KMAP easily integrates with your other business systems, while the export function makes it easy to share data in commonly accepted file formats.

KMAP’s modules help you build and customize profiles with academic credentials, presentations, prescriptions, citations, competitor activity, calendar items, funding and even attachments such as publications, photographs, and curriculum vitae. You can cross reference profiles with data about clinical trials and other activities, and track detailed information about the relationships of the opinion leaders. The end result is a complete and comprehensive knowledgebase that helps you manage key relationships.

A customizable, scalable, relational, and secure solution, KMAP will meet your needs now and into the future. You can extend KMAP’s capabilities with optional add-on tools as your business needs change. Remember, knowledge is power... Don’t just collect data; turn it into knowledge you can use with KMAP.

About PeHS

Publicis eHealth Solutions (PeHS) creates innovative IT solutions specifically for the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. Because of our relationships with companies of all shapes and sizes throughout these sectors, and because we are a part of a global healthcare network, we are in a unique position to discover, analyze, and overcome challenges that other IT service providers simply can't.

Over the past 15 years our service offerings and products have evolved into a specialized suite of tools that our clients find indispensable to their daily operations.

Because we are solely focused on healthcare, we are unique in our ability to provide strategic and tactical value to clients large and small, within and across their brand teams, medical education departments, sales forces, medical science liaisons, and more.

Our entire service offering is designed to complement (or enhance) the daily workings of healthcare communication. Not only are PeHS products and suites custom tailored to the industry, but our client services and reporting schemes are as well.

At the core of Publicis eHealth Solution's offering is a team of specialists, assembled to meet complex healthcare communication challenges with targeted, hi-tech solutions. Founded by and consisting of clinical pharmacists, communication strategists, and IT professionals, PeHS is designed to respond quickly and effectively to our clients' needs.

All of our applications have been built with customization and scalability in mind, so as to provide cost-effective solutions for individual departments, brand teams, entire therapeutic areas — or enterprise-wide. Our clients have had a major impact on how our IT tools have evolved.