As a full-service marketing services organization at SAKS Health, we focus our efforts on creating and implementing succinct and effective communications for the greater healthcare ecosystem—practitioners, payers, and patients. We partner with clients to stimulate awareness, discussion, and assimilation of new medical devices, drugs, and treatments with the goal of helping to activate Better Healthcare Tomorrow™.
With an increasingly high level of competition and greater numbers of regulations, pharma brands need more diverse and compelling approaches to ensure that messages resonate across target audiences and that these life changing therapies remain on the radar of these individuals throughout a product’s life cycle. As pharma and biotech companies continue to invest heavily in education and marketing their brands, they continue to rely on agencies like SAKS to provide evidence-based scientific communications through a broad range of strategic initiatives. Briefly outlined below is a sampling of our offerings designed to augment your path to success in achieving your medical communication goals.
Scientific Platform – As the cornerstone of a brand’s medical communication strategy, our medical affairs team’s broad-based approach begins with strategic alignment to define and then execute the various platform components including the Lexicon, Scientific Statements, Gap Analysis, Medical SWOT, and Educational Needs Assessment.
Publication Planning – Always following Good Publication Practices (GPP3), we begin the process strategically by building robust engaging content ensuring that the data supporting a product’s key messages are placed in the most appropriate journal, to reach the target audience(s) at the best possible time.
Congress Initiatives – As part of publication planning, deciding on topics for abstract submission to key Congresses is often foremost in achieving a brand’s communications goals. In addition to abstract and poster development, our team provides other Congress services through initiatives such as Congress in Review, Scientific Symposiums, KOL Connections/Meet the Expert Programs, Clinical/Competitive Intelligence Gathering, Private Poster Sessions, and Medical Affairs Booth Support.
KOL Mapping – We like to say we are the experts on the experts. We analyze and distill data from primary and secondary sources, work closely with clients to establish KOL criteria specific to their needs, and determine which clinicians are respected by their peers as well as those who bridge and connect clinical communities. Taking that a few steps further, we pinpoint which individuals seem to be the most talented collaborators identifying the rock stars as well as the rising stars.
KOL Advisory Engagements – Once identified through a KOL Mapping process, these individuals can be enlisted for their input and guidance in development of communication programs that will resonate with the broader HCP audience. This encompasses a variety of areas from clinical consulting and research to market analysis and development of educational strategies.
Speakers Bureau – Despite more stringent PHrMA guidelines for Speaker Bureaus in 2022, these programs continue to see a resurgence in popularity throughout the industry. Our team launched the SAKSeBUREAU portal in 2021, an innovative platform that can incorporate flexible formats (on-site, hybrid, and virtual programs) while providing seamless management and coordination of speakers/events and compliance reporting.
Launch Activities – Preparing for launch, launching a drug, and initiatives developed post-launch require strategic planning and integration among all pharma stakeholders. On the medical communications side of these efforts, working with SAKS Health extends your internal team efforts to help facilitate a flawless launch execution. This includes a comprehensive medical communications plan that defines the market, pinpoints HCP needs, refines messaging, recommends publication/congress activities, identifies and details KOL engagement, and incorporates internal education and training programming.
HCP and Patient Education – SAKS Health designs in-person and virtual programs to educate stakeholders about disease states and therapies. For HCPs, traditional offerings such as dinner meetings, webcasts/podcasts, virtual journal clubs, roundtable discussions, and MOA/MOD videos continue to play an impactful role with this audience. Increasingly though, we have found that with both the HCP and patient audiences, there seems to be a growing interest in digital approaches, specifically videos, AI, and gamification. Advocacy groups and social media are also important in providing additional opportunities for outreach and delivering information.
Internal Education – Keeping internal teams knowledgeable and up-to-date is key whether anticipating a launch, wanting to communicate about a new drug indication, or trying to understand and keep tabs on the competition. Our med comms team is experienced in providing educational pieces like literature alerts and training modules in various formats for medical affairs, field teams (MSLs/Sales), and upper management.
SAKSiNTERACTiVE – SAKS Health’s proprietary platform activates virtual engagements for users through various types of modalities. These include opportunities for both synchronous and asynchronous learning as well as providing collaborative workspace options. Some application examples involve steering committees, peer to peer educational events, sales training, national sales meetings, and congress programs.
Achieving your Medical Communication goals means strategically using evidence-based initiatives to connect with your target audiences. Connect with us today to experience the value our team brings to creating a targeted med comms strategic plan for your business.
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