The Medical Science Liaison Officer: A Smart Addition To The Medtech Team
By Daniel A. Lace, Chief Medical Officer, Reimbursement Strategies, LLC.
A medical science liaison officer (MSLO) has long been a common, highly valued position in pharmaceutical companies, as well as within healthcare systems and clinical research organizations. This role is designed to bridge the gap between the company’s perspective, medical science, healthcare professionals, patients, and payers.
Just as pharma sales reps have less and less access to prescribing doctors, non-medical people have less and less access to health plan medical policy people. Payers have been aggressively moving to limit access to their medical policy people especially by company representatives, who may be on incentive-based compensation. Because of this constantly changing landscape, the MSLO role now has expanded to the medtech and biotech industries.
The MSLO position usually is filled by someone with an MD degree or a PhD in a medical science profession, since a medical background is almost required now to have a credible conversation about new technologies, or to be able to have that conversation with payers. The position usually is corporate-based and is part of the larger medical affairs function. The role may vary somewhat in different companies, but there are similar responsibilities. Travel, for example — in order to meet healthcare professionals within their spheres of influence — is a large part of the MSLO’s responsibilities.
However, the fundamental accountability of the MSLO is to be a scientific resource for the company. This may include reviewing published clinical articles to determine how the data support the company’s products, or those of its competitors. The MSLO may interpret and annotate the articles for use in marketing materials, or as a sales tool to educate the sales force or to educate health care professionals who may use products the company manufactures. The MSLO will also monitor peer-reviewed published studies to determine trends for emerging standards of care that may influence payer coverage policies for a company’s emerging technologies and treatments.
How An MSLO Can Benefit Your Reimbursement Team
Within the realm of reimbursement, the MSLO has many potential roles. In a previous article, we discussed the best way to communicate and approach payers. This entails focusing on peer-reviewed, published clinical data from well-designed studies with adequate power to demonstrate objective effects that provide meaningful health outcomes. Creating a clinical dossier is an ideal project for the MSLO who can assist in presenting clinical data succinctly and objectively, resisting the impulse to turn the clinical dossier into a marketing piece. The MSLO is also able to review clinical data factually and impartially. As a healthcare professional, the MSLO is already familiar with the language of medicine, and is comfortable in conversations with other physicians and clinical personnel who may be senior medical policy decision-makers.
Payers schedule regular meetings at which new products, procedures, diagnostics, or other healthcare technology can be presented. These presentations must be scheduled in advance and may only last for 15 to 30 minutes. Creating the presentation may require the MSLO to construct a well-organized PowerPoint presentation that communicates information regarding the health state, current accepted treatments, continuum of care, algorithm of treatment, published clinical data that supports the use of the treatment or diagnostic, and a statement as to how the net health outcome is affected.
In face-to-face meetings with payer medical directors, the MSLO can represent the company in a position that is seen as more credible than that of a marketing or sales person. Payer medical directors can discuss questions with the MSLO at a more complex level, considering statistical significance of study outcomes, as well as their clinical significance — the MSLO knows how to “walk the walk” and “talk the talk.”
And, when the MSLO has worked in a clinical position within the medical specialty, s/he can speak from a position of authority and experience. Let’s face it, bioengineers like to talk to other bioengineers because of their instant credibility, depth of knowledge, and personal insight. It’s the same with MSLOs and health plan medical policy people.
Other Ways An MLSO Is An Asset
Within the company, the MSLO will be asked to present to internal groups, such as the sales force, with the objective of educating the sales team on the scientific foundation behind the company products. The MSLO can provide language as to how the sales team can best communicate with professional customers. Role playing with the MSLO can provide the sales team with simulated real life situations so they have the chance to create suitable responses that can be used in the field. The MSLO can also present competitive intelligence to demonstrate ways in which the sales team can present its own product as an alternative to those of a competing company. However, the MLSO’s greatest value in today’s evolving healthcare economy is external.
The credibility that allows payers to trust your MSLO is built as that individual interfaces with the healthcare community. This includes responding to requests for information, which may include annotated bibliographies of published studies that support a specific product or treatment modality, phone conversations to answer questions, dialog with potential users on the advantages of the technology, or assistance with investigator-initiated research proposals. The MSLO may be asked to present at medical society meetings as part of an educational program.
Some of the MSLO’s time may be spent attending professional conferences to learn of the scientific advances being made within a medical specialty. This will include cutting-edge research, corroboration of existing studies, or presenting new treatments. Time may be spent interacting with healthcare professionals to discuss and present the scientific data that supports a company’s products or treatments. In some cases, the MSLO may speak or present as part of a conference agenda, or at a separate company sponsored meeting.
MSLOs will also sit on an advisory board for a professional society, a patient advocacy group, a non-profit organization, or a government sponsored task force. Additionally, the MSLO will most likely be a member of a professional society, and may have the opportunity to hold a position within that organization such as a committee member, board member, or officer.
Finally, the MSLO may be instrumental in identifying key opinion leaders (KOLs) who may be able to work with the company. The KOLs are thought leaders within their respective specialties who can influence the adoption, and ultimate success, of a product or treatment. These KOLs may be affiliated with a prestigious academic institution that can serve as a research site to perform clinical studies. This can become the basis for research relationships, advisory board affiliations or educational partnerships. As someone who moves within these professional and academic circles, the MSLO can facilitate national and global networking opportunities between KOLs and company resources. As was stated earlier, the MSLO will also have more access to KOLs than the sales team because of institutional or regulatory restrictions.
Conclusion
Using the MSLO in the reimbursement process — and elsewhere in your medtech operation — is a smart way to maximize medical expertise to communicate with payers and present data in a more objective, clinical manner, without the perception of company bias. Health plan medical policy people should not be underestimated. They can immediately differentiate a sales/marketing expert from a clinical expert. The former has little credibility while the latter can speak the more unbiased language of medical coverage policy, thereby maximizing success in representing new technologies (or existing technologies, used for new clinical applications). It’s a chasm that non-clinicians cannot consistently cross.
About The Author
Daniel A. Lace, MD, CPE, FACPE is chief medical officer at Reimbursement Strategies, LLC. He has over 20 years of experience as a healthcare executive across a range of managed care, pharmaceutical, device, diagnostic and consulting businesses, having served as chief medical officer and other senior leadership positions in global pharmaceutical and device companies, as well as in national managed care organizations. He can be contacted at DLace@Reimbursement-Strategies.com