Medical Liaison Survey 4: Assessing Tools Used by Medical Liaisons, Clinical Trial Involvement, and Career Strategies

Medical liaisons were initially established in the pharmaceutical industry in the late 1960s. Since this time, their role has been evolving in such a way that today medical liaisons are helping to improve outcomes for patients in a variety of venues. They accomplish this through the timely, responsive dissemination of medical information, by exploring mutual clinical and scientific interests with health care providers, and through understanding the dynamics and unmet needs within therapeutic areas. In an effort to assess medical liaison trends across the pharmaceutical industry, three surveys of medical liaison practices were previously administered and published. The intent of these surveys was to identify overall approaches used by pharmaceutical companies in defining and managing the medical liaison role. We conducted this fourth survey to focus on areas identified by participants as major challenges and opportunities. The current survey focused on three areas: tools used by medical liaisons, career strategies, and medical liaison clinical trial involvement. The survey results indicated the following: medical liaisons are given the tools needed to be successful in their role, almost half of the medical liaisons surveyed have been in their current role for more than 3 years, and more than half plan on staying in a medical liaison role for at least 3 more years, and the majority of medical liaisons desire more involvement in clinical trial activities.