86% of Surveyed Life Science Organizations Maintain Country-Level Medical Information Structures, According to Cutting Edge Information

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC--(Marketwired - August 05, 2015) - As pharmaceutical and medical device companies expand their commercial reach, medical information groups work in a wide array of markets. To meet the demands of globalization, medical information teams must be able to coordinate functional strategy across the company and to meet the specific needs of varying medical communities. According to a survey by Cutting Edge Information, companies report leveraging multiple team structures to support their medical information responsibilities. The majority (86%) of surveyed life science organizations report maintaining country-level medical information structures.

These country-level groups are charged with collecting and responding to unsolicited medical inquiries from their geographic area of responsibility. Call centers in these country-level structures work directly with healthcare professionals and patients. Because of this geographic focus, the medical information groups are able to tailor corporate-wide standard response documents to fit country-specific regulations and community concerns.

The report, Medical Information and Call Center Performance: Building New Practices to Meet the Evolving Needs of HCPs and Patients, shows that 62% of surveyed companies maintain global medical information groups. For many companies, these groups create and disseminate medical information strategy throughout the organization. These global teams are also often responsible for producing and updating the supporting materials, such as standard response documents, FAQs and product dossiers.

In many cases, global medical information teams maintain call centers that serve affiliates. These call centers receive and respond to elevated requests from country-level or regional medical information teams. "In most cases, these global teams are not responsible for any direct communication with HCPs and consumers," said senior research analyst Jacob Presson.

"Medical Information and Call Center Performance: Building New Practices to Meet the Evolving Needs of HCPS and Patients," available at http://www.cuttingedgeinfo.com/research/medical-affairs/information-teams/, details results of the survey and interviews conducted with several top life sciences companies' medical information teams. The study provides readers with in-depth analysis and benchmarks of the industry's most innovative companies.

With the insights and metrics that this report provides, medical information executives will be prepared to demonstrate value and argue for more resources for their department and for their pharmaceutical call centers. Other benefits of purchasing this study include:

• Benchmarking your medical information teams -- both internally and at the call center -- against key performance indicators collected and analyzed in this study.
• Aligning budgets with call center volume and group responsibilities.
• Learning the advantages of implementing self-guided training programs to maximize efficiency.
• Boosting efficiency by establishing clear processes for elevated calls.
• Exploring call center operations for teams of different sizes and regions.

To learn more about Cutting Edge Information and its research report offerings, please visit http://cuttingedgeinfo.com/.

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