Written by Gabby Santa Cruz on Thursday 18th February 2021
Chief Medical Officer, Annemarie Clegg speaks to us about trends she expects to see in Medical Affairs in 2021
Annemarie Clegg, MD. I am newly in post as Chief Medical Officer for the OPEN Health Communications practice, providing leadership, strategic insights, and oversight for our industry-leading global medical team. In my immediately prior role as Senior Vice President, Strategic Services, I oversaw business development and the delivery of consultative services to our clients in the Medical Affairs function. I have been working at OPEN Health for over 2 years and have over 15 years of industry experience.
The pandemic has forced step-change in nearly all aspects of Medical Affairs, driving rapid uptake of new platforms and channels for information sharing, evolving how sponsors work with investigators and thought leaders, accelerating the transition from long-form presentations to visual abstracts and ‘bite-size’ infographics, and promoting innovation in how field medical staff engage with key stakeholders.
Dynamic
There is a lot of opportunity for innovation and approaching strategic planning from a new perspective. What replaces the face-to-face interaction that we used to have at congresses, investigator meetings, and advisory boards? How do we reach audiences that have numerous competing demands for their time? What is important to communicate and what is just ‘noise’? These are just some of the challenges that I look forward to tackling with our clients in the coming year.
Energy and bandwidth. After many months of living through a pandemic, fatigue and distraction are a real obstacle to investing in projects and initiatives that require careful thought and consistent execution.
We are following our own advice and taking into account the points mentioned above. We are trying to be flexible and agile with our thinking, to be mindful of the external environment and how it affects the well-being of our staff, and to be ready to bring purpose, passion, and positivity to our client partnerships.
To learn more about our Medical Affairs capabilities, please get in touch:
Louise Carrington, Client Partnerships Director