Artificial intelligence (AI) has been very much in the spotlight in recent months. It has garnered a great deal of media attention, and a diverse array of stakeholders ranging from health care industry leaders to mainstream consumers have been asking questions about the risks, benefits, and potential applications of this rapidly evolving technology. Medical Affairs Professional Society (MAPS) members are no exception. During the MAPS 2023 Global Annual Meeting and the MAPS 2023 EMEA Annual Meeting, there was a great deal of talk about AI.
To better understand MAPS members’ perspectives on this topic, we recently convened a panel discussion on the future of data, AI, and analytics in Medical Affairs. Our panelists were six MAPS members with varying areas of interest and levels of expertise in artificial intelligence.
Participants included:
- Caroline Blackie, OD, Ph.D., Senior Medical Director, Johnson & Johnson
- Jennifer Ghith, MS, Senior Director, Omnichannel Strategy and Innovations Lead, Global Scientific Communications, Pfizer
- Jumaah Goldberg, DPT, Associate Vice President, Head of Neuroscience, U.S. Medical Affairs, Ipsen
- Santosh Hariharan, Ph.D., Associate Director Analytics – Medical Communications, Vertex
- Elmira Lechat, MD, MBA, Global Medical Director, Alexion
- Joana Parreira, MD, Senior Global Medical Director, Roche
We invited these experts to discuss their views on the current state of AI adoption in the Medical Affairs function, as well as perceived barriers to its uptake. While there’s great excitement about AI’s potential to advance Medical Affairs’ mission, improve insight management, and empower the function to become patient-representative (rather than patient-centric), individual organizations’ readiness to implement new tools varies greatly. The technology’s complexity – as well as the speed with which it’s evolving – makes it time-consuming for Medical Affairs professionals to keep up with the latest developments and their potential applications to their functional areas. Many MAPS members have a pressing need to learn more about the available AI tools, how to validate their output, and how to best make use of them today and in the future.
