The Medical Affairs Leaders Forum brings together US and global heads of medical affairs to understand the range of medical affairs practices and jointly tackle common challenges for medical affairs teams. Since its inception in 2006, the group has expanded, and areas of focus now include engaging external influencers, codifying a joint vision for the future, and building the data set required for change.
In-person meetings
Launched by McKinsey in 2006, this group of US and global heads of medical affairs (MA) meets three times a year to discuss top-of-mind issues for MA leaders in the industry. Recent discussion topics include field medical, talent, and capability building; measuring the impact of medical activities; and defining a vision for the future of MA. The group works jointly to understand current medical affairs practices across the industry and collectively advance toward our vision for the future.
Resource benchmarking
Forum members participate in an annual benchmarking exercise focused on resourcing, organization design, and activity levels of medical affairs organizations globally. We have built a rich database covering therapeutic-level resourcing across core MA activities in global headquarters, the United States, European Union 5 countries, and major emerging markets with data going back to 2008. Data is collected annually and shared with members through an online reporting tool.
Pulse surveys on hot topics
Since 2015, the Forum has helped members quickly understand current and emerging practices across the industry through short pulse surveys. These are typically on a narrowly focused topic to inform an urgent, internal business decision. Forum members receive the results of approximately four to five pulse surveys per year covering a range of top-of-mind topics for medical affairs leaders including life-cycle management, medical-science-liaison (MSL) scientific resources, support for clinical trials, and more.
Field Medical working group
In 2017, the Forum launched the Field Medical working group to bring together US and global heads of field medical to understand current and emerging practices of US field-medical teams. The group convenes for monthly calls and an annual in-person meeting to discuss topics including field-medical centers of excellence, digital MSLs, state-of-the-art insight gathering, measuring the value of field medical, and more.
