Medical affairs teams should engage opinion leaders to shape products and help them reach a target market. This engagement constitutes developing relationships with clinicians and healthcare professionals to gain their input and insights, which may offer your company a competitive edge.
When considering engagement with opinion leaders, medical affairs teams should prioritize both more traditional key opinion leaders (KOLs) as well as digital opinion leaders (DOLs). DOLs are similar to KOLs, but use channels like LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social media platforms to engage and educate their audience, many of whom specialize in a specific therapeutic area.
For medical affairs teams, one benefit of working with DOLs is that social algorithms push the content they produce to the most relevant audience. For example, it’s likely that a DOL posting about cardiology will have built an audience of other experts and stakeholders within this field.
Medical affairs teams can construct a more complete scientific narrative by branching out beyond KOLs, incorporating perspectives from digital influencers who can reach new global audiences.
Medical Affairs – How to identify a DOL
DOLs may sound similar to influencers who promote consumer brands, but with these experts, self-promotion will not be their motivating factor. Instead, they are motivated by discussion and promotion of science. Some DOLs are simply traditional KOLs who are keen to utilise digital channels after the pandemic ushered them into a new style of engagement. Some DOL’s may not actually be KOL’s, so monitoring validity of perspectives of these influencers is key.
Medical affairs teams should keep in mind that on social media, some things are not necessarily what they seem. Misinformation is a real concern on these platforms, but reputable DOLs check their sources before posting and prioritise the validity of the information they share. Social media listening should be employed to monitor DOL’s. Using validation criteria applied to the digital influencers can assist in determining next steps for engagement plans. For example, selecting Digital Pillars from the DOL’s may require validation of credentials and other background information. Pillars should be DOL’s that align best with the company’s scientific narrative.
DOLs are also likely to stick within their area of expertise and are unlikely to comment on a broad range of topics.
How to engage properly with DOLs
As the post-pandemic reality continues to evolve, experts engaging online will become even more influential. However, medical affairs teams can’t lump them together with KOLs and assume they should be engaged in the same way.
Teams should leverage the digital expertise of DOLs to get more value from their virtual engagements. Although it’s perfectly valid to add DOLs to in-person and virtual conversations as advisors, they can also serve as moderators for asynchronous work sessions. This role is particularly suited to DOLs because of their comfort engaging in online environments, and their ability to prompt and encourage discussions.
Virtual engagement venues are the ideal space to engage DOLs – while it seems natural to engage them on social platforms, conversations with medical affairs teams should be conducted in a secure, compliant environment. Rather than opening their organization to negative comments or potential gaffes, pharma and medical device teams can maintain compliance and gather valuable insights while leveraging the expertise of the DOLs they engage.
DOLs and digital – a perfect pairing
DOLs don’t replace KOLs – rather, they simply strengthen a good engagement strategy. As discussed, DOLs are the perfect fit to moderate asynchronous work sessions due to their tech savvy and knowledge of online scientific conversations.
In the wake of the pandemic, more digital natives will enter the ranks of life science companies, the medical field, and the patient population. Digital interaction will be the first choice of this demographic, and all stakeholders should become accustomed to a more virtual world, where online engagement will only become more influential. Scientific dialogue will still occur on the conference floor but is now increasingly augmented with virtual elements and underpinned by concurrent discussions on social media.
As the life science industry evolves to meet this digital mandate, medical affairs teams won’t increase their value provision by relying only on traditional tactics. The rise of DOLs reflects a drastic shift in the way teams engage with experts, and it’s time medical affairs teams begin to utilise the potential of digital tools and venues.
By Mike Abbadessa, VP of Medical Affairs, Within3