Soft Metrics Uncover Medical Publications’ True Value

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Despite medical publications’ importance to communicating key clinical data to the medical community, drug and device companies often track only volume-based metrics — leading to potentially missed opportunities to gauge publication teams’ true impact and gain sufficient resource support, according to a report from Cutting Edge Information.

“Yet performance measurement, combined with a commitment from senior management to the publications teams, is vital to managing effective teams.”

The report, “Strategic Medical Publications Management: Plan Development and Resource Benchmarks,” finds that 44% of surveyed companies do not track medical publications performance measures at all. Soft metrics, however, help 48% of companies uncover publications teams’ true success and impact.

Cutting Edge Information’s research details some of the soft metrics that underscore medical publications groups’ value. These soft metrics include physician feedback and message uptake, as well as other anecdotal evidence that publications teams can gather. While they may be more difficult to track, these medical publications performance measures provide insight into whether treatment approaches have changed as a direct result of a journal article.

Other common metrics that life sciences companies track for medical publications teams encompass volume-based data such as number of manuscripts, number of abstracts, number of posters and acceptance rates. In fact, at some of the companies surveyed for Cutting Edge Information’s study, senior management depends on these hard metrics. But these measures typically do not demonstrate the full strategic value that medical publications teams deliver, especially at companies with low publications output.

“It’s an uphill climb trying to prove medical publications’ value to upper management, especially since companies don’t tie publications to prescription rates,” said Ryan McGuire, research team leader at Cutting Edge Information. “Yet performance measurement, combined with a commitment from senior management to the publications teams, is vital to managing effective teams.”

“Strategic Medical Publications Management: Plan Development and Resource Benchmarks,” (http://www.cuttingedgeinfo.com/research/medical-affairs/medical-publications/) contains key recommendations and best practices for elevating medical publication teams’ strategic value. It focuses on medical publication teams’ structures, budgets, headcounts, outsourcing processes, and performance measures. Its data will help key decision-makers to:

• Expertly manage different aspects of medical publications teams: team-building, vendor/writer relationships, journal selection, and long-term planning.
• Track the right metrics to prove value and secure critical resources.
• Optimize medical publications’ impact— know how, when and where to publish.

For more information, contact Elio Evangelista at [phone] or [e-mail].