February 28, 2012 ·
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Industry Insights from Paul Meade, M. Sc., MPH
There has been quite a lot of noise lately regarding the use of social network techniques to find key opinion leaders in the medical profession. Whether it’s through what some call social network analysis or the creation of health care professional-only social networks, proponents of these methods like to think that they are reinventing thought leadership and its metrics.
In fact, some advocates even suggest they can find more key opinion leaders in the medical field than by using other tried and tested, and sometimes validated approaches. Can this be true? Well, it depends on how these companies, and better yet, how the end users of their services, define thought leaders or key opinion leaders (KOLs).
There are those with backgrounds in information technology, as well as social sciences such as sociology and psychology, and other areas outside healthcare who are trying to redefine thought leadership in medicine to fit the template of the products they are selling. For example, some of them have taken concepts of social interactions and applied them to finding those medical experts that either publish together or even present at similar conferences. But just because someone writes a paper with someone else doesn’t mean they are both KOLs. In fact, the contrary is often the case.
So let’s back up and ... read more »
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clinical practice diabetes health behaviors health care professional social networks information technology key opinion leaders KOL identification KOL profiling KOLs physician social networks psychology public health publication collaborations publishing scientific journals scientific research social networks sociology thought leaders thought leaders in medicine thought leadership
February 21, 2012 ·
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Industry Insights from Paul Meade, M. Sc., MPH
While the Mayans might have been good at developing a cosmic calendar with 27,000-year cycles, I will try to venture only one or two years out and predict some developments within the healthcare system.
I dare say the Mayans had great foresight about changes, even if they never invented the wheel, but clearly they missed the fact that 2012 was an election year in the United States, and that predicting change became no mean task with orders of magnitude of difficulty. Nonetheless, I will attempt to gaze into my crystal ball and give my predictions for the next little while.
The promise of personalized medicine has been swirling around in the minds of brilliant people for well over a decade now, but we are patiently awaiting the results to impact our daily lives. Throughout the past 10-15 years, advances in the personalized medicine field have been somewhat slow to appear on the landscape. We should not be too discouraged by this advancing timeline, since we are still waiting for a cure for cancer after many decades of highly-funded research. Yet, each day, scientists are discovering more and more biomarkers with the potential to move us closer the reality of personalized medicine.
These biomarkers are not only predicting diseases—they are identifying companion diagnostics, indicating response levels to ... read more »
TAGS: Accountable Care Organizations biomarkers biotechnology companion diagnostics healthcare healthcare delivery Healthcare Professionals medicine Paul Meade personalized medicine pharmaceuticals predictive medicine public health research and development Thought Leader Select US healthcare reform US healthcare system
February 16, 2012 ·
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Thought Leader Select, a Chapel Hill, North Carolina-based research and consulting firm for the biopharmaceutical and healthcare industries, announces the commencement of a key opinion leader assessment for a top five global pharmaceutical company.
For the assessment, Thought Leader Select will use its proprietary identification methodology to pinpoint 40 Canadian key opinion leaders in oncology, with sub-specialty in the area of skin cancer. The company will study the skills and experience of Canadian oncologists in several areas of thought leadership in the medical field, including areas of expertise, leadership in basic and clinical research, and research publishing in leading scientific journals.
The client company will utilize Thought Leader Select’s research to engage key opinion leaders in oncology on a number of fronts, including advisory boards, consulting, and medical science liaison outreach.
“We are excited about this opportunity to support a great company as they prepare to enter the Canadian market with a new medicine that will improve the lives of patients suffering from skin cancer,” stated Neil Mellor, Thought Leader Select’s global business development consultant. “Our position in the advancement of this new treatment is critical, since our work ensures that the company will be reaching out to the right physicians during the company’s earliest phase of assisting in the treatment of patients in this disease area.”
About Neil Mellor
Neil Mellor is ... read more »
TAGS: basic research biopharmaceutical industry Canadian key opinion leaders clinical research healthcare key opinion leader assessment KOL engagement KOL identification KOLs medical research medical science liaisons medicine MSLs Neil Mellor oncologists Oncology pharmaceuticals physician public health publishing scientific advisory boards scientific journals skin cancer therapeutic area Thought Leader Select
February 2, 2012 ·
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New Press Release from the Offices of Thought Leader Select
February 2, 2012 (Chapel Hill, NC) Thought Leader Select is pleased to announce a pair of key opinion leader (KOL) identification and profiling projects to support the development pipeline of a leading pharmaceutical client focused in the therapeutic area of gastroenterology.
In the first research assessment, Thought Leader Select will identify and profile leading medical experts in the treatment of patients suffering from non-cancer-related chronic pain. The company will identify the leading pain experts throughout the United States by examining the skills and experiences of physicians in multiple disciplines and specialties, including gastroenterologists, primary care physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants.
For the second research assessment, Thought Leader Select will identify and profile 100 key opinion leaders in colorectal surgery, as well as 125 KOLs in gastroenterology. The cumulative group of 225 physician thought leaders will share vast experience in research and treatment of fecal incontinence.
Thought Leader Select will use its validated, objective deep profiling methodology to assess the skills and experience of the thought leaders chronic pain, colorectal surgery, and gastroenterology in multiple research categories, including their areas of expertise, medical/scientific journal publishing history, and participation in basic and clinical research. The company’s research group is comprised of subject-matter experts in medicine, with decades of experience working in ... read more »
TAGS: basic and clinical research chronic pain clinical research colorectal surgery deep-profiling drug development pipeline gastroenterology key opinion leaders KOL late-stage clinical trials medical experts medical research medicine nurse practitioners patient treatment Paul Meade pharmaceuticals physician assistants physicians primary care physicians publishing scientific advisory boards scientific journals therapeutic area Thought Leader Select thought leaders
