Overall Training Challenge
The client was clear on the goals of this project. There was an urgent business need for a scientific PowerPoint presentation on a new topic, but management also needed to protect the time of their MSL team. The new slide deck needed to be succinct so that it could be reviewed in its entirety during a field meeting. The client asked for “aesthetically pleasing” slides, in other words, a few steps up from the standard “walls of text” slide deck. The client could provide approximately 20 publications relevant to the new topic, but the articles had not been organized, read, vetted, or synthesized.
The Solution Versant Provided
Versant took on this project over a business holiday period. Based on prior work with the client, they were confident that Versant would provide a scientifically rigorous, visually engaging slide deck appropriate for internal and external use.
Versant organized and read the provided journal articles. We identified the important concepts and datapoints needed to craft the data story. For the “core publications” (i.e., identified as having the most relevant content), Versant used a manuscript extraction template to pull out the information most critical for use in the slide deck, and potentially for a job aid or annotated version of the publication itself.
Simultaneously, potentially useful images were identified and retained with necessary meta-data such as the associated citation.
As anticipated, some key publications were not included in the original cache of articles, so Versant obtained the necessary articles. During the planning phase, Versant and the client discussed obtaining copyrights and permissions.
As the project progressed, Versant created several presentation versions with an eye to refinement and distillation of content into a compelling narrative. The deck went through two rounds of review by the client who then approved it for final submission. As a value-add, Dr. Melody Davis added audio narration to the presentation deck to provide the rationales for or context of the data and to offer guidance about how the slides could be best presented to varying audiences.
What is the Value to Medical Affairs?
In Medical Affairs (MA), there is a constant need to update assets and create new items as information becomes available and new questions arise in the field. Unfortunately, most MA teams operate at a lean capacity and often do not have the necessary bandwidth to update assets or create new content.
As many MA teams seek to personalize their interactions with KOLs and healthcare professionals in the field, the ability to quickly and efficiently create slide decks of high medical quality is paramount. Ideally, MSLs should be able to select from a library of current and scientifically diverse presentations that can be used in face-to-face visits and virtually.
Versant Learning Solutions partnered with a field MA team at a mid-size pharma company to extend its capacity to quickly add high quality scientific and medical content in a cost-effective manner that did not impact the team’s bandwidth or activities. With the team’s needs in mind, Versant also provided audio input from the creator of the presentation to offer insights relevant to the context and interpretation of specific data points. Understanding how best to present a data story and tailor a presentation to specific audiences is as critical as the presentation itself.
If you would like to discuss your team’s scientific presentation needs, please contact us.
References
None