Quick synopsis
When using video in medical affairs training, consider that your audience consists of scientific and medical professionals.
You may consume many videos in your personal life from influencers and well-known celebrities and leaders on social media. Those tend to be over-the-top videos, which is not what works in medical affairs training.
The purpose of your medical affairs training is different – more professional.
Deeper Dive
While the purpose may be serious, that doesn’t mean that the video should come off as formal and inflexible.
Allowing personality and even the team culture to shine through in a medical affairs training video helps keep the learner engaged.
Below are several ways that you could easily employ videos in your learning environment.
Welcome videos for new hires.
When you started your last job, wouldn’t it have been nice to have received a series of videos welcoming you to the team?
Particularly if it was going to be some time before you could meet with anyone face to face or be part of a live meeting. Consider videos.
Having the direct manager, key stakeholders, and even the members of the MSL team introduce themselves informally on video for a new hire is a great introduction to the team.
To add value, consider having everyone answer the same question or a series of questions.
If it is part of the team culture, consider adding color commentary about current events or even trivia about the therapeutic area.
Practice, practice, practice.
No one likes role play. Unfortunately, we have all had experiences where we walk away from a conversation and realize that we should have said X instead of Y about 10 minutes too late.
Consider providing opportunities for new team members to practice verbalizing key content, answering common questions received in the field, and even their elevator pitch regarding the product’s value proposition.
Practicing the tone, pace, and other delivery elements assist the MSL to become the rock star we all want them to be.
Practicing in the field during a KOL meeting is not the place to try out a new way of explaining the mechanism of action or using a whiteboard for the first time.
During training, the MSL can practice their explanation and then submit a video articulating their “answer “when they feel confident.
The technique is a training win-win. Provide the MSL a realistic scenario, allow them time to consider the elements to include in the response, and provide time to practice. The final step is to record themselves on video and submit it for feedback.
By the way, this process works great for the certification of MSL teams as well.
Snapshots from conferences.
There is a lot of time and effort spent on the medical affairs team and preparing, attending, and bringing back medical conference content and distilling it down into a series of reports for medical affairs and other stakeholders.
That is a lot of time lost – why not use video content?
Some teams may even be embracing social media by having MSLs post about the meeting and key take-aways in real-time.
Why not add a little more flair to the effort by informally producing videos that give those who can’t attend the meeting a feel for what is going on at the conference?
These videos then become a great repository for stakeholders and new members of the team.
As conference information becomes published, the curated material is refined – in other words, the video can be removed from use once more recent information is available.
A new policy announcement.
Managers may agonize over what to communicate regarding updated processes or policies.
Unfortunately, the communication often cannot wait until the next team meeting or one-on-one session for distribution.
Managers can consider capturing themselves explaining the change, providing context, timelines, and answering anticipated questions in one or a series of short videos they can send to the team.
Then on that next team call, the team has already had time to digest the news. Team members enter the meeting prepared to discuss the next steps and areas of concern.
A great explanation.
Have you ever been in a presentation with someone, and they explain a data point, the result of the study, or provide an analogy for a difficult concept in a unique way?
You may think to yourself, “Wow, I needed to capture that!”
Why not do so on video?
Repeat the explanation while recording or, better yet, ask the presenter to walk you through their description after the meeting.
Either way, you can share this with the team during training or a team call. The video nugget is a great way to showcase team members and keep the group constantly thinking about improvement in iteration.
Video is no longer the venue of overly produced and highly expensive training modalities.
Everyone now has access to the quality video equipment in terms of their computer, tablet, or smartphone with editing capabilities that anyone can master.
Whenever you are concerned that communication could fall flat because the audience can’t hear and feel its emotion, consider going to video.
Proven Value for Medical Affairs
Versant Learning Solutions recognizes that creating video content, editing it, and preparing the content for use in training may not be your top priority.
However, it is not a difficult skill to master, and the results can move your team training efforts to the next level.
If it still seems like too much, consider reaching out, and we can discuss ways to support your efforts for adding video training into your burning environment.
Contact Us to Develop Your Strategy
If you would like to discuss your team’s situation, please contact us.