When putting a medical advisory board together, the three things you should be looking for in members are experience in the subject area, experience with boards, and experience working as a team.
Three Things to Look for in a Medical Advisor:
Subject Matter Experience
You want people who have worked in the area your product or service lives. You want them to have had experience with competitive products and services.
Most importantly, you want them to have a ton of experience with patients in the area. You want them to have seen the side effects up close, and you want them to have spoken to patients about what they like and don’t like about their current options. This will make them motivated to find better solutions, which is what you want.
Board Experience
Medical advisory boards are too important to put in the hands of novices. You want people who have been part of boards before, be they medical, marketing, working groups or other kinds.
You want to know that they’ll participate properly and honor their commitments. And you want to know that they’ll be prompt because so many other factors go into getting approvals that even a minor holdup at the advisory stage could lead to massive delays down the line.
Teamwork Experience
You want people who know how to listen to other people. Ideally, you want advisors who have business partners or who work as part of a large organization. Lone wolfs run the risk of upsetting a board’s vibe and delaying results — and like we mentioned above, even a slight delay can lead to huge problems.
We Can Help Identify and Recruit Medical Advisors
Part of our service offering is helping our clients staff their boards effectively. If you’re thinking of putting a medical advisory board together and you’re not sure where to begin, drop Janice a note at janice@impetusdigital.com and she can get the recruiting process started.