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Achieving Wide Reach and High Impact Through Digital and DOL Engagement in Medical Affairs

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10 Info Graphics

29 Data Graphics

410+ Metrics

29 Narratives

Pages: 47

Published: 2025

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STUDY OVERVIEW
BENCHMARK CLASS
STUDY SNAPSHOT
KEY FINDINGS
VIEW TOC AND LIST OF EXHIBITS

Medical Affairs organizations are under increasing pressure to expand scientific reach, personalize engagement, and demonstrate measurable impact—often with the same or fewer resources. As engagement shifts toward digital-first and digital opinion leader (DOL) models, leaders must make informed decisions about where to invest, which platforms to prioritize, how to engage, and how to assess value beyond activity metrics.

This benchmarking research, developed by Best Practices, LLC, examines how leading Medical Affairs organizations design and operationalize high-impact digital and DOL engagement strategies. Drawing on insights from senior Medical leaders, this report explores how teams define clear digital objectives, deploy omnichannel approaches across external and company-owned platforms, and align content, spend, and KPIs with organizational priorities.

The findings provide Medical Affairs leaders with comparative benchmarks and practical insights to support strategic planning, investment decisions, and the development of sustainable digital engagement capabilities that enable credible scientific exchange and demonstrable impact.

Industries Profiled:
Biopharmaceutical; Pharmaceutical; Health Care; Biotech

Companies Profiled:
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals; Apellis Pharmaceuticals; Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals; Boehringer Ingelheim; Eisai; ImmunityBio; Jazz Pharmaceuticals; Merck; Novo Nordisk; OM Pharma; Regeneron; Santen; Takeda Pharmaceuticals; Vertex Pharmaceuticals

Study Snapshot

Best Practices, LLC engaged 15 Medical Affairs leaders from 14 biopharma companies. The research team also conducted deep-dive interviews to capture additional insights on digital engagement objectives, platform usage, and performance measurement.

Key topics covered in this report include:

Digital Engagement Objectives and Target Stakeholders
Effective Channels and Platforms for Medical Affairs
Content Strategies and Uptake Trends
Digital Spend and DOL Engagement Benchmarks
KPI Frameworks and Lessons Learned

Key Findings

Select key insights uncovered from this report are noted below. Detailed findings are available in the full report.

Digital Engagement Targets: KOLs are the #1 most critical target, with 73% of organizations identifying them as a “primary focus” of engagement followed by Digital Opinion Leaders (DOLs) at 64%, specialty HCPs at 60% and PCPs at 50%.

Engagement Strategies Across Professional Community Websites / Resources: Usage varies across prominent platforms, with 30% of organizations using Doximity to either sponsor platform-specific content/campaigns or post scientific content. Sermo, QxMD and other platforms are also used for similar purposes by some organizations.

Table of Contents

Sr. No.	Topic	Slide No.
I.	Executive Summary	Pg. 3
II.	Digital Engagement Targets, Objectives & Effective Content Types	Pg. 8
III.	Effective Digital Engagement Channels, Platforms & Tactics	Pg. 12
IV.	Digital Spend, DOL Engagement, KPIs & Lessons Learned	Pg. 36
V.	Participant Demographics	Pg. 44
VI.	About Best Practices, LLC	Pg. 47

List of Charts & Exhibits

I. Executive Summary

Participating benchmark companies
Executive takeaways from the study

II. Digital Engagement Targets, Objectives & Effective Content Types

Objectives for Medical Affairs digital engagement programs
Stakeholder groups prioritized for digital engagement
Content types achieving highest uptake on digital channels

III. Effective Digital Engagement Channels, Platforms & Tactics

Effectiveness of external channels for Medical digital engagement
Effectiveness of manufacturer-owned channels for Medical digital engagement
Content placement across channels and platforms
Usage patterns for professional community websites / resources platforms to engage KOLs and HCPs
Medical Affairs’ use of Doximity for thought leader engagement
Medical Affairs’ use of Sermo for thought leader engagement
Medical Affairs’ use of QxMD for thought leader engagement
Usage patterns for other professional communities for thought leader engagement
Social media usage patterns to engage KOLs and HCPs
LinkedIn usage patterns for thought leader engagement
X/Twitter usage patterns for thought leader engagement
YouTube usage patterns for thought leader engagement
Facebook usage patterns for thought leader engagement
Instagram usage patterns for thought leader engagement
Bluesky usage patterns for thought leader engagement
TikTok usage patterns for thought leader engagement
Usage patterns for medical content/news websites to engage KOLs and HCPs
Medical Affairs’ use of Medscape for thought leader engagement
Medical Affairs’ use of Healio for thought leader engagement
Usage patterns for other medical content/news websites for thought leader engagement
Other recommended external platforms for engagement
Effectiveness of digital engagement tactics for maximizing reach and impact
Top success stories in Medical’s digital engagement

IV. Digital Spend, DOL Engagement, KPIs & Lessons Learned

Annual spend on Medical digital engagement
Share of total digital budget allocated to DOLs
Future DOL engagement pilots and objectives
KPIs for measuring digital engagement success
Lessons learned for improving digital engagement
Strategies to maximize the impact and longevity of content
Voices from the field: perspectives on innovative formats in medical engagement and education

V. Participant Demographics

Therapeutic areas represented in the study
Geographic coverage of benchmarked Medical Affairs roles