What are Medical Information Services?

A Medical Information (MI) department ensures that all medical enquiries from patients, consumers and healthcare professions are answered consistently and professionally. A good MI service offers clear and accurate information so medicinal products can be used safely and effectively, promoting global best practice in the use of medicines, medical devices, cosmetics and nutrients. If MI enquiries include quality or safety complaints, these are identified, captured, and promptly communicated to the relevant vendors within legally defined procedures.

With a MI service tailored to a client’s needs and requirements, either 24/7 or during set business hours, responses can be promptly provided by phone or email in accordance with pre-determined legally binding timelines. A standardised MI system records the nature of the information requested in accordance with protocol, utilising a range of channels to ensure that each enquiry receives a relevant response.

MI requests, once created, are invariably categorised within a MI tracking tool, and depending on the incoming enquiry, managed accordingly. Level 1 requests are answered promptly using information previously issued and approved, such as those detailed on Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) or patient information leaflets. If further information is needed, these requests are forwarded to the client. Level 2 requests are considered as unique cases requiring bespoke answers, and often further investigations are conducted with bibliographic and literature research.

What MI consulting services do PLG provide?

At ProductLife Group (PLG), we provide MI services to the life science industry, supporting companies of pharmaceuticals, biologics, advanced therapies, medical devices, cosmetics, and food supplements.

With a trained team who can answer level 1 or level 2 requests by phone or email, we offer hourly coverage or around-the-clock medical and pharmaceutical information availability, including a full 24/7 service if needed. Our call monitoring includes the detection of product quality complaints and safety concerns related to the patient, healthcare professional or product, which are thoroughly reported and captured.

As well as providing a full service, PLG can also provide temporary support and resources to an organisation’s MI department, covering for staff absences or exceptionally busy periods following a new product launch, disease outbreaks or public interest in specific side effects reported in the media. For the times when exceptionally high volumes of calls are being experienced, we can provide you with the crisis management team, resources and tools needed to increase your capacity to deal with exceptional levels of MI requests.

Why choose PLG?

At PLG, we have the expertise, infrastructure, data management systems and tools that enable us to offer a high quality service to global life science organisations.

Our call centre has a flexible, internally hosted telephone management system based on an automatic-call-distribution (ACD) system to handle all types of calls. To ensure reliability in our IT infrastructure, all systems are regularly checked and tested. We have upcoming plans to optimise our processes with new artificial-intelligence-led solutions to transform our systems with the latest technology available.

With experience using several of the MI tracking tools commonly used in this sector, such as IRMS, GMIP, and Sales Force, we can effectively streamline and adapt to your existing processes. As part of our tool base, we also use a validated Customer Relationship Management (CRM) to offer the best service possible. When responding to calls, we use several approved sources for responses, including the SmPC and FAQs to offer the most up-to-date and correct solutions.

Within our exceptional project management system, we routinely have a designated collaborator who is available to clients as a ‘point of contact’ if needed. A regular review of quality indicators, including number of calls handled and the average waiting time also allow us to provide clients with a regular exchange of up-to-date information, updates, and insights.

An experienced, dedicated team 

At PLG, we provide our clients in the global life sciences sector with a trusted and efficient MI service.

Our highly qualified, dynamic, and multilingual team can adapt quickly to new medical products and industry requirements. With 20 years of experience in MI, building on our knowledge of multiple therapeutics areas and disease pathologies, we offer an exceptional service at a fair and competitive price. With key medical and personal skills, our team are trained in pharmacovigilance (PV) and quick response (QR) case identification and have experience using several CRMs, enabling us to provide high quality support.

Our core team, based in France, includes medical information officers, associates, pharmacists and specialists who use their pharmaceutical knowledge alongside exceptional communication skills to offer clear and accurate information to callers. Whilst officers, associates and specialists receive calls and provide answers to straightforward, often level 1 requests, our specialists and pharmacists respond to more complex, difficult, or level 2 queries. The team are also responsible for identifying vigilance cases and quality complaints, in addition to logging calls.

If a call needs to be escalated, pharmacists provide additional support, helping to respond to complex issues. In addition, PLG’s medical advisers are always available to assist as needed.

To find out more about our global MI services, contact us here.

50,000+

calls handled in 2022

In 2020

the average waiting time was 5.51 seconds.

My name Soumitra Carounagarane. I am the medical information line-of-business Director, which involves dealing with a variety of medical information activities. The expertise of our team and our ability to adapt ensure that we provide our clients with a trusted and efficient medical information service.

Soumitra Carounagarane

Medical Information Line of Business Director

My name is Agnes Ndedi, and I am the medical information Activity Manager. My role is to coordinate resources and support the teams on a day-to-day level to help them deliver high-quality service in order to meet our clients’ expectations.

Agnes Ndedi

Medical Information Activity Manager

My name is Imane Shaibi. I am a Medical Information Specialist and have several responsibilities. The work environment at PLG is stimulating, thanks to the variety of clients and portfolios we manage in Medical Information.

Imane Shaibi

Medical Information Specialist