Medical Information (MI)
A question about a product? Medical information is there to provide you with the appropriate and up-to-date answers
What it means to have an excellent medical information department
The medical information (MI) team ensures that all medical inquiries from patients, consumers, and healthcare professionals are answered consistently and professionally. A good MI service offers accurate information so medicinal products can be used safely and effectively, promoting global best practices in using medicines, medical devices, cosmetics, and nutrients. If MI inquiries include quality or safety complaints, these are identified, captured, and promptly communicated to the relevant vendors within legally defined procedures.
With an MI service tailored to a client’s needs and requirements, whether 24/7 or during set business hours, responses can be promptly provided by phone or email following pre-determined legally binding timelines. A standardized MI system records the nature of the information requested following protocol, utilizing a range of channels to ensure that each inquiry receives a relevant response.
PLG’s medical information client support services
We provide MI services to the life science industry, supporting pharmaceuticals, biologics, advanced therapies, medical devices, cosmetics, and food supplement companies.
With a trained team who can answer level 1 or 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. Our call monitoring includes detecting product quality complaints and safety concerns related to the patient, healthcare professional, or product, which are thoroughly captured and reported.
In addition to providing full service, we can provide temporary support and resources to an organization’s MI department, covering 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.
PLG’s medical information services are a cut above the rest, and here is why:
We have the expertise, infrastructure, data management systems, and tools to offer high-quality service to global life science organizations.
We have superior-quality telephone management systems.
Our call center has a flexible, internally hosted telephone management system based on an automatic call distribution (ACD) system to handle all calls. All systems are regularly checked and tested to ensure reliability in our IT infrastructure. We plan to optimize our processes with new artificial intelligence-led solutions to transform our systems using the latest technology.
PLG’s professional competency is knowing how to use the right tools.
With experience using several MI tracking tools commonly used in this sector, such as IRMS, GMIP, and SalesForce, 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 (Summary of Product Characteristics) and FAQs, to provide the most up-to-date and correct solutions.
Easing exceptional medical information workloads with extraordinary project management
Our exceptional project management system routinely has a designated collaborator available to clients as a ‘point of contact’ if needed. Regularly reviewing quality indicators, including the number of calls handled and the average waiting time, also allows us to provide clients with a traditional exchange of up-to-date information, updates, and insights.
At PLG, we utilize our industry experience and geographic locations to maximize support.
Our highly qualified, dynamic, multilingual team can quickly adapt to new medical products and industry requirements. With 20 years of experience in MI, building on our knowledge of multiple therapeutic areas and disease pathologies, we offer exceptional service at a fair and competitive price. With crucial medical and personal skills, our team is trained in pharmacovigilance (PV) and quick response (QR) case identification. We 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. While officers, associates, and specialists receive calls and provide answers to straightforward – often level 1 – requests, our specialists respond to more complex, difficult, or level 2 queries. Our team is also responsible for identifying vigilance cases, quality complaints, and logging calls.
If a call should be escalated, specialists provide additional support to help respond to complex issues. In addition, Our medical advisers are always available to assist as needed.
KEY FIGURES :
50,000+
calls handled in 2022
4.48
seconds average wait time for patients calling the hotline in 2022
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