Best Practices for Implementing a Rock Star KOL Program

In today’s world of commoditized medical devices, differentiating your products is extremely challenging. In fact, the only difference between your company and the next might be how effectively you collaborate with KOLs and other medical device stakeholders.

The end goal for any KOL program is increased sales. But how do you manage growth in the face of a heightened compliance and regulatory environment? To answer that question, we’ve enlisted the help of OpenQ cofounders, Jim Zuffoletti and Otavio Freire. So who exactly are these guys? Simply put, they’re experts when it comes to KOL programs. More specifically…

Jim Zuffoletti is the President of OpenQ. He has been a founder of start-up organizations as both an entrepreneur and an intrapreneur and has served life science companies for the past 15 years. Prior to founding OpenQ, Zuffoletti was a founder of FreeMarkets, Inc., a pioneering e-business company.

Before FreeMarkets, Jim started his career at GE in a variety of positions in finance and business development. Zuffoletti holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Amherst College and holds an MBA from the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration.

Otavio Freire is the Chief Technology Officer of OpenQ. Prior to co-founding OpenQ, Freire was the Director of Technology at a software company serving the pharmaceutical industry where he created innovative technology products that are currently live at eight of the ten largest global pharmaceutical companies, including Merck and GlaxoSmithKline. Otavio’s career has also spanned work at Oracle and InterWorld. Freire holds a Bachelors of Science in Civil Engineering, a Masters of Science in Management Information Systems, and an MBA from the Darden Graduate School of BusinessAdministration.

In this interview with Jim Zuffoletti and Otavio Freire, we learn the keys to implementing and managing a successful KOL program.

Interview Highlights with Jim and Otavio

• The 5 major functions of an effective KOL program: Identification, Engagement Planning, Coordination & Tracking, Sharing of Content, and Measure/Monitor.

• 4 common challenges that medical device companies face when collaborating with KOLs and outside physician experts.

• Is it really that hard to find KOLs? Who should you include and who should you exclude? Can technology help with this?

• Tribal data vs. objective data: Is your “in-house” list of KOLs really that good? You may be surprised!

• Think about the various facets of KOLs and stakeholder management. Medical affairs, speaker programs, grant funding, etc. Is everyone at your company on the same page? If not, learn how they could be.

• Do you have control over the content that your KOLs are presenting and sharing? What other regulatory guidelines must be considered?

• How will the world of mobile and social media change the KOL landscape?