Most of a medical science liaison’s preparation happens the evening before a meeting. It means rereading the expert’s recent publications, checking which trials they are running, looking for the poster they presented last month, and trying to remember what was promised at the last meeting. Done well, it makes the conversation better. Done in a hurry, it means walking in without knowing about the expert’s new paper.
This template gives that preparation a consistent shape. It is a short Word document, two pages at most, organized so that it can be read in five minutes before the meeting starts.
What’s in the template
Meeting details and expert snapshot. Who you are meeting, in what role, and what they are known for. The snapshot includes their current roles, such as trial investigator, guideline committee member or society officer, and a short history of your relationship.
What has changed since the last conversation. This is the most valuable section and the one most often skipped. It covers new publications, congress presentations, changes in trial activity, guideline or committee work, and developments in the therapy area the expert is likely to raise. Record only what is new.
Open items. Follow-ups you promised, questions that are still open on either side, and any medical information requests that were routed after a previous meeting.
Objectives. What you want to understand from this exchange, what the expert is likely to bring up, and any scientific content you are prepared to share if asked. The objectives are scientific: MSL interactions are non-promotional.
A short compliance checklist. Five reminders that cover non-promotional discussion, unsolicited requests, adverse event and complaint reporting, routing information requests, and recording the interaction.
After the meeting. Space for the insights you gathered, the follow-ups you agreed, and any requests or reports you passed on.
How to use it
- Start from the last brief. If you have met the expert before, copy your previous brief and update it rather than starting again. The snapshot rarely changes. The “what has changed” section always does.
- Look back to the last meeting, not further. The point of the brief is what is new since you last spoke. Older material belongs in the snapshot.
- Write objectives as questions. “Understand how she sequences therapy after first-line failure” is more useful than “discuss sequencing.”
- Fill in the debrief the same day. Insights written up a week later lose most of their detail.
- Keep it short. If a section runs past a few lines, you are probably writing a report rather than a brief.
Where the time goes
When teams track it, most of the preparation time goes into the “what has changed” section, because the information is spread across journals, trial registries, congress programs and news. That is also the section most likely to be incomplete. If your field team covers dozens of experts each, this is the part worth automating. MedIntel keeps expert profiles current and produces this section of the brief automatically, so MSLs start from an up-to-date picture instead of a blank page.
Read more about MSL pre-call briefs and expert intelligence, or see the glossary entry for medical science liaison.