Blog
Grants Program Management: Communicating the value of supporting Independent Medical Education (IME)
Learn how to approach key stakeholders to request funding for IME.
Regina Alvarado, Principal, Strategy & Life Sciences, IQVIA
Aug 08, 2022

In this blog series, we look at the role of grants professionals in life science companies, the challenges they face working with internal stakeholders, and how technology and data-driven insights can help.

A key component of being able to speak to the value of IME is the overarching grants program strategy. Defining and documenting a strategic plan requires careful thought and consideration given to identifying medical areas of interest and unmet need, optimal program types for delivering the content, the correct intended audience to receive the information, appropriate geographic region(s), accredited or non-accredited status, and more. Having an agreed-upon grant program strategy makes it easier to demonstrate the grants program’s purpose and benefits to the various stakeholders. Its creation requires that companies consider the “why” behind the decisions to include or exclude certain criteria in the strategic plan.

Working with the various stakeholders

Internal stakeholders view the grants process through different lenses. Key points, perspectives, and recommendations are summarized below.

  • Therapeutic area commercial leadership. These individuals are very interested to learn what IME is being supported and may want more information regarding who the IME program will be reaching, learning objectives, programming type and how this relates to the healthcare providers with whom they interact. Grants professionals should work with their legal and compliance teams to determine the types of information that would be appropriate to share with the commercial teams.
  • Medical Affairs. Medical Affairs teams are usually part of the grants review committee, and they are tasked with reviewing grant requests from scientific and medical perspectives. However, caution is warranted because Medical Affairs teams are also focused on managing relationships with healthcare providers – especially key opinion leaders (KOLs). Viewing grant activities through the lens of KOL relationship management can lead to compliance issues.
  • Organizational leadership. When presenting to organizational leadership, come prepared to provide a broad perspective on the types of funding and high-level impact of your grants program. These professionals understand that compliance and transparency are important investments in the company’s reputation and at the same time, they may want to be assured that grant funding is aligned with the company’s mission.
  • Compliance and Legal. These groups typically are looking at activities to be sure they align with company policies, industry best practices, and accrediting organization requirements (for CE/CME programs), among other factors. They may also review from a public perception perspective and consider the reputation of the organization requesting the grant support. Compliance will need certain information to enable auditing of programs. Legal is usually involved in the grant review process, either as a reviewer on the Committee or during the contracting or LOA (Letter of Agreement) process.

Recommended actions for grants professionals:

  • Collect the right information up front. Make sure IME grant requests include clearly stated outcomes measurements, learning or program-level objectives and appropriate, data-based measurement strategies.
  • Demonstrate impact. Show leadership that supporting independent educational programs that focus on independent science can be impactful in changing healthcare provider behavior in a way that is beneficial to patient outcomes.
    • Plan regularly scheduled meetings with stakeholders to walk them through the grants program at a high level.
    • Highlight requests that show an improvement in healthcare provider behavior or a significant impact on a patient population or community.
    • Consider using or implementing a robust grants management technology system that enables quick insight into historical data, past performance, and outcomes to help focus conversations on data-driven analyses.
  • Share information compliantly. Partner with your legal and compliance teams to create processes for sharing appropriate information about grant activity with other parts of the organization. A grants management technology system can help with this through role-based permissions for dashboard reviews and reporting.

Summary

Using technology and data-driven insights can help with demonstrating the impact of your grants program. This is essential to gaining continued support from key stakeholders. A technology platform purpose-built for life sciences, with embedded compliance and streamlined workflows, can help accelerate funding, improve efficiency, and provide visibility across the full suite of funding programs. Pharma companies should look for a technology solution that is open and flexible and can provide more complex outcomes reporting and analytics dashboards for easy consumption of insights. At the same time, technology needs to support standardization and increased collaboration across regions and countries. Keep these factors in mind while choosing a solution that simplifies compliance, improves efficiency and program effectiveness, and helps grants professionals communicate with stakeholders today.

View all posts on this five-part Grants Program Management blog series or download them as an eBook here.

Blog #2. Measuring Outcomes

Blog #3. Adapting to Globalization

Blog #4. Capturing and aggregating program data

Blog #5. Operational Program Management


Reference

  1. ACCME Data Report. “Rising to the Challenge in Accredited Continuing Education – 2020.” 2021.

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