Medical Information Scientist
An medical information scientist is someone who organizes data to make it accessible. Information scientists work all over, with some working as librarians at a university or assisting medical professionals in a hospital. An medical information scientist can help companies make sense of data or employees who are looking for highly specific information. Although different disciplines require medical information scientist to do different things, they share a set of similar responsibilities. Namely, (s)he’s to study data, raw statistics and information stores and find ways of making them useful.
What does a Medical Information Scientist do?
A medical information scientist is often associated with drug data and may pertain to on- and off-label uses. Medical information scientists focus on the creation of accurate and balanced material, including publications, dossier development, and promotional review committees. A subset of medical information includes responding to unsolicited requests for product information.
Due to this, pharmaceutical companies have also dedicated phone lines to answer medical questions. These are staffed with medical information scientists who are qualified in their field. Medical information scientists answer questions from clients about appropriate treatment and medical topics. They provide concise, accurate data without promoting any products or services. They ensure clients have important information that is very understandable for using the company’s products safely and effectively.
Medical Information Scientist Responsibilities
An MIS is responsible for meeting the needs of their clients while following the company’s procedures. It’s not unusual for MIS to use multiple channels, including email, letters and even video chat, to do so. However, a typical day consists of helping clients find information about drugs. This requires tactful communication skills when speaking on the phone, for instance active listening abilities in order to be successful.
In addition to responding to and documenting calls in compliance with regulatory and legal demands, the MIS also identifies & captures adverse event information and product quality complaints. Medical information scientists do a lot more than just keep track of medical records. Depending on the life cycle of a given product, they might look after clinical trials and patient assistance help desk programs. Medical information scientists also regularly attend scientific meetings and various conferences. Not only does these MIS experiences enrich the scientific knowledge of the MIS doctors, but they also provide clients with face-to-face medical information.
Medical information scientists are generally pharmacists or nurses who have many years of related experiences and/or drug information residency backgrounds. It’s more common for an MIS to specialize in one therapeutic area for one company (e.g., the flu virus for one manufacturer).
These days most medical information scientists mainly work with electronic data. It wasn’t always this way as before the Internet was invented, a lot of work had to be done offline and on paper. That’s not the case anymore as a lot of tasks have been made easier with digital data, but it does generate a whole lot more of it. When it’s all there, finding something specific is a lot easier. It usually only takes a little bit of digging to find anything you’re looking for when everything it at your fingertips.
There are different types of medical information scientists who can help streamline your company’s financial data, or improve your understanding of bandwidth usage. A medical information scientist deals with making patient profiles, prescription drug information, and other important documents readily available to hospitals, medical licensing boards, and medical professionals.
