Interview with Laëtitia Bouérat Duvold, Senior Director & Head of Global Medical Affairs Excellence, Lundbeck
Laëtitia Bouérat Duvold, Senior Director & Head of Global Medical Affairs Excellence at Lundbeck, is scheduled to speak at the NEXT Pharma Summit in Dubrovnik, 14-15 May 2024 in a session entitled “Medical engagement and its place in Omnichannel. How to align the value of medical with the customer expectations?”.
We had the opportunity to speak with Laëtitia ahead of her session about overcoming siloed thinking in pursuing omnichannel engagement and the role of collaboration in achieving this.
'A full global team of medical affairs in affiliates that not only have an interest and focus on their own regions but can also see the bigger picture is invaluable. I am proud that we are in a place where this is possible as we have been building this capacity over the last four years together using a GLOCAL model.'
What were your biggest lessons learned in 2023 in terms of omnichannel engagement?
Omnichannel engagement has so many levels of complexity that you need to be patient, resilient and take into account the need for change management. The biggest lesson that we have learned is to appreciate how an omnichannel customer-centric approach can help us to become better at everything that we do. It helps us to improve and rethink our ways of working, as for example with our approach to KEE (key external expert) engagement or collection of actionable medical insights.
Could you give an example of your proudest achievement in omnichannel engagement so far?
I have a couple of things in mind in terms of what has worked for us. I am proud of our Global Medical Affairs team and how they are embracing that way of working. We are still in the early days, but I can see their level of engagement and willingness to advance together. I am also proud of the Commercial team that works with us and how they are able to involve us so closely. They play a big role in building that collaboration.
So, I am very much focusing on the people here, but I think that people are the key part in that complex omnichannel journey, and that collaboration is key to success. A full global team of medical affairs in affiliates that not only have an interest and focus on their own regions but can also see the bigger picture is invaluable. I am proud that we are in a place where this is possible as we have been building this capacity over the last four years together using a GLOCAL model.
What type of new tech are you planning to include in your digital engagement in 2024?
Well, it’s perhaps not new tech, but it is certainly new to us in the way that we interact externally – we are starting to use a learning management system (LMS) for medical education. This will allow us to have the best offering based on learning needs and individual needs.
Do you believe that Medical Affairs and Marketing need to align better? If so, how?
In my opinion, we speak too often about ‘medical vs marketing’, more alignment between medical and marketing, etc. Omnichannel engagement is complex and multi-layered, so there is likely plenty of room for better cooperation. However, for me, a key question is “Do we have the organisation in place to allow us to develop omnichannel engagement?” Overcoming barriers between commercial work and medical etc., involves thinking about creating an organisation that goes beyond competition between different functions in the company, and instead supports innovation and a customer-centric approach at an enterprise level. It means an organisation that fully supports compliant orchestration across functions. In the end, people want to collaborate.
The views expressed in this interview are Laëtitia Bouérat Duvold’s own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Lundbeck