Medical communicators often play a key role in facilitating and reporting on the meetings of medical advisory boards, which help pharmaceutical companies set broader strategic goals. During these meetings, boards may explore questions such as these: Are the products benefiting patients and health care professionals? How can the company improve its ability to meet patient needs?By supporting meeting presentations, preparing questionnaires, and creating executive summaries, medical writers help provide an understanding of the company’s brand, priorities, and direction to stakeholders.
This blog post will examine the role of medical advisory boards, how medical communicators contribute to their success, and tips for medical communicators working with advisory boards.
What Does a Medical Advisory Board Do?
Medical advisory boards are a key part of a pharmaceutical company’s ecosystem. They include health care professionals (HCPs) and key opinion leaders (KOLs) who can provide valuable perspectives and information on how existing products are serving the market. Medical advisory board meetings often surface insights about unmet health care needs, future clinical studies, and product strategy.
The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA) has created a Code of Practice that sets ethical standards for interactions with HCPs, including participation in advisory boards.
The Role of Medical Writers Covering Advisory Board Meetings
Within this structured environment, medical writers can play an essential role in facilitating meetings and ensuring that discussions and feedback are accurately captured and communicated. With their expertise in scientific communication and understanding of ethical and regulatory standards, medical communicators can distill complex dialogue into clear reports so the information can be used effectively across the organization.
Each pharmaceutical company has its own protocols, but in general, medical writers may
- Identify KOLs and HCPs who could serve as advisors and participate in meetings
- Prepare pre‑meeting and post‑meeting surveys, and organize responses
- Develop meeting materials like slide decks
- Create executive summaries of advisor feedback and key takeaways from meetings
At each stage of the meeting process, medical writers have different responsibilities.
3 Stages of Participation for Medical Writers
1. Pre‑meeting
- Before the meeting, medical writers may be asked to research the backgrounds of KOLs and identify those who would be strong candidates to invite to the meeting. To do so, the medical writer needs to be clear about the objectives of the advisory board meeting and understand what specific information the pharmaceutical company hopes to obtain from advisors.
- Medical writers may also do research or literature reviews, prepare questionnaires for advisors, and help develop meeting materials.
2. Meeting
- Whether in person or virtual, the medical writer should attend the entire meeting.
- If the meeting is virtual, the medical writer will often be a silent observer—they won’t be on camera, but they will be expected to listen carefully and capture important points.
- During in‑person meetings, medical writers often introduce themselves and engage in casual conversations with advisors, as appropriate. However, during proceedings they typically sit quietly taking detailed notes.
- Virtual meetings are usually recorded with the understanding that the recording will be used only to create the executive summary and will be destroyed after reports are prepared and approved.
- In‑person meetings may or may not be recorded, depending on company protocol.
3. Post‑meeting
- After the meeting, the medical writer will prepare an executive summary of discussions that took place during the meeting.
- Executive summaries have usually been written using Microsoft Word, but some companies are now requesting that these be created in PowerPoint.
- Another recent trend is to create a shorter “express summary,” also called a “top-line summary,” within 48 hours of the end of the meeting and a longer executive summary several days later.
- The information from medical advisory boards is proprietary, and final summaries are for internal use only.
As advisory board processes evolve, new technologies are beginning to influence how medical writers support this work.
How AI is Changing the Role of Medical Writers on Advisory Boards
AI can enhance the work of medical communicators at every stage of the advisory board process—before, during, and after meetings. It can automate the capture of discussions, organize outputs, and speed up the creation of deliverables, such as meeting minutes, insight decks, and follow-up materials.
However, these efficiencies are only sustainable if AI technologies operate within secure, well-controlled environments. Such environments must safeguard proprietary information, ensure that outputs are based on approved evidence, and meet rigorous regulatory standards.
Key Ways AI Can Support Advisory Board Writers
Specifically, AI can help streamline and structure advisory board support by
- Capturing live discussion through real‑time, multi‑speaker transcription with reliable recognition of medical terminology.
- Auto‑summarizing conversations and flagging key themes, action items, and potential insights that can anchor minutes and debrief decks.
- Structuring raw dialogue into familiar report formats (by agenda question, theme, or product/indication) so writers edit rather than start from scratch.
- Generating first‑draft summaries immediately post‑meeting, shortening turnaround (but still requiring expert review).
- Grouping comments into insight buckets (e.g., unmet needs, data gaps, messaging feedback) to speed pull‑through into medical and brand plans.
- Helping repurpose validated insights into downstream materials—slides, internal FAQs, MSL (medical science liaison) training, and, when needed, patient‑friendly summaries.
Although AI can streamline many aspects of advisory board support, human judgment and clear communication remain essential.
Tips for Medical Writers from Peers and Experts
Medical communicators with experience facilitating advisory board meetings can offer valuable guidance on best practices. Such insights have been shared on the AMWA Engage bulletin board, a forum where both freelance and employee medical communicators discuss topics pertinent to the profession.
Their tips include
- Set your rate. Before you agree to the job, determine what you will charge. Are you going to charge an hourly or project-based fee? Information on compensation for medical communicators is available in AMWA’s Medical Communication Compensation Report.
- Be transparent about your experience. If you are applying to assist a medical advisory board, be open about your experience level and whether you have completed these types of tasks for clients in the past.
- Clarify the type of employer. Be sure to find out who is seeking your services: a medical communication agency (who may be assisting with meeting logistics) or a pharmaceutical company.
- Be clear on deliverables. Since responsibilities for medical writers working with medical advisory boards vary, find out what the client is seeking: pre‑meeting, meeting, or post‑meeting documents, or all three.
- Ask permission to record. If allowed, make a backup recording on your phone using an app like iPhone Voice Memos. If not allowed because of confidentiality rules, take detailed notes.
- Take careful, detailed notes. Even if the meeting is recorded, capture key concepts and quotes verbatim for follow‑up materials.
- Request samples of previous materials. Use previous executive summaries, slide decks, and other meeting materials to help you understand and meet the client’s expectations.
- Request a participant list and presentation slides. Have these items in hand during the proceedings to help you follow along and take better notes.
Conclusion: Getting Started With Advisory Boards
For medical communicators interested in supporting advisory boards, preparation and experience are key. Attending medical conferences and practicing the development of summaries or insight reports can help build confidence and familiarity with this type of work.
AMWA offers guidance for medical writers looking to expand their careers, including resources such as Medical Writing: A Professional’s Guide to Advancing Your Career and a range of professional development opportunities. These resources can help medical communicators strengthen their scientific communication skills while gaining a clearer understanding of potential career pathways.
AMWA acknowledges the contributions of Jennifer Minarcik, MS, in the development of this AMWA resource.
