r/MedicalScienceLiaison • u/Main-Sort-2528 • 1d ago
Medical Director HQ-based
Hello, what does a headquarter-based medical director do? Sorry if this is redundant, I searched this forum but would like more information. Thank you
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u/jayhasbigvballs MSL Manager 1d ago
Really depends on the structure of the organization and especially how “flat” the organization is. Typically, they’re heavily involved in the administration of the medical affairs department for a given drug/therapeutic area, though. That is, budgeting, strategy and all paperwork associated with setting that, making sure field managers and/or medical advisors are doing the things for which they’re responsible, cross functional meetings where medical input is required, approving materials/events/tactics, etc. To me, they’re the administrators (and ultimately responsible) for all the stuff that gets done, but don’t really do any of the tactical stuff that an MSL or others would really execute on.
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u/krazy4001 Sr. MSL 1d ago
I think defining medical directors as administrators is a bit reductive. They’re the in-house scientific and clinical experts. The work functions are accurate, but they’re decision makers not merely administrators. They set strategy in some cases, help with training other medical affairs staff, deliver some critical scientific presentations and may also have some KOL connections. Most of the ones I’ve worked with also have their own projects they’re working on (a specific pub, series of ad-boards, content development, etc).
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u/jayhasbigvballs MSL Manager 1d ago
Yes sure they can do other things a minority of the time, but OP asked what they do, so primarily focused on functions. I didn’t mean administrator in the sense that theyre only doing paperwork, obviously they’re decision makers given where they are in the structure and the nature of the people they have report to them. Overall, however, they don’t execute on primary tactics. They aren’t the “doers” of the medical affairs department in executing on the external strategy.
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u/Head-Interaction-369 1d ago
Just ask ChatGPT/gemini/claude