Building the case for developing a medical affairs patient-centric framework collaboratively.

Within the biopharmaceutical environment there are increased expectations for medical affairs to serve as a patient understanding facilitator, engagement champion and empowerment enabler. The collaborative development of a medical affairs patient-centricity framework to characterize avenues of medical affairs patient-centric activity could enhance transparency of objectives, input and outputs of medical affairs interactions with the patient. This article presents an initial opinion regarding how medical affairs interacts with patients to advance patient centricity. The proposal: medical affairs engages and collaborates with patients through strategic leadership, medical communication, evidence generation, patient engagement and experience of patient care. Once validated, such a framework's implementation could help clarify medical affairs competencies and behaviors necessary to optimize associated effort.