Commentary|Articles|October 6, 2026

Pharmaceutical Executive

  • Pharmaceutical Executive: October 2026
  • Volume 46
  • Issue 8

Social Listening Is Becoming a Medical Affairs Imperative

Social listening can help medical affairs and medical information teams identify knowledge gaps, strengthen scientific exchange and respond to changing stakeholder needs faster and at greater scale.

Social media is now embedded in almost everyone’s life, making online conversations increasingly relevant to organizations across the health care industry. In medical affairs (MA), social media monitoring began primarily as a regulatory compliance function, focused on identifying adverse events (AEs) and product quality complaints (PQCs) and reporting them in a timely manner to help protect public safety. Over the years, as social media has remained integral to most populations and data-mining tools have advanced, attention has shifted not only to compliance but also to the value MA teams can draw from online conversations.

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