The "Elevate" by MAPS Podcast

Step inside the future of Medical Information as we unpack what it really takes to move AI from a “black box” to audit-ready, trusted, and defensible. While AI systems are probabilistic, regulators expect transparency, explainability, and reproducibility. In this episode, we break down why human oversight is critical and how they directly impact patient safety, regulatory compliance, and credibility with HCPs. You’ll walk away with a clear, practical view of the key pillars of responsible AI, the real risks of generative AI in regulated environments, and how leading organizations are building systems that balance innovation with control.

Learning Objectives:
• Confidently leveraging AI in Medical Information as a companion within your teams
• Defining roles/responsibilities of the human vs. AI
• Understand why “audit-ready AI” is critical in Medical Information
• Apply practical strategies to make AI systems audit-ready

Explore these free resources from the AI Academy, an initiative by industry associations MILE, phactMI, PIPA, and AI expert AVAYL:

- AI Auditability & Explainability Webinar – Practical insights from Pfizer and MILE on preparing AI systems for audit and ensuring explainability: https://www.avayl.tech/past-webinars-recordings/ai-auditability-%26-explainability-

- Reference Guide: Scalable AI Implementation – A comprehensive guide for Medical Affairs leaders in the AI transformation
AI Academy Repository – Including the Pocket Guide for Responsible AI Evaluation, AI cheat sheets, webinar recordings, and other educational resources: https://www.avayl.tech/repository

- Learn more about the organizations behind the initiative:
Medical Information Leaders in Europe (MILE): https://www.mile-association.org/
AVAYL & MedPro: https://www.avayl.tech/
AI Academy: https://www.avayl.tech/academy

All AI Academy resources are freely available through both the MILE and AVAYL websites.


About the Medical Affairs Professional Society (MAPS) 

The Medical Affairs Professional Society (MAPS) is the leading global authority and community for Medical Affairs professionals, uniting over 18,000 members across 400+ organizations in Pharmaceutical, Biotech, MedTech, and related industries. 

Founded in 2016, MAPS is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to advancing careers and elevating the Medical Affairs profession worldwide.  

🌐 Learn more: https://medicalaffairs.org/ 
 📚 Explore the Knowledge Center: https://medicalaffairs.org/knowledge-... 
 🤝 Join MAPS: https://medicalaffairs.org/join-maps/ 
 📅 Upcoming Events: https://medicalaffairs.org/events/ 
 🎤 Annual Meetings: https://medicalaffairs.org/meetings/ 

Members gain access to: 

World-class education — professional development resources, webinars, podcasts, and white papers in our Knowledge Center 

Robust networking — direct connections with Medical Affairs peers and thought leaders around the globe 

Impactful events — regional chapter meetings, MasterClass training, and flagship Annual Meetings 

Critical industry insights — benchmark reports and research that inform strategic decision-making 

Cutting-edge best practices — competency framework that drives functional leadership in Medical Affairs 

Whether you're an emerging professional, an established Medical Affairs leader, or a senior executive, MAPS offers the community, resources, and career development tools to help you grow, lead, and thrive.

This podcast brings the data behind the poster (which can be found on the MAPS Knowledge Center: https://medicalaffairs.org/knowledge-center/) to life, exploring insights from a double-blind survey of 10,000+ healthcare professionals on how Medical Information is delivered by the Top 10 global pharma companies. It highlights that two out of three HCPs find Medical Information relevant and that it contributes approximately 15% to perceptions of Medical Affairs leadership, while discussing what differentiates top performers and how Medical Information can be leveraged more strategically.
 
Learning Objectives - What you’ll learn in this Episode:
- How healthcare professionals perceive Medical Information across top global pharma companies
- Why Medical Information contributes meaningfully to leadership credibility in Medical Affairs
- What top‑performing organizations do differently to build trust, relevance, and differentiation
- How HCP feedback can be translated into actionable Medical Information strategy


Faculty:

Brad Tritle, GM and Medical Affairs Sales Lead, Americas, Trilations
LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradtritle/
 
Leen Helsloot, Medical Affairs Practice Lead, Trilations
LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leen-helsloot-84a34b4/
 
Dhara Patel, Director, Medical Information, Siemens Healthineers
LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dhara-patel-pharmdd-65bba4216/


About the Medical Affairs Professional Society (MAPS) 

The Medical Affairs Professional Society (MAPS) is the leading global authority and community for Medical Affairs professionals, uniting over 18,000 members across 400+ organizations in Pharmaceutical, Biotech, MedTech, and related industries. 

Founded in 2016, MAPS is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to advancing careers and elevating the Medical Affairs profession worldwide.  

🌐 Learn more: https://medicalaffairs.org/ 
 📚 Explore the Knowledge Center: https://medicalaffairs.org/knowledge-center/ 
 🤝 Join MAPS: https://medicalaffairs.org/join-maps/ 
 📅 Upcoming Events: https://medicalaffairs.org/events/ 
 🎤 Annual Meetings: https://medicalaffairs.org/meetings/ 

Members gain access to: 

World-class education — professional development resources, webinars, podcasts, and white papers in our Knowledge Center 

Robust networking — direct connections with Medical Affairs peers and thought leaders around the globe 

Impactful events — regional chapter meetings, MasterClass training, and flagship Annual Meetings 

Critical industry insights — benchmark reports and research that inform strategic decision-making 

Cutting-edge best practices — competency framework that drives functional leadership in Medical Affairs 

Whether you're an emerging professional, an established Medical Affairs leader, or a senior executive, MAPS offers the community, resources, and career development tools to help you grow, lead, and thrive.

MAPS Chief Medical Officer Charlotte Kremer sits down with Dr. Bjorn Oddens, Senior Vice President, Value and Implementation at Merck, for a candid conversation on the career-defining moments, hard-won lessons, and mentors that shaped his path — plus his view on where Medical Affairs is headed over the next decade. 

About the Medical Affairs Professional Society (MAPS)

The Medical Affairs Professional Society (MAPS) is the leading global authority and community for Medical Affairs professionals, uniting over 18,000 members across 400+ organizations in Pharmaceutical, Biotech, MedTech, and related industries. 

Founded in 2016, MAPS is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to advancing careers and elevating the Medical Affairs profession worldwide. 

🌐 Learn more: https://medicalaffairs.org/

 📚 Explore the Knowledge Center: https://medicalaffairs.org/knowledge-center/

 🤝 Join MAPS: https://medicalaffairs.org/join-maps/

 📅 Upcoming Events: https://medicalaffairs.org/events/

 Annual Meetings: https://medicalaffairs.org/meetings/

Members gain access to: 

• World-class education — professional development resources, webinars, podcasts, and white papers in our Knowledge Center 
• Robust networking — direct connections with Medical Affairs peers and thought leaders around the globe 
• Impactful events — regional chapter meetings, MasterClass training, and flagship Annual Meetings 
• Critical industry insights — benchmark reports and research that inform strategic decision-making 
• Cutting-edge best practices — competency framework that drives functional leadership in Medical Affairs 

Whether you're an emerging professional, an established Medical Affairs leader, or a senior executive, MAPS offers the community, resources, and career development tools to help you grow, lead, and thrive. 

Drawing on philosopher C. Thi Nguyen's concept of "value capture" (the way metrics can quietly supplant the goals they were meant to measure), this podcast explores how the wrong scorecard doesn't just fail to capture Medical Affairs' (MA) value, it can actively distort it — diverting energy and resources away from what matters most.

We'll discuss why the path forward isn't a sweeping overhaul, but a series of deliberate, incremental steps grounded in a framework of genuine MA impact. Crucially, we make the case that Medical Affairs must stop waiting to be measured and start taking ownership of how that measurement is defined — ensuring a patient-centric focus remains at the core of it all.

Join Dr. Aarathi Cholkeri-Singh, Executive Director & Chief Medical Officer – North America, Karl Storz and Veeva experts for a practical discussion on establishing and scaling a high-impact medtech medical affairs function, even during hiring freezes. We’ll share real-world strategies for navigating EU MDR requirements and building diverse teams that drive clear business value across various organizational structures. Finally, we will share new report findings on the function’s current state to help you quantify your strategic contribution, accelerate enterprise growth, and transition from functional execution to a core leadership pillar.

Welcome to Episode 4 of the SciTech Critical Evaluation of Literature and AI Series: “Smarter Summaries, Better Decisions: AI Across Medical Affairs"

Medical Affairs teams handle a flood of scientific data, so how can AI help turn complexity into clarity? Join experts from the MAPS Scientific & Technical Knowledge Domain to discover how AI tools evaluate evidence for diverse functions, from field teams to HEOR and publications.

In this session, you’ll learn practical strategies for creating concise, decision-ready summaries and explore why context and clinical relevance must guide every AI-driven workflow. If you want to leverage AI to evaluate evidence, podcast is for you!

Learning Objectives:

1. Describe how AI tools adapt evidence evaluation for different Medical Affairs functions
2. Explore how field medical, medical communications, publications, medical information, and HEOR teams can prompt the same data set differently to generate outputs tailored to their specific needs.
3. Demonstrate strategies to create concise, decision-ready summaries using AI
4. Learn practical prompting and structuring techniques that convert complex scientific literature into clear, stakeholder-specific deliverables that support better strategic and scientific decisions.
5. Explain why context and applicability are essential in AI-enabled evidence workflows
6. Understand how role-specific context, intended use, and decision impact must guide both the prompting and interpretation of AI-generated outputs.

Hear more from the Scientific & Technical Knowledge Domain through their position paper: "Safeguarding Scientific Rigor in the Critical Evaluation of Literature"

Welcome to Episode 3 of the SciTech Critical Evaluation of Literature and AI Series: “Humans + AI: Making Sense of Scientific Papers at Scale"

AI can read hundreds of scientific papers in minutes, but can it truly understand them? Join experts from the MAPS Scientific & Technical Knowledge Domain to explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping literature review in Medical Affairs.

In this session, you’ll learn what AI can and cannot do with scientific content, uncover practical applications of leading tools like CoPilot and Notebook LM. We’ll also tackle common risks such as hallucinations and lack of context, and share strategies to validate AI outputs while keeping clinical judgment front and center. If you want to harness AI without losing the human touch, this webinar is for you!

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand what AI can—and cannot—do with scientific literature
2. Explain how AI processes papers using NLP and LLMs, and why clinical judgment remains essential.
3. Explore practical applications of leading AI tools
4. Review the capabilities, pros, and cons of tools like CoPilot and Notebook LM for Medical Affairs workflows.
5. Recognize limitations and risks in AI-driven literature review
6. Identify common issues such as hallucinations, lack of context, and strategies to validate AI outputs.

Hear more from the Scientific & Technical Knowledge Domain through their position paper: "Safeguarding Scientific Rigor in the Critical Evaluation of Literature"

Welcome to Episode 2 of the SciTech Critical Evaluation of Literature and AI Series: “Literature Never Sleeps: Staying Ahead Without Burning Out"

Literature never sleeps and neither do the challenges of keeping Medical Affairs teams up to date.

Join experts from the MAPS Scientific & Technical Knowledge Domain to discover practical strategies for managing the deluge of data. We’ll explore how AI can accelerate evidence synthesis while highlighting its limitations and the critical role of human judgment. If you’re looking for smarter ways to stay current, this podcast is for you!

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify key challenges in keeping Medical Affairs teams current
2. Understand the impact of preprints, grey literature, bibliometrics, and predatory journals on evidence appraisal.
3. Evaluate the role and limitations of AI in literature review
4. Recognize how AI can accelerate evidence evaluation while appreciating the need for human judgment and safeguards against errors.
5. Apply best practices for confidentiality and critical assessment of AI outputs
6. Learn practical steps to ensure secure data handling and train teams to validate AI-generated insights effectively.

Hear more from the Scientific & Technical Knowledge Domain through their position paper: "Safeguarding Scientific Rigor in the Critical Evaluation of Literature"

Welcome to Episode 1 of the SciTech Critical Evaluation of Literature and AI Series: “Evidence Unlocked: Separating Gold from Gravel"

Not all evidence is created equal, so how do you separate gold from gravel? Join experts from the MAPS Scientific & Technical Knowledge Domain for a fast-paced session designed to simplify critical appraisal for busy professionals. In just a few minutes, you’ll learn how to navigate the hierarchy of evidence and apply practical frameworks. We’ll also share a step-by-step approach for rapid evaluation, helping you assess robustness, and clinical relevance without getting lost in complexity. If you want to make smarter, faster evidence-based decisions, this podcast is for you!

Learning Objectives: 

1. Understand the hierarchy of evidence
2. Explain the differences between randomized controlled trials (RCTs), observational studies, real-world data, and preprints, and why they matter for evidence quality.
3. Recognize key frameworks for critical appraisal
4. Introduce GRADE, PRISMA, and CONSORT as practical tools for evaluating robustness, reproducibility, and clinical relevance.
5. Apply a rapid evaluation approach
6. Provide a simple, step-by-step method for quickly assessing scientific literature without compromising rigor.

Hear more from the Scientific & Technical Knowledge Domain through their position paper: "Safeguarding Scientific Rigor in the Critical Evaluation of Literature"

In the final part of this 3-part series, experts from the MAPS Leadership and Management Domain wrap up their discussion on understanding change. How does it impact our teams, and how can our leaders guide their teams through change?

Through this episode, Medical Affairs professionals may gain a better understanding of why change feels so hard right now and learn about what we can do to support each other and really thrive during these times of uncertainty.