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Who should moderate the advisory board meetings: a medical affairs lead or a KOL?

Advisory board meetings are valuable scientific exchange platforms that help companies gather clinical insights and align medical strategy with real-world practice. The choice of moderator—whether a medical affairs professional from the organizing company or an external key opinion leader (KOL)— can significantly shape the quality, tone, and outcome of the discussion.

So, who is the best choice?

🟣 A medical affairs moderator is intimately familiar with the company’s objectives and unmet information needs. This allows for precisely steering the discussion toward topics that can generate meaningful insights for internal strategy.

🟣 A very important advantage of moderation by medical affairs is that as insights are shared by members, they can think of impromptu questions to probe deeper into something important being spoken.

🟣 Moreover, medical affairs can maintain structure, manage time effectively, and ensure that all agenda points are covered. This helps in maximizing productivity and capturing clear, actionable outcomes.

🟣 KOL moderators bring strong subject-matter expertise, can contextualize emerging data, and can ask probing, nuanced questions for deep discussion.

🟣 However, with KOL moderation, discussions may veer toward tangential clinical debates, reducing the alignment with the company’s insight goals.

🟣 Not all KOLs are experienced moderators. Some may dominate the discussion or allow certain participants to do so, affecting balance and time management.

🟣 A very important drawback I have seen is that some slides that are very important for a deep discussion for the company are often rushed past because those discussions might seem very routine to the moderator and KOLs, considering their expertise. However, for the company, it’s a huge loss as those insights might have been very important for their strategy.

Personally, I am always in favor of moderation led by medical affairs. The person moderating must have a thorough grasp of the therapy area, its challenges, and the strategic options being considered internally, to steer the discussion that achieves the meeting’s goal for the company.

The KOL-led moderation is very effective when opinion is sought for a device being evaluated by a company before deciding on launch. It provides insights into what practical aspects the KOLs consider when choosing a device for that specific purpose.