An executive discussion for Life Sciences - Moderated by Vic Ho, Medical Solutions Lead
In today’s rapidly evolving healthcare landscape, Medical Affairs teams are under more pressure than ever to deliver timely, actionable insights. Yet many organizations still rely on static methods that often fail to keep pace with the speed of scientific discovery.
Are your insight systems helping you move forward, or holding you back?
In our recent Sorcero webinar, From KITs to Insights Engine: Revolutionizing Medical Knowledge Management, industry leaders Kate Bradford (Alexion), Andrew Hewitson (Kyowa Kirin), and Vic Ho (Sorcero) shared how their organizations are breaking free from traditional models to build dynamic, AI-enhanced insight ecosystems.
To explore how Medical Affairs teams can move beyond traditional KITs and KIQs, we brought together a panel of senior leaders who are actively transforming insight management within their organizations. Their discussion goes beyond theory—offering a firsthand look at how leading life sciences companies are leveraging AI-powered ecosystems to uncover deeper insights, drive strategic decisions, and evolve Medical Affairs into a more agile, value-generating function.
Kate Bradford, Global Head of Medical Training and Field Capabilities | Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Kate Bradford is a seasoned Medical Affairs leader with a career spanning scientific training, field medical excellence, and capability development. Currently serving as the Global Head of Medical Training and Field Capabilities at Alexion, she has dedicated her career to empowering medical teams to deliver impactful, science-driven engagement with healthcare professionals.
Andrew Hewitson, Head of Training & Capability Building | Kyowa Kirin Co., Ltd.
Andrew Hewitson is an experienced leader in Medical Affairs training and capability development, currently serving as Head of Training & Capability Building at Kyowa Kirin. With a career dedicated to strengthening the effectiveness of medical teams, Andrew brings a strategic lens to every stage of the insight lifecycle—from generation and collection to analysis and reporting.
Victoria Ho, Medical Solutions Leads | Sorcero
With over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, Victoria Ho brings deep expertise in Medical Affairs and Medical Excellence at both global and regional levels. As Medical Solutions Lead at Sorcero, Vic is passionate about advancing the way organizations manage and activate insights. Her work sits at the intersection of strategy, technology, and transformation—making her a leading voice in the shift toward dynamic, AI-driven insight ecosystems.
Please note: The views and perspectives shared in this discussion are those of the individual speakers and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of their respective organizations. Our goal in hosting this conversation was to draw upon their extensive experience in Medical Affairs to explore the evolving landscape of insights management.
For many in Medical Affairs, the journey of insight generation began with a simple yet powerful idea: just ask the doctors. Kate Bradford, now at Alexion, recalls those early days working as an MSL with Andrew Hewitson, when insights were gathered via surveys and documented manually.
"We started with a survey that asked 15 surgeons some questions and collated that information" Bradford shared "That for me, was the beginning of the Aha moment—that being a field medical person was about gathering information as well as sharing information."
Back then, the process was as much about defining what constituted an “insight” as it was about collecting them. Bradford described the early challenges around building consensus on what differentiated a medical insight from a commercial one, and how the definition varied across stakeholders.
"We were trusting people with the liberty of free text… asking them to write their insights in a certain format" she explained "And we're now at a point where there are many variations."
The tools varied too—ranging from spreadsheets and shared drives in smaller biotechs to sophisticated proprietary systems in large pharmaceutical companies like AstraZeneca. Despite the inconsistency in systems, the shared understanding has evolved: insights are foundational to effective Medical Affairs. But even as their value is more recognized, the process of collecting and acting on them remains ripe for transformation.
Andrew Hewitson of Kyowa Kirin reflected on the limitations of manual systems, especially in organizations that haven’t reached a “big data” scale.
"The focus has been on the skill… the ability of the individual inputting the data to refine it, polish it up, and make it leap off the page,” he noted. “But it is time consuming. A lot of manual effort goes into reproducing reports for deadlines.”
This sentiment resonates across the industry—Medical Affairs teams often find themselves investing substantial time in crafting, interpreting, and reporting insights. The effort is noble, but not always efficient. And too often, those reports become the end of the journey, rather than the beginning of informed action.
Vic Ho, Medical Solutions Lead at Sorcero, framed the underlying issue: the pressure placed on MSLs to generate the perfect insight can inadvertently become a blocker.
“If that then becomes a barrier for your MSLs putting information into a system… because they don't want to get it wrong or be incomplete… then it can unintentionally become a blocker in your insights process.”
This pressure, she explained, stemmed from a reliance on human curation. With humans needing to read and synthesize every insight manually, clarity and structure became paramount but also became a burden.
As the discussion unfolded, one thing became clear: the old model, however well-intentioned, is no longer sustainable. As AI and intelligent automation enters the equation, there's an opportunity to shift from reactive reporting to proactive, scalable intelligence.
“We’re at a point where we can start to truly harness the potential of agentic AI,” Ho said. “The goal is to move beyond the manual grind—and build systems that deliver real value for both the business and for patient care.”
What Role Can AI Play in Shaping the Future of Insight Management?
If time is one of the most valuable resources in Medical Affairs, then artificial intelligence may be its most powerful ally.
For Kate Bradford at Alexion, the value proposition of AI is straightforward—but transformative.
“We are hoping AI is going to help us with time,” she explained. “Let’s not forget that to write a very actionable, perfect insight in English is a struggle—especially if it’s not your native language. That puts huge pressure on people, and it’s not really valuable for someone to be pouring over a few sentences just to perfect the semantics.”
Early applications of AI in the form of natural language processing (NLP) offered a glimpse into what was possible. Bradford recalled how sentiment analysis began to unlock richer dimensions of insight data—albeit not always perfectly.
“I remember one funny anecdote: a company I worked with was interested in antibody-positive patients. The word ‘positive’ showed up so much that the system misread the sentiment—thinking everyone was upbeat about the topic, when they really weren’t at all.”
Despite its learning curve, AI already shows promise in improving data hygiene, categorization, and triage—removing much of the manual overhead involved in first-pass data processing.
“It’s not about taking the human out of the loop,” Bradford emphasized, “but taking that low-grade work the human had to do. The AI accelerates that first sift and turns it into a readable version a human can then scan. That’s going to be the biggest change.”
Andrew Hewitson of Kyowa Kirin echoed the importance of speed.
Hewitson pointed out a key shift in thinking: in the past, MSLs and Medical Affairs professionals were expected to submit insights only when fully formed. But AI enables signal detection at earlier stages—surfacing patterns before they solidify into actionable conclusions.
“It used to be that you needed all the ingredients for an insight before it was worth submitting. That’s no longer the case. Now the system—or the humans—can spot signals at a pace we weren’t previously able to.”
Beyond fighting recency bias, AI can help surface insights and highlight where data is missing—helping teams not just follow patterns, but question them.
“AI-generated answers are the starting point for human action,” Ho emphasized. “We do want to see the pattern—not just manipulate the data to fit the pattern we wish to see.”
As these technologies evolve, so too must the industry’s ethical frameworks. Guardrails, transparency, and responsible design will be essential as AI becomes more deeply embedded in insight management systems.
"We’ll see more discussion about the responsible use of AI,” Ho concluded. “And about what’s been built into the rules on the back end of the AI—to prevent hallucination, flag insufficient data, and ultimately build trust in the system.”
Want to Hear More?
This blog captured just a portion of the rich insights shared during our executive discussion, From KITs to Insights Engine: Revolutionizing Medical Knowledge Management.
To dive deeper into how industry leaders are rethinking their approach to Medical Insights, watch the full on-demand webinar. You'll hear the panel tackle additional thought-provoking questions, including: