WELCOME!
I started the MSL Quarterly in 2003 as the first magazine for MSL professionals that addressed issues like metrics, compliance, and work-life balance.
Back then, the medical science liaison profession was not well known, and the MSL role was not appreciated even within the pharmaceutical industry.
I founded the MSL Institute in 2004 to increase awareness of the MSL profession, proactively discuss the value that MSLs bring to their organizations, and to advocate for best practices in field-medical affairs. I worked with MSL directors and MSL professionals to examine critical questions about the MSL role and how the value of this role may be measured. Often, I served to ask the questions that many MSLs thought about, but dared not ask.
What began as a grassroots effort have become a formidable collection of fair-balanced resources about the MSL role. The resources in MSL Institute's library represent a piece of history that shows just how far we have come as medical science liaison professionals.
Jane Chin, Ph.D. [LinkedIn / Learn More]
MEDICAL SCIENCE LIAISON MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP
(THE) BASICS
MSL COMPLIANCE
- There is NO Safe Harbor for Medical Science Liaisons
- What Medical Science Liaisons Can, and Cannot Say
- Jane Chin Answers Your Questions on Off-Label Discussions
- When You Shouldn't Start a MSL Team
- Medical Science Liaison Roles: Enigma and Dilemma
- Off-Label Promotion, Prosecution, and OIG Scrutiny of MSL Activities
- Webinar Medical Science Liaison Compliance Primer I&II 102 mins with Alan Minsk
MSL PROGRAMS, MSL TRAINING, MSL JOB SATISFACTION
- MSL Team Building: What Not to Do
- Developing Medical Science Liaisons Across Tenure Spectrum
- Medical Science Liaison Job Satisfaction 2009 Survey
- Want Satisfied MSLs? Give them the Right Tools
- What is Your MSL Retention Culture?
- Webinar: MSL Role-Perception Survey: Is the Role Meeting Expectation 66 mins with Oleg Kornev
- Medical Science Liaison Training: Results, Objectives, Implementation
- MSL Training: New Hire Challenges & Domains of Acclimation
- MSLs - Professionals versus Amateurs
- What Can MSLs Learn from Sales?
- What's Unique about Your MSL Program: Different Role, Same Questions
- Editorial: Who Truly Drives Overspecialization of MSL Roles?
- MSL Managers: Scaling Your Communication
- Trusted Circles: The Higher You Climb, The More You Need It
- Does Team Competition Breed Excellence?
2017 Global MSL Salary Survey
- This year, Medical Science Liaison Institute collaborated with Medical Affairs Center of Influence in this global medical science liaison salary survey.
- Around a 50/50 split between U.S. based responders and outside the U.S.
- Around half of responders are relatively new (under 2 years of experience) to the MSL profession
MSL Institute’s past initiatives for the MSL community:
- MSL Metrics Survey
- MSL Recruiting Resources
- MSL Certification Readiness
- MSL Compliance e-Learning
- MSL Training and MSL Career Research
- MSL Job Satisfaction Research
- MSL Careers / Become a MSL Program
- MSL Quarterly Publication
- MSL Salary Surveys
- MSL Newsletters
- MSL Jobs Board
- MSL Best Practices Leadership Insight
- MSL University Courses and Meetings
- MSL LinkedIn Groups
- MSL Institute Support Teleconferences
- MSL Office Hours for Executives
MSL SALARY SURVEYS
“A lot of people today complain about their jobs. A few are doing something about it. Jane Chin founded the MSL Institute with the goal of safeguarding and enhancing the medical science liaison profession. This position has great value to drug companies, physicians, and our society. It calls for the highest standards of competency and ethical behavior.
Prior to Jane’s efforts, the position known as Medical Science Liaison was ill-defined and many believe on a path to extinction. Concerned with this drift, Jane left her job as an MSL to start the MSL Institute which has set a variety of standards for the field and a set of accomplishments too numerous to list. There are newsletters, forums for exchange, training programs, and a job posting board, to name only a few of the many resources that did not exist prior to Jane’s efforts.
I hope you will consider her for your inspiring drivers in the life-sciences industry. She is making a difference.”
-- 2006 PharmaVoice Nomination of Jane Chin’s work by a senior medical science liaison
ART OF MEDICAL SCIENCE LIAISING
For Current Medical Science Liaisons
- Thought Leader Development: No New Data
- Effective MSLs Talk in Specifics
- KOL Influencers are as Important to Interact with as KOLs
- 7 Dimensions of Next Level MSL Performance (17-Page Workbook)
- The Medical Science Liaison Handbook (2003)
- MSL Newbie Tips
- 2 Key Personality Traits of the Enduring MSL
- 4 Practices of High-Performing MSL Professionals
- 5 Keys to Succeeding as a MSL
- 5 Questions to Ask about your MSL Job Satisfaction
- 6 Traits of Effective MSLs
- 8 Questions to Ask to Improve Your Performance as a MSL
- Webinar: Bridging The Gap: Preparing For Your Role as an MSL 40 mins with Candace Brown
- Your First 30 Days as a Medical Science Liaison
- Simple Secret to Success (MSL, Life, Whatever!)
- How to Be a Real MSL Star
- Dealing with a Demoralizing MSL Director
- MSLs - Watch Your "Keys" on Social Media Networks
- How to Evaluate Your MSL Manager
- When is it Time to Leave Your Company for a Different MSL Job?
- MSL Job Satisfaction: Job Hopping Traps
- MSLs in Start-Up Companies
- Recession-Proof Your MSL Career
- MSL Career Development: Reinvent Before You Need To
- MSL Work-Life Balance: Hours for Pay
- Personal Success Benchmarks - Do You Have Yours?
- MSL Teamwork: Thinking Outside the Box
- Staying Motivated as a Medical Science Liaison
- Medical Science Liaison: A Dead-End Job?
- MSL Retention: Is Grass Greener on Other Side?
- Art of Medical Science Liaising: Don't Forget Business Process
- Medical Science Liaisons' Career Limiting Trap
- Surviving Manager Ride-Along, Managing Up, and Stereotyping the MSL Function
- MSL Job Karma: What if your subordinate becomes your manager one day?
- Medical Science Liaison Career Planning Points
- "I am exhausted and frazzled every week."
- MSL Teamwork: Good Team Playing starts with Peer Recognition
BECOMING A MEDICAL SCIENCE LIAISON
For Aspiring Medical Science Liaisons
Breaking Into the Medical Science Liaison Profession: Catch-22
- In MSL Country, Jargon Matters
- Evaluating an Industry Job Offer
- Working with MSL Recruiters and Answering Ads
- Create your MSL presentation strategy
- Do I have what it takes to get a MSL job?
- 7 Fundamentals of Compelling Medical Science Liaison Resumes (44-Page Book)
- All Medical Science Liaisons Started with No MSL Experience (64-Page Book based on 2009 Print Edition)
- How I Got This (MSL) Job via The Scientist Magazine
- MSL Performance: What Will You Offer to Your MSL Organization?
- Question about Reference Letters
- MSL Interviews: Work on your STARs
- Watch your attitude, it shows in your MSL applications!
- What do you do when you get a MSL recruiter on the phone?
- What can you do, right now, to help your MSL job prospects?
- Getting MSL Jobs: Pace and Persist
- Contract MSL is a 2.5 Full-Time Job
- Domains Assessed in MSL Interviews
- Tips to Stay Motivated while Aiming to Become a MSL
- MSL Career: Why Life-Long Career Makes Sense
- What hiring managers look for during MSL interviews
- List of MSL Interview Questions
- What to start doing for the rest of your MSL/professional career
- Crossfunctional collaboration: what are MSL managers looking for?
- The MSL Power Plan Gives You Power: 30-60-90 Days
- Master your MSL interview presentation
- Picking Topics for Your MSL Interview Presentation
- Sales Rep asking if Masters Degree helps