Summary
Medical Affairs is moving beyond traditional activity metrics to demonstrate meaningful impact. But how do we measure something as intangible as trust? JPA Health explores why understanding the quality and progression of scientific relationships may be just as important as measuring the number of interactions.
Ohhh yes! At JPA Health, we're seeing Medical Affairs tackle a challenge that those of us in communications have understood for years: trust matters. A lot.
In patient advocacy, we know meaningful partnerships don't happen without trust. In communications, credibility determines whether audiences will listen, engage and see an organization as a valuable source of information. And marketers have long understood that brand trust can influence consideration, choice and loyalty.
The problem? Trust has historically been notoriously difficult to quantify. It's intangible. It's visceral. You know when it's there, and you definitely know when it isn't.
Now Medical Affairs is running headfirst into that same challenge.
Counting Interactions Isn't the Same as Measuring Impact
As Medical Affairs takes on a more strategic role across the enterprise, the pressure to demonstrate its value is growing.
Traditionally, teams have relied on activity metrics: the number of healthcare professional (HCP) interactions, advisory boards, meetings and scientific exchanges.
Those metrics are useful. They tell us how much engagement happened. But they don't necessarily tell us what that engagement accomplished.
This isn't just our observation. The Medical Affairs Professional Society (MAPS) has emphasized the importance of moving beyond activity counts toward measures that demonstrate strategic value and meaningful outcomes.
A 2025 global survey of 1,023 Medical Affairs professionals across 63 countries also highlighted the disconnect. While 92% reported using the number of key opinion leader engagements as a performance metric, respondents expressed a much stronger preference for qualitative measures than purely quantitative ones.
So perhaps we need to start asking different questions.
Did the relationship deepen? Does the HCP increasingly see the organization as a credible and valuable scientific resource? Are scientific exchanges becoming more meaningful? Is the organization providing enough value that the stakeholder actively wants to continue the relationship?
Those are fundamentally questions about trust.
What If We Could Measure Trust and Value?
For years, trust has been treated as something we recognize intuitively but struggle to quantify.
Yet relationships leave signals. The relevance of an interaction, the value of information exchanged, the consistency of engagement and the willingness of stakeholders to continue participating can all help us understand how a relationship is developing.
No single metric tells the whole story. But together, thoughtfully evaluated indicators can provide a more meaningful picture.
At JPA Health, we've been developing a novel approach that combines relationship signals with stakeholder value to help Medical Affairs teams understand not simply who they're engaging, but whether those relationships are progressing over time.
We call it Trust & Value.
The goal isn't to reduce a complex human relationship to a number. It's to bring greater visibility to something that has historically been difficult to assess, helping teams understand where they are creating value, where relationships are strengthening and where there's room to improve.
Beyond Activity Metrics: Measuring Medical Affairs Impact.
For us, the exciting part isn't another score or dashboard. It's the opportunity to quantify something our industry has always known matters, but has struggled to measure consistently.
And importantly, this isn't about replacing established Medical Affairs metrics. Activity, scientific exchange and educational outcomes all have a role in evaluating performance.
Trust & Value adds another dimension: the quality and progression of stakeholder relationships.
Because a relationship isn't necessarily stronger simply because there have been more interactions. And a successful scientific exchange isn't defined solely by the fact that it happened.
Ultimately, Medical Affairs needs to understand not just how frequently it engages, but whether those engagements are relevant, valuable and contributing to meaningful scientific relationships.
Because counting interactions tells you what your team did. Measuring trust begins to tell you whether it mattered.
Let's Work Together
Knowing whether HCP relationships are deepening takes more than a tally of meetings. JPA Health's medical communications team helps life sciences organizations engage healthcare professionals and track real-world outcomes.
Want to see how we're putting Trust & Value into practice?
Connect with JPA Health to start the conversation.