Limited Corporation for Information Management and Documentation

Key opinion leaders

Project examples

Key opinion leaders

For many companies, it is vital to come into contact with the leading scientists and opinion leaders in their fields. Pharmaceutical companies engaged in active research, e.g., are seeking the best experts – to monitor clinical studies or as advisors. With highly efficient programs and widely experienced staff members, GIMD contributes to identifying these so-called key opinion leaders.

Project duration: ongoing

Our client provides us with a file of names of international scientists who are active in a certain field, e.g. diabetes, as proven by publications in relevant journals over recent years to which these experts contributed as corresponding authors.

Our first task consists of identifying persons of similar names, to compare these names, and to bring together identical persons in a uniform spelling. Is Leo H. Miller identical with Leo Harold Miller, Jr., for instance? Where to sort Arthur Chen Yi-Ming best alphabetically? The same question applies to Spanish nationals, who invariably have two surnames and possibly two first names. In general, difficulties are created by names transcribed from another script – for instance, Cai Sanjun vs. Cai Xiangjun. The linguistic acumen of our relevant staff members is indispensable in these cases.

The next step deals with standardized addresses. Scientists often are mobile globally, selecting their employers according to an institute’s reputation and the work conditions they find there. Names of workplaces must therefore be collated, and the current address of a person must be researched. It should be clear that Washington, D.C, is not identical with Washington State. Most of us, however, might be unfamiliar with the fact that Sheikh Khalifa Medical City is not a city at all, but a hospital in Abu Dhabi. Security mechanisms in our data processing assist us at this stage, e.g. by preventing that more than five digits are assigned to an American ZIP code.

For subsequent steps, GIMD works directly in the database of our client. Recorded persons are assigned further attributes, e.g. their functions in relevant bodies (president or department head?), their roles at major conferences (Invited Speaker? Moderator?), or their honors and awards.

The process finally results in a matrix in which relevant persons are recorded in a standardized fashion and listed with their functions and attributes, according to their status. Research and collation effect a significant reduction in data, with our client receiving an instrument that will prove beneficial for years to come.