Press Release

Baker Tilly solves time-consuming KOL tiering process with new online platform

Sept. 22, 2022

Introducing kolNOW, Baker Tilly’s new comprehensive tool that provides life sciences companies with a more efficient way to assess key opinion leaders based on their level of expertise and ensure adequate screening.

CHICAGO (Sept. 22, 2022) – Leading advisory CPA firm Baker Tilly US, LLP (Baker Tilly) launches kolNOW, a self-service, online portal to help life sciences companies quickly evaluate the qualifications and expertise of healthcare professional key opinion leaders (KOLs) used in consulting engagements without the need to collect and analyze the curriculum vitae (CV).

"Pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device and diagnostic companies continue to face increased scrutiny from regulators in order to prevent bribes and corrupt payments when engaging with healthcare professionals to consult on their product or device," said Darren Jones, Baker Tilly principal, life sciences consulting. “In addition to ensuring these professionals are being paid fair market rates for their engagements, life sciences companies must also establish objective evaluation criteria to measure their level of expertise and ensure they have not been sanctioned by regulatory entities. This process can often be long, expensive and prone to human error.”

Baker Tilly’s kolNOW tool, powered by a powerful proprietary database analyzing millions of healthcare professionals on a continuous basis, simplifies this process by enabling life sciences companies to:

• Access predetermined tiers of more than four million healthcare professionals that are continuously updated
• Rely on a detailed tiering methodology and algorithm that is transparent and auditable
• Identify KOLs for executing on medical affairs related initiatives
• Verify that selected healthcare professionals have been subject to regulatory sanctions screening
• Connect with Baker Tilly’s medical affairs team as well as compliance and KOL tiering specialists
• Integrate directly into Baker Tilly’s fmvNOW for establishing fair market rates for the pre-tiered healthcare professionals

"In addition to tiering, the ability to search a database of KOLs to identify for consulting activities allows us to expand our capabilities and help life sciences companies bring their products or devices to market faster,” said David Gregory, MPA, FACHE, Baker Tilly principal. “kolNOW is a first-of-its-kind tool that drastically reduces the time and cost of identifying and tiering KOLs compared to the traditional manual process.”

Baker Tilly will also be hosting two upcoming webinars to help life sciences companies understand the various type of anti-kickback, anti-corruption and anti-bribery regulations that affect the KOL tiering and FMV process as well as how organizations streamline both processes:

• Oct. 4, 2022: Minimize risk through effective engagement with KOLs and stakeholders
• Nov. 2, 2022: Appropriately tiering KOLs by level of expertise through kolNOW

Learn more about Baker Tilly’s kolNOW at bakertilly.com/products/kolnow.

About Baker Tilly US, LLP (bakertilly.com)

Baker Tilly US, LLP (Baker Tilly) is a leading advisory CPA firm, providing clients with a genuine coast-to-coast and global advantage in major regions of the U.S. and in many of the world’s leading financial centers – New York, London, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago. Baker Tilly is an independent member of Baker Tilly International, a worldwide network of independent accounting and business advisory firms in 148 territories, with 38,000 professionals and a combined worldwide revenue of $4.3 billion. Visit bakertilly.com or join the conversation on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.