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Bioinformatician vs medical science liaison

The differences between bioinformaticians and medical science liaisons can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a bioinformatician and a medical science liaison. Additionally, a medical science liaison has an average salary of $145,718, which is higher than the $71,359 average annual salary of a bioinformatician.

The top three skills for a bioinformatician include python, data analysis and next-generation sequencing. The most important skills for a medical science liaison are patients, medical affairs, and MSL.

Bioinformatician vs medical science liaison overview

BioinformaticianMedical Science Liaison
Yearly salary$71,359$145,718
Hourly rate$34.31$70.06
Growth rate17%17%
Number of jobs16,03457,208
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 43%Bachelor's Degree, 52%
Average age4141
Years of experience44

What does a bioinformatician do?

Bioinformaticians are experts who are responsible for developing and conducting research by using methods and software tools to collect and analyze complex biological data. By combining their research in biology, medicine, and health-related studies with information technology, these bioinformaticians are required to interpret data that covers areas such as genetics or pharmaceutics. They must develop databases to compile a large amount of information from activities such as gene expression profiling and protein expression. Bioinformaticians must also maintain laboratory documents and keep updated with scientific or medical journals.

What does a medical science liaison do?

A medical science liaison (MSL) is a scientific professional who facilitates a working relationship between healthcare companies and leading physicians, researchers, and clinicians. Also referred to as key opinion leaders (KOL), medical science liaisons represent their company to the decision-makers in the medical community as well as to investors and government regulatory agencies. They analyze clinical trends and monitor the scientific literature for new developments in the medical community. Medical science liaisons also prepare medical samples and data to investigate the causes of chronic diseases, pathogens, and toxicity.

Bioinformatician vs medical science liaison salary

Bioinformaticians and medical science liaisons have different pay scales, as shown below.

BioinformaticianMedical Science Liaison
Average salary$71,359$145,718
Salary rangeBetween $40,000 And $127,000Between $59,000 And $359,000
Highest paying CityBranford, CTJackson, TN
Highest paying stateRhode IslandTennessee
Best paying companyAstraZenecaSaint Luke's Health System
Best paying industryHealth CareManufacturing

Differences between bioinformatician and medical science liaison education

There are a few differences between a bioinformatician and a medical science liaison in terms of educational background:

BioinformaticianMedical Science Liaison
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 43%Bachelor's Degree, 52%
Most common majorBiostatisticsNursing
Most common collegeUniversity of Southern CaliforniaUniversity of Southern California

Bioinformatician vs medical science liaison demographics

Here are the differences between bioinformaticians' and medical science liaisons' demographics:

BioinformaticianMedical Science Liaison
Average age4141
Gender ratioMale, 83.1% Female, 16.9%Male, 41.6% Female, 58.4%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 5.8% Unknown, 3.9% Hispanic or Latino, 8.9% Asian, 39.0% White, 42.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%Black or African American, 6.3% Unknown, 4.1% Hispanic or Latino, 9.5% Asian, 23.4% White, 56.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%
LGBT Percentage8%8%

Differences between bioinformatician and medical science liaison duties and responsibilities

Bioinformatician example responsibilities.

  • Develop UNIX shell script, PERL and AWK program and apply TECPLOT software macro files to automate data processing and report.
  • Perform data, results visualization, full SDLC
  • Identify single nucleotide variants from NGS data.
  • Develop and teach introductory shortcourses in Perl and HTML.
  • Identify differentially express genes among different populations using NGS RNAseq data from TCGA.
  • Learned and adapt accepted RNA-seq pipeline to analyze data generate by lab members.
  • Show more

Medical science liaison example responsibilities.

  • Supervise and analyze medical necessity review of manage care appeals.
  • Develop and manage KOLs resulting in presentations to regional, national and international meetings.
  • Utilize extensive knowledge of medical terminology, ICD-9, HCPCS and CPT coding along with analysis and processing of Medicare claims.
  • Provide pre-launch field support for a novel diabetes compound.
  • Provide drug information to medical professionals and sales force within FDA guidelines.
  • Join Clementine as a trainee BMS and successfully complete training and registration.
  • Show more

Bioinformatician vs medical science liaison skills

Common bioinformatician skills
  • Python, 17%
  • Data Analysis, 12%
  • Next-Generation Sequencing, 11%
  • Java, 8%
  • Visualization, 7%
  • NGS, 5%
Common medical science liaison skills
  • Patients, 11%
  • Medical Affairs, 9%
  • MSL, 7%
  • Medical Science, 6%
  • Pharmaceutical Industry, 5%
  • Internal Stakeholders, 4%

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