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Fellow vs medical science liaison

The differences between fellows 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 fellow and a medical science liaison. Additionally, a medical science liaison has an average salary of $145,718, which is higher than the $66,364 average annual salary of a fellow.

The top three skills for a fellow include patients, professional development and veterans. The most important skills for a medical science liaison are patients, medical affairs, and MSL.

Fellow vs medical science liaison overview

FellowMedical Science Liaison
Yearly salary$66,364$145,718
Hourly rate$31.91$70.06
Growth rate17%17%
Number of jobs7,45957,208
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 64%Bachelor's Degree, 52%
Average age4141
Years of experience44

What does a fellow do?

A fellow's responsibility will depend on the organization or industry where one belongs. However, most of the time, a fellow's duty will revolve around conducting research and analysis, presiding discussions and attending dialogues, handle lectures while complying with the guidelines or tasks set by supervisors, and assist in various projects and activities. Furthermore, a fellow must adhere to the institution or organization's policies and regulations at all times, meet all the requirements and outputs involved, and coordinate with every person in the workforce.

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.

Fellow vs medical science liaison salary

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

FellowMedical Science Liaison
Average salary$66,364$145,718
Salary rangeBetween $46,000 And $93,000Between $59,000 And $359,000
Highest paying CityOak Ridge, TNJackson, TN
Highest paying stateTennesseeTennessee
Best paying companyPeterson Institute for International EconomicsSaint Luke's Health System
Best paying industryProfessionalManufacturing

Differences between fellow and medical science liaison education

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

FellowMedical Science Liaison
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 64%Bachelor's Degree, 52%
Most common majorPolitical ScienceNursing
Most common collegeDuke UniversityUniversity of Southern California

Fellow vs medical science liaison demographics

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

FellowMedical Science Liaison
Average age4141
Gender ratioMale, 46.2% Female, 53.8%Male, 41.6% Female, 58.4%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 6.4% Unknown, 4.1% Hispanic or Latino, 9.6% Asian, 26.4% White, 53.3% 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 fellow and medical science liaison duties and responsibilities

Fellow example responsibilities.

  • Design and lead labs align with the NYC curriculum, on topics including moon phases and dichotomous keys.
  • Maintain company website, as well as wrote, manage, and edit content on the SharePoint portal.
  • Manage live streaming for NARAL Facebook during NARAL's lobby day, as well as assisting in attendee organization.
  • Work through several medical software databases to generate SQL to pass on to Java developers for their programs.
  • Develop computer program to visualize EOS data in Java.
  • Include writing python scripts to parse poorly structure text into tabular data.
  • 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

Fellow vs medical science liaison skills

Common fellow skills
  • Patients, 11%
  • Professional Development, 7%
  • Veterans, 7%
  • Mathematics, 5%
  • Math, 5%
  • Public Health, 4%
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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