The experts on your list may not be the ones your programme needs.

Kendle Healthcare helps Medical Affairs and Product teams identify and engage the right KOLs for their specific product, mechanism, and strategy. For more than 20 years, we have helped teams make expert decisions they can stand behind.

Discuss your expert landscape
How we work

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Years Experience

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Experts

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Disease Areas

23+ years supporting Medical Affairs, Marketing, and Product teams

Trusted by global pharma, biotech, and Medical Communications teams

Strong experience across autoimmune, respiratory, oncology, and rare diseases.

Deep regional expertise in Japan and China

why most KOL lists miss the mark

Most KOL lists are built for scale, not for your situation.

Most KOL services begin by identifying influential clinicians within a specialty using data sources built for scale: publications, citation counts, society roles, congress activity. A standard scoring model is then applied across every specialty, every disease area, and every client.

The process is consistent: identify the KOLs within a specialty, then identify which of those are active in the disease area you care about.

It is not a bad approach, but it is only designed to work at scale, not to find the KOLs most relevant to you. A scoring model built to generalise will surface the same names every time. Your competitors are looking at those names too.

The names that surface are predictable. The names that do not are the problem.

Why it impacts your programme

The consequences surface later.

A list built on general prominence often looks credible on paper. The problems show up in use.

Advisory boards that generate little actionable insight. Engagement budgets directed at the wrong people. Regional expertise that never appears because it does not register in global datasets. Senior KOLs whose influence does not extend to the specific disease context your programme depends on.

When those decisions need defending internally, in governance meetings, launch planning, or Medical review, a list you cannot fully justify becomes a real problem.

What moves your programme forward

Expert intelligence built around the decision you're actually making.

Most identification stops at prominence.

Kendle Healthcare starts with your product, your mechanism, and the specific decisions your programme needs to support. Different starting point.

Different scoring. Often, different people on the list.

Explore KOL Identification

The goal is not a longer list, or a faster one.

It is the right experts for the decisions you are making, with a clear rationale for why they are there and how they should be engaged. Every project is led directly by experienced specialists. Outputs are documented to withstand internal scrutiny, regulatory review, and governance sign-off.

Explore KOL Engagement Strategy
Case Study

What clients find when they compare approaches.

Shortlists composed differently, with regional leaders and emerging experts alongside globally visible figures, a clear rationale for each inclusion, and guidelines or working groups they were not previously aware of.

Read More

Two ways we work

KOL Identification & Mapping

We identify and prioritise experts within the exacting scientific and strategic context of your programme.

KOL Engagement Strategy

We translate your objectives into a structured engagement plan: who to involve, when, for what purpose, and how to measure it.
Testimonials

What our clients say

Everything is then designed to provide you with the KOL map you need to plan and execute successful KOL engagement.

See More Reviews

"Kendle Healthcare consistently delivers expert insight we can trust. Their ability to explain and justify recommendations sets them apart."

Medical Affairs Lead, Global Pharma

"Their work stands up to internal scrutiny, particularly in regional and niche expert landscapes."

Scientific Strategy Director

"They think about how we'll actually use the expert insight, not just who the experts are. That changes the quality of our engagement."

Medical Affairs Director

Let's talk about your expert landscape.

If you need a clearer picture of your expert landscape, a defensible shortlist, or a structured engagement plan, we are happy to discuss what your situation calls for.

The right experts depend on the right question.

Discuss your expert landscape

Joe Kendle

Client Services Director

Joe is a cornerstone of Kendle Healthcare, embodying mastery, experience, insight and integrity in everything he delivers.

With more than ten years of experience in KOL Identification and Mapping, Joe’s relationship with Kendle Healthcare began at its foundation. As a university student, he worked on the company’s very first project, gaining early and lasting insight into its standards, values and ambition. That continuity gives him a deep understanding of not just what we do, but why we do it.

After six years in secondary education, Joe returned to healthcare consultancy with a distinctive skill set. His teaching background sharpened his ability to communicate complex ideas with clarity and calm authority. Clients value his measured approach, thoughtful questioning and ability to bring structure to complexity.

Joe’s particular expertise lies in translating technology into meaningful strategic insight. He has been instrumental in advancing the use of Network Mapping within KOL engagement, ensuring that influence is understood in context rather than in isolation. His work combines analytical rigour with practical application, turning data into decisions clients can act on with confidence.

Beyond his professional role, Joe demonstrates integrity through sustained philanthropic commitment. He has raised significant funds for charity through endurance challenges, reflecting resilience, discipline and a strong sense of social responsibility.

Neil Kendle

Managing Director

Neil is more than Managing Director. He is the driving force behind Kendle Healthcare’s standards of mastery, insight and integrity.

With more than three decades of healthcare consultancy experience, Neil brings a depth of understanding that only time and immersion can build. His background as both a Medical Science Liaison and a Brand Manager gives him a rare dual perspective. He understands the priorities of medical professionals and the pressures facing commercial and marketing teams, allowing him to bridge strategy and science with credibility and clarity.

Neil has helped shape the modern healthcare consultancy landscape. He pioneered many of the industry’s established approaches to opinion leader identification and engagement, setting benchmarks that others have since followed. His work has always been grounded in rigorous thinking, ethical practice and a commitment to doing things properly, not simply quickly.

Under his leadership, Kendle Healthcare has earned its reputation for thoughtful strategy, precise execution and trusted partnerships. Clients value his judgement because it is informed by experience, sharpened by insight and guided by integrity.

Outside of work, Neil is a dedicated golfer, a passion he has pursued for more than 25 years. The discipline and focus the game demands mirror the qualities he brings to his professional life: patience, precision and a long term view.