\n\u201cMost SCPs are not agile and disconnected from content creation. They are dated as soon as you roll them off the lot, like a used car starting to lose its value.” It takes months of cross-functional collaboration and strategic narrative development to produce an SCP. But their current state \u2014 large, monolithic documents containing hundreds of pages or slides \u2014 doesn’t fully do this effort justice. Improving your SCP begins by fully understanding the challenges.<\/p>\n \n\u201cWe should build SCPs and associated content like a spiderweb, connected through technology.” SCPs are often created and stored as large, isolated documents \u2014 hundreds of pages or slides in length. Containing your SCP in this type of monolithic format imposes practical limitations and disconnects it further from the content supply chain.<\/p>\n To make an SCP fundamental to the content supply chain, the information it contains needs to become usable within it. Refocus your effort on managing the information itself \u2014 the messages, data, and narratives that live in the SCP \u2014 rather than the document that contains it.<\/p>\n Structured content is a method of organizing and managing information in a pre- defined logical way. A structured approach treats content like data. Information is broken down into format-free components that can be reused in different contexts. Tagging with metadata \u2014 data that describes other data \u2014 helps organize and categorize components in specific ways, such as by topic or target audience.<\/p>\n Not only does this streamline the content creation process, but the core information remains accurate and consistent regardless of how it is presented. Organizations have increasingly turned to innovation to disrupt conventional approaches to content management and better support omnichannel execution. The SCP is no different.<\/p>\n Technology can play a key role in connecting your SCP with the content processes it is designed to support. The hierarchical nature of SCPs provides agility when it comes to content development. By embedding it into your existing content supply chain, you can structure your SCP by its components and use them to create content in a modular fashion.<\/p>\n
\nRachel Kennedy, Senior Director and Head of Scientific Communications, Moderna<\/span>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\nWhere traditional SCPs fall short<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
\n
\nDownloadability is inherently bad for version control, and from an end-user perspective, it\u2019s impossible to know when a document has changed or is in the process of changing.
\nSome organizations spend significant time and budget converting the SCP into an internal-facing web page for easier sharing, but this approach isn\u2019t agile and fails to solve complex review cycles.<\/li>\n
\nSCPs are often not updated in real time as intended, and other materials are created or revised first. \u201cThe large number of stakeholders involved and the format makes SCP maintenance challenging, leading to less frequent updates than we\u2019d like,\u201d says Nick Gelyana, director of scientific content excellence at Astellas.<\/li>\n
\nThough SCPs provide clear direction for content creation, they are not systematically linked to the medical content created from them. Operationally, they\u2019re often disconnected from content creation tools and not easily shared or accessible to content creators using them. This disconnect slows content development and limits visibility into where and how messages are being used, communicated, and ultimately understood and endorsed by HCPs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\nNick Gelyana, Director of Scientific Content Excellence, Astellas<\/span>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe future of SCPs in the content supply chain<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-18-at-14.33.02.png\")
<\/p>\nStructured content: Managing the information, not the document<\/h3>\n
\nMedical\u2019s advantage is that the core information they need to communicate has a set structure already defined within the SCP itself \u2014 one that is inherently modular.<\/p>\nStructured content is FAIR:<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Digitizing-Your-SCP-A-Modular-Approach-to-Medical-Content-V1.png\")
<\/p>\nTechnology\u2019s role in SCP transformation<\/h3>\n
Embedding the SCP in your content supply chain*<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Digitizing-Your-SCP-A-Modular-Approach-to-Medical-Content-V2.png\")
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Digitizing-Your-SCP-A-Modular-Approach-to-Medical-Content-V3.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Digitizing-Your-SCP-A-Modular-Approach-to-Medical-Content-V4.png\")
<\/p>\n