Zoom for Life Sciences

Outside of everyday administrative use, Zoom can help clinicians and other life sciences personnel decrease time to market for the drug development process, reach experts regardless of where they are located, and decentralize clinical trials to include trial participants in multiple locations. Across the globe, life sciences organizations of all sizes are using the Zoom platform for a variety of applications that streamline processes across the organization.

Below, you’ll find resources, tips, and guidance for setting up and using Zoom for life sciences.

We have you covered with our step-by-step onboarding guide to help you set up your account. Zoom offers many options and configurations to help maintain the safety and privacy of your healthcare organization.

1. Deployment at a glance

Here is what a successful deployment at Zoom will look like:

2. Getting started with deployment

Create your Zoom Deployment Team

One of the first steps to configuring your Zoom account is assigning a team of admins to manage the deployment and day-to-day operations of Zoom.

a. Assign your Zoom administrators

Zoom administrators will be responsible for deploying Zoom for their organization. Admins are given the responsibility to manage users on their account, which includes adding, removing, or editing users. You can also manage your organization’s account settings, API features, and SSO.

• Sign in to zoom.us as the account owner or someone that has access to edit roles.
• In the navigation menu, click User Management then Role Management.
• Click Edit in the Action column for the Admin role. 
• Click the checkboxes that enable permissions for users in this role to see or edit those pages.
• Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save Settings.

3. Zoom user management

User management allows account owners and admins to manage their users by adding, deleting, and assigning roles and add-on features.

4. Zoom account profile

The account profile page provides you with visibility of your basic account information. An account can include an entire company or an individual user, depending on the size of your account.

Based on your role and subscription plan, you can also view and manage advanced features, including account support information, associated domains, the account’s vanity URL, and the Usage Overview with cloud recording and audio usage details.

2. Allow for better organization without additional work for the admin team by applying for associated domains.
   • What are the benefits of associated domains? Any individual with your organization’s email address domain will be moved under your account. Also, all future individuals who sign up with a matching domain will automatically join your account.
3. Add an extra layer of security with single sign-on (SSO), which allows you to log in using your company credentials.
   • What are the benefits of using Zoom SSO? Zoom SSO streamlines the user experience and account management. Zoom acts as the Service Provider (SP) and offers automatic user provisioning.
   • Single sign-on advanced help articles

Note: If you require further assistance, please contact Zoom Support.

The ability to customize account configurations and manage permissions can help enable your organization to safeguard protected health information (PHI) and support your HIPAA compliance obligations, if applicable to your organization. 

In addition to the ability to grant access to certain features by Groups, Zoom provides notifications to users whose meetings may be at risk of being disrupted, powerful and tailored encryption options, audio signatures and watermarks, data center selections for processing certain customer data when hosting meetings and webinars, waiting rooms and passcodes, and the option to specify time-out periods.

6. Preparing to go live

Successfully introduce Zoom to your team by equipping them with the proper tools, resources, and training!

Learn how-to use Zoom!

1. The Zoom Learning Center offers a growing list of on-demand courses and short videos designed to give you just the information you need when you need it. Whether you’re a new user looking for help joining your first meeting, or a Zoom Administrator setting up Zoom Phone, we’ve got you covered.
• Zoom Administrator Training:
  • On-demand 'show me'  recording -  'Basic Zoom Meetings Administration'.
  • Module -  'Getting Started with Zoom Administration'

Roll out communication to your team:

4. Establish internal communications and resources to notify your team about Zoom.
• Company announcement: Notify your team that your organization is using Zoom. Provide information on getting started, respond to anticipated questions, and let your staff know when they can start using Zoom.
• Training announcement: Promote the Zoom Learning Center and Zoom Help Center to help prepare your end-users to start using Zoom.
  • Zoom end-user training:
    • On-demand ‘show me’ recordings under the  ‘Zoom Meetings’ section.
• Post-deployment email: Share valuable tips and drive user adoption with Zoom.
  • Using the Zoom Learning Center
  • Zoom Support

7. Post-deployment: Measuring adoption & success

Track your organization’s ongoing usage with robust reporting and dashboard tools.

Also, with an executed BAA, you can use Zoom Phone’s products and features to communicate with patients. Used properly, Zoom Phone can help you make and receive patient calls, or use optional features like visual voicemail and call recording. You can even use scheduling integrations like Reminders to send automated text message reminders to patients.

Additional Zoom Phone resources:

• Emergency location 
• Customizing audio greetings + hold music 
• Changing phone settings 
• Customizing call handling 
• Sharing voicemail access 
• Setting business, closed, and holiday hours

• Muting 
• Audio 
• Add caller 
• Hold 
• Transfer 
• Record 
• Meet

Collection of short videos

This section will help you better understand how your Zoom product suite can help you in your day-to-day tasks and activities as a medical device, pharmaceutical, or biotech organization, beginning with common use cases.

Conducting clinical trials:

Initial participant interactions - When a trial is announced, and participants are in the inclusion/exclusion phase for study participation, you can use Zoom Phone, Zoom Meetings, and/or Zoom Contact Center to take inbound calls or hold pre-scheduled meetings with interested individuals who fit the study criteria. Zoom Webinars can be utilized for public presentations of upcoming or ongoing trials to help generate interest. 

Conducting the study - Whereas trials have commonly been localized or required participant travel, Zoom’s product suite can help your organization conduct studies virtually anywhere, utilizing Zoom Meetings with integrations that allow for remote monitoring (such as this electronic stethoscope). Virtual trials allow your team to gain a more diverse pool of participants or include participants who are difficult to reach in person due to health or other reasons. While these studies are ongoing, Zoom Whiteboard and Zoom Team Chat can help research teams collaborate and increase communication efficiency. Additionally, Zoom’s ability to integrate with major EHRs can help facilitate easy workflows for clinical trial engagement and telemedicine interactions.

Disseminating research - Research teams can utilize Zoom Webinars or Events to host conference calls, during which research can be shared with colleagues in the field, providers, or the general public.

Monitoring manufacturing facilities:

Long gone are the days of having to travel to a facility to check for equipment malfunctions and perform maintenance. Now, you can use Zoom Meetings to connect technicians with workers on the floor, helping to troubleshoot and resolve issues more quickly. On-site employees are able to utilize hands-free cameras to help technicians diagnose and address issues. Bringing in remote equipment experts and engineers virtually can also help save on the cost and time associated with travel, resulting in shortened downtime and increased productivity. 

In addition to fixing malfunctioning equipment virtually, companies can conduct virtual inspections with regulatory agencies over Zoom Meetings – or use our suite of products to collaborate and prepare for an inspection in advance.

Sales interactions:

Sales representatives no longer need to drop by a doctor’s office to try to gain a few minutes of time with the provider. Instead, quick appointments can be scheduled over Zoom Meetings – allowing the doctor to be aware of when a meeting will take place and provide their full attention, rather than trying to meet while running between appointments. In addition, this virtual sales workflow can help reduce costs associated with travel and the number of representatives needed to cover a specific region, resulting in savings for your business and increased access to medical education for providers  on the pharmaceuticals  you sell.

Other use cases:

Beyond the workflows identified above, the Zoom product suite can assist with your day-to-day workflows in many different ways:

Zoom Meetings

• Quick syncs with internal colleagues, allowing for screen share + visuals
• Scheduled external meetings for collaboration, project planning, and accountability 
• Conducting 1:1 sessions with patients and study participants
• Training new employees 
• Regulatory + compliance meetings

Zoom Webinars + Events

• Growing participant interest in upcoming studies
• Sharing findings and results with colleagues in the field
• Providing updates to providers of new drugs and developments

Zoom Phone

• Inbound calls from potential study participants and general information
• Outbound calls to colleagues for quick conversations where visuals aren’t needed
• Text reminders to study participants
• Outbound calls from sales reps to schedule time with providers

Zoom Contact Center

• Quickly change call flows to accommodate new call queues for upcoming study participants, to provide basic information on drug programs, and to answer customer questions related to medications
• Allow your team to be reached by phone, text, chat, or video 
• Keep a record of caller information, such as names, numbers, locations, and call history

Zoom Rooms

• Upgrade your conference rooms to allow for a simpler workflow when starting or joining virtual meetings
• Create video-enabled lab spaces for collaboration
• Display digital signage throughout your office space to keep employees informed
• Create workspaces that employees can reserve ahead of time

Zoom Team Chat

• Keep key players up to date on the current progress of the latest project, drug development, or study
• Set reminders to follow up on specific tasks 
• Create group chats to help ensure everyone has the information they need at their fingertips

Zoom Whiteboard

• Brainstorm ideas with your team, in or out of a Zoom Meeting
• Use templates to quickly put together a visual for your presentation
• Keep a running list of tasks and who has completed them

As the use cases above show, Zoom’s product suite can help your organization stay on top of its communications and help your team keep each other accountable, whether you’re conferring with internal or external colleagues, providers, or participants. In addition to understanding these use cases, it’s important to keep in mind different meeting roles and features within Zoom.

Zoom roles

Host

The meeting host is able to control various aspects of a Zoom Meeting, such as managing participants. This is the person who has scheduled the meeting.

Alternative Host

Like the meeting host, the alternative host will have the ability to manage participants in a meeting. The alternative host can also start the meeting if the host has not yet joined the session.

Learn more about roles in a meeting.

Zoom features

Language interpretation

Do you need to include interpreters in your meetings or webinars? Contact Zoom Support to have this feature enabled. Interpreters will provide their own audio channels for the language they are translating to.

Scheduling privilege

You can assign or delegate a user or multiple users in your account to schedule meetings on behalf of others. For example, using the researcher’s Zoom profile, an assistant could schedule a meeting for a researcher and participant.

As we continue to see activities that were previously strictly in-person shift to a virtual setting, it’s important to enable secure meetings and strong connections. Review our guides linked below for tips on securing your Zoom Meetings and optimizing Zoom’s performance, as well as other features to be aware of. 

As we continue to see activities that were previously strictly in-person shift to a virtual setting, it’s important to enable secure meetings and strong connections. Review our guides linked below for tips on securing your Zoom Meetings and optimizing Zoom’s performance, as well as other features to be aware of.