Thought Leader Interview With Matt Frese, CEO of Med Learning Group Management

Matt, thank you for joining us today! Med Learning Group Management (MLG Management) has long been recognized as a leader in high science continuing medical education (CME). In recent years, you’ve driven significant business transformation, creating a multi-capability platform that now serves both life sciences education and commercial needs. Can you discuss your strategic vision behind the evolution? What opportunity did you see in the market that made this the right strategy to pursue?

Our work at MLG Management has long been rooted in high science and CME, with one core focus: How do we make information stickier and more actionable for HCPs? We’ve always believed that innovation matters most when it changes behavior and improves patient outcomes. That has driven us to design environments where clinicians don’t just receive information; they interact with it, apply it, and ultimately treat patients differently because of it.

Over the past three years, as we assessed the landscape, we realized something critical: Outcomes shouldn’t be confined to CME. They must be embedded across the entire communications ecosystem—medical affairs, publications, live and virtual events, and every touchpoint where science meets practice.

This insight led us to strategically expand our capabilities, acquiring specialized partners to:

• Deepen our accredited education leadership through the addition of Talem Health.
• Establish a separate foothold in promotional medical communications through the acquisitions of Impetus and Meducom.
• Embed proprietary market intelligence and outcomes measurement capabilities via SAGO Health and Throughline.

Together, this creates something the market has been asking for: a platform that connects education, communication, and measurable outcomes under one roof. Instead of treating CME as a stand-alone effort, we’re able to track and influence HCP behavior across the full spectrum of medical affairs activities, then validate impact through research and outcomes measurement. It’s been an exciting evolution, and we’re proud to offer a more integrated answer to the challenges faced by medical affairs teams, healthcare practitioners, and ultimately, patients.

There are a multitude of examples that show the measurable impact provided by MLG Management, with our DETECT T1D and Vision RELIEF initiative being a prime case study. In 2024, MLG Management launched the DETECT initiative, a community of care with a variety of HCP- and patient-facing tools and educational programs aimed at increasing pre-symptomatic screening for type 1 diabetes (T1D). Based on a medical claims analysis of the behavior of 9,361 HCPs who participated in DETECT compared to matched nonlearner controls conducted in partnership with IQVIA, DETECT learners achieved a 54% gain in screenings following DETECT T1D education vs. nonlearner controls. Nonspecialist learners (e.g., primary care providers, pediatricians, etc.) achieved a 116% gain in screenings vs. nonlearner controls. In 2025, MLG Management built off the success by partnering with Throughline to further understand the behavior barriers that limit screening uptake. The results led to a refined DETECT educational program, inclusive of an Impetus-led online, multidisciplinary discussion board focused on Throughline’s findings, to address the adoption challenges. The work is continuing even today, with a full qualitative and quantitative outcomes analysis to be completed in Q1 2026.

What’s particularly striking about the platform you’ve built is the balance between education and commercialization services. In an industry where these two functions were historically siloed, what is the fundamental strategic advantage and value proposition of having deep, credible expertise at scale with both pharma budgets?

Our approach began with a strategic lens—not just through the filter of budgets, but through a shared North Star: improving patient care. When you anchor on that, everything aligns. Commercial brand teams, medical affairs teams, and every stakeholder in healthcare ultimately strive for that same outcome.

With that in mind, we asked ourselves: How do we build a model that works across budgets and platforms, reaches HCPs more effectively, and delivers meaningful, evidence-based content? The answer wasn’t to stay within one sector, but to connect them.

By combining the strength of our accredited medical education with commercialization insights and promotional medical communications, we created a platform that can test ideas with HCPs and patients, apply those learnings, and strengthen the science behind the education. That integration has proven incredibly powerful.

The market has validated this approach. Over the last two years, every acquisition we made across commercialization, medical communications, and CME has seen accelerated growth under MLG Management. The success reinforces what we believed from the beginning: When everything is aligned to patient outcomes, the entire system performs better.

You recently acquired SAGO Health in the summer of 2025, a leader in life sciences data and insights. From your perspective, how does this deal deliver more value to your client base? How does having a first-party data engine at the core of MLG Management make your educational and commercial programs more effective? Conversely, how does the activity from your programs enrich and differentiate the data SAGO Health can provide?

Sago Health gives us something the industry has wanted for years: a real-time, first-party data engine that informs content, measures behavior change, and scales insights. With over 1 million HCPs and patients in its panel, we can tailor education to real needs and prove its impact.

This creates a flywheel:

• Our market insights capabilities inform content.
• Our CME and medical communication programs independently drive behavior change.
• New behavior enriches our proprietary data lake.
• The engine gets smarter.

Add Sago’s AI taxonomy—the unifying intelligence layer that organizes and connects all client research, advisory board insights, medical education outcomes, claims data, and other intelligence sources into a single, AI-ready data warehouse—and we are now building a library of outcomes and behavioral patterns that make us faster, more predictive, and more valuable. At its core, the AI taxonomy is not a classification system; it’s a provider of structure, context, and meaning to every learner interaction, content asset, outcomes insight, and behavioral data point. By defining consistent attributes across audiences, clinical concepts, learning modalities, and engagement behaviors, the taxonomy provides the foundation AI needs to move from descriptive analytics to prediction and optimization.

Ultimately, the integration of SAGO Health positions MLG Management with a capability the market has long sought but has been achieved by few: a continuous learning system where client data, AI-driven intelligence, and independently validated behavior change reinforce one another at scale. By combining real-time insights, a trusted AI taxonomy, and programs that actively generate new behavioral perspectives, we are not just responding to the needs of the healthcare ecosystem; we are arming ourselves and our clients with the ability to anticipate them.

Beyond the data itself, we know technology is a key pillar of your strategy. From the proprietary virtual engagement tools to the broader platform’s use of innovative formats, including AI-driven avatars and virtual reality, how do these advanced technological capabilities create a more impactful and effective experience for your clients, and how do they serve as a core differentiator for the business?

MLG Management was born as a technology-first CME company. Today, we’ve evolved into a center of excellence for AI-powered behavior change, leveraging VR, AR, holograms, and proprietary engagement platforms for measurable impact.

What’s unique now is that we can embed this technology into every business we acquire, leveraging our first-mover advantage. The companies we acquired didn’t have these capabilities before, but now they do. That has produced three major results:

1. A more powerful sales tool: Our organizations go to market with something no one else can offer.
2. A better experience and measurable impact: Pharma partners and HCPs get technology that doesn’t just inform, but changes behavior.
3. Our engagement platforms are built with integrated analytics: We not only deliver cuttingedge education, but we also use AI to capture behavioral insights, HCP and patient perceptions, sentiment, and signals in real time. This enables us to generate rich, client-focused, outcomesdriven reporting and rapidly tailor future proposal development based on performance insights, learner segmentation, and impact benchmarks across therapy areas. By consistently demonstrating measurable value, we don’t just fulfill grants; we build trusted partnerships that lead to renewal, expansion, and strategic long-term collaborations.

Every acquired company can now offer AI-led formats, immersive virtual tools, and data-driven education—capabilities that were once exclusive to MLG Management. This has improved their profitability and value creation almost immediately..

From the client’s perspective, when it comes to medical education and commercialization, what are the biggest unmet needs or challenges you’re hearing about from your pharma partners today? And in that context, what specific capabilities of MLG Management are resonating most strongly and proving most decisive in their choice of a strategic partner?

The landscape has changed dramatically. Five years ago, innovation alone was enough. Today, outcomes are the primary necessity. Pharma needs to demonstrate the success of every dollar spent—not just that content was created, but that it changed something.

What has made us successful is the ability to link every communication and every educational event to a measurable outcome. We’re now able to do this directly through our market intelligence solutions, which allow us to create content informed by real behavioral insights rather than assumptions.

We’ve always been early—and bold—in our adoption of technology. From the outset, MLG Management was a pioneer in embedding virtual reality, AI-driven avatars, holographic formats, and immersive simulations into education years before they became industry buzzwords. While others were still exploring webinars, we were building unique and relevant innovative animations, holographic AI patient avatars, and clinical decision simulations.

That first-mover advantage isn’t just history. Rather, it’s how we operate. Our teams continue to innovate, with recent launches of:

• Real-time behavior analytics dashboards embedded within our CME platforms.
• Micro-personalized learning engines that adapt content to learner engagement.
• Predictive modeling tools that anticipate learner needs based on pattern recognition.
• Modular content formats that scale globally while remaining locally relevant.

The market is no longer asking, “Did someone attend?” The question now is, “Did it work?” That’s what our supporters are looking for: something quicker, better, faster, and measurable. When we can demonstrate that a program changed HCP behavior, that’s an easy choice for pharma. We’re not just delivering content; we’re delivering proof—powered by innovation—and that’s what sets MLG Management apart.

Thank you again for taking the time! Finally, as you look toward the future, what are you most excited about? What is the next big frontier for MLG Management and the industry as a whole?

As we look to the future, MLG Management is positioned to lead the next evolution of healthcare education and behavior change. We’re most energized by three strategic frontiers that are each tied to growth, value creation, and scalable innovation.

1. Point-of-Care Networks and Tools

We believe the next generation of medical education must meet HCPs where decisions happen—not just in conference halls or online modules, but within their day-to-day workflows. By leveraging existing point-ofcare networks with innovative tools and resources we already developed, we enable:

• Just-in-time education that drives behavior change at the moment of clinical and treatment decision-making.
• Technology integrations that tie education to electronic health records, diagnostic platforms, and care management systems.
• A measurable bridge from knowledge to action, improving both practice patterns and patient outcomes.
• Expanded access and usability of our patient-focused tools by incorporating them into practices’ patient portals. For example, HCPs can easily share our patient-focused educational materials with patients after a diagnosis or an adverse event report, while also making them generally accessible on their portal. Such direct access to patients in real time via their HCPs is invaluable in terms of credibility and impact.

This frontier not only improves the relevance of education but also strengthens our data flywheel by generating insights on what works and why.

2. AI Acceleration

We’re doubling down on our advantage in medical education and communications from high science content development to multi-format storytelling, but we’re also investing in AI to scale that value:

• Our AI-enabled center of excellence supports rapid content generation, audience segmentation, and adaptive learning journeys.
• We’re piloting predictive analytics to anticipate learner behavior and personalize experiences.
• We’re exploring generative AI to accelerate localization and modularization for global reach.

This is not just about efficiency. It’s about creating smarter, more targeted education that drives deeper engagement and better outcomes.

3. Global Expansion

The demand for evidence-based, outcomes-driven medical education is growing exponentially across global markets. With our scalable infrastructure, we’re ready to:

• Localize high-performing U.S. programs for new markets, adjusting for cultural context, regulatory environments, and clinical practice norms.
• Establish regional partnerships that strengthen local credibility and distribution.
• Leverage digital platforms and AI to reduce costs of entry and customize education in real time.

Beyond growth, our strategy supports global health equity, ensuring that our partners can impact clinical behavior not just in North America but in regions worldwide. It’s not expansion for its own sake; it’s missionaligned growth with commercial upside.

Each of our focus frontiers aligns with one unifying message: When education is intelligent, patientconnected, and outcomes-focused, it drives measurable value across the healthcare ecosystem. MLG Management continues to build the infrastructure, partnerships, and platforms to make that vision real, and we’re doing it in a way that’s scalable, differentiated, and built for the next decade.