Kirtida Pandya holds the position of Executive Director and Head of Medical Services and Operations within the Sandoz US Policy, Medical and External Engagement team. In this role, she has proactively facilitated the growth and transformation of this team. She has built and led a best in-class medical affairs organization with oversight of Operations, Program Management, Medical information/Communications, Training and Compliance, Material Approval Process, and Grants/IIT functions. Prior to joining Sandoz, she had been at Novartis for almost 8 years and was responsible for laying the medical communications foundation for Cosentyx, where she led the strategic planning and implementation of the medical plans, scientific support for continuing medical education, medical communications, and medical expert engagement activities for Cosentyx. Kirtida has a strong medical background with expertise in several therapeutic areas and supporting products at various stages in their lifecycle. These skills have been honed based on her extensive experiences from both sides of the fence, i.e., working with pharmaceutical industry and medical communications agencies. In a previous role, she also led a strategic publication planning group and has held various other positions such as retail pharmacist, drug information specialist, and medical writer. Kirtida graduated from Rutgers University with a Bachelors and a Doctorate degree in Pharmacy, as well as Masters in Healthcare Management. She is a Certified Medical Publication Professional and demonstrated her commitment to enhancing medical publications and communications through her involvement as a volunteer across several committees within International Society of Medical Publication Professionals (ISMPP).  She has been a panelist at the Publication Planning Forum of CBI in 2010 in the “Best Practices for Communication with Authors outside Your Organization” session and has hosted sessions and taught several workshops at the ISMPP annual meetings. Most recently, she co‐led a workshop on "Understanding the Value of and Mastering Medical Affairs Strategic Planning" at the 2019 MAPS Annual meeting.