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Training Needs for Medical Science Liaisons (MSLs) in Evolving Pharmaceutical and MedTech Industries

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By

Ajit Patwardhan, MD1, MBA; Robin Winter-Sperry, MD2; Dannielle Heuer3; Stephen Valerio4; Urvashi Vashee5; Drilon Saliu, PharmD, MBA6; Greg Christopherson, PhD7; Irma Saliu, PharmD8; Kyle Kennedy9; Michelle Powell, PharmD10; Chris Brock, PharmD11 ; John B Pracyk, MD, PhD, MBA12; Joe Medicis, PharmD13

 

1 Physician – Surgeon, Medical Affairs Executive – Baxter International, Integra LifeSciences, NLT Spine, Paradigm Spine

2 President, Scientific Resilience; MAPS 2020 Co-Chair

3 Director WD Communications

4 Sr Director, Oncology Medical Training AstraZeneca

5 Global Scientific Training Merck & Co

6 Head, Global Medical Affairs, Clinical Development and HEOR, Connected Care Philips

7 VP, Medical Affairs Medline

8 National Director, Psychiatry MSLs, US Field Medical Allergan

9 VP, Customer Strategy – The Medical Affairs Company

10 Director, Filed Medical Excellence Astellas Medical Affairs Americas USA

11 Field Based Medical Affairs, Head, Respiratory GlaxoSmithKline

12 Integrated Leader, Medical Affairs, Pre-Clinical, & Clinical Research DePuy Synthes Spine, (J&J)

13 Director US Medical Affairs Callidiatas Therapeutics

 

MSL Training Seperator

ABSTRACT

The evolving role of Medical Sciences Liaisons (MSLs) was extensively discussed in multiple presentations and workshops at the March 2020 Medical Affairs Professional Society (MAPS) Global Annual Meeting in Miami, Florida. Executive leaders with domain expertise in building and managing Field Medical teams shared their experience and views on the value proposition of these roles and how a changing healthcare and industry landscape is influencing differentiation of and new opportunities for this role. The leaders also recognized the increased need for specialized training and how adult learning principles along with integration of new creative digital tools could help enhance engagement, performance and career growth. This article formalizes these learnings, providing best practices for MSLs in the context of the ongoing pandemic and beyond.

INTRODUCTION

MSLs represent a core function of Medical Affairs, acting as the medical face of the organization to provide deep sub-specialty knowledge to healthcare providers and other external stakeholders. MSLs’ primary responsibility focuses on the three pillars of Medical Affairs, i.e. Scientific Exchange, Evidence Generation, and Evidence Dissemination. As such, a primary function of the MSL role is to build and execute an engagement plan in an expanding thought-leadership network. Currently, both the development of these plans and the actions that allow MSLs to deliver on their promise are undergoing sea change.

Over the last decade, healthcare delivery has undergone sweeping reforms. Emerging trends now focus on substantially better cost, quality, and outcomes as the new parameters to demonstrate significant healthcare value. Patients are now at the center of making their healthcare decisions and are demanding data transparency, easy/convenient access, and personalized products and services. Increased need for data transparency and availability has given rise to disruptive technologies and technological advances in the form of advanced data analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, digitization, new social media platforms, etc. Alongside these societal and cultural changes, stricter regulations and adjustments to healthcare policy (e.g. changing insurance landscape, use of Real World Evidence, new European Union (EU) regulations, increased scrutiny on drug pricing and rebates, etc.) are driving new ways of thought and action in the healthcare landscape. Meanwhile, the promise of new technologies driving basic and translational research have led Pharmaceuticals and MedTech industries to renew their focus on R&D and scientific advances, leading to personalized medicine breakthroughs in drug-device combinations, small molecule therapeutics, biologics, immunotherapy and diagnostic biomarkers, regenerative medicine and many more areas of advancement in the life sciences industry.

With these dynamic changes taking place in the healthcare landscape, the traditional role of an MSL as a bridge between internal company stakeholders and the outside medical community now needs to expand to encompass new competitive skillsets focusing broadly on Products, People, Personal & Platforms (“4Ps”). The following description of these 4Ps is not meant to be comprehensive, but rather is an attempt to start a new conversation about these core areas to better equip MSLs with a forward-looking understanding of the skill sets needed to succeed in the current and future disrupted healthcare landscape.

PRODUCT

Due to increased need for personalized medicine (as described in part above), complex treatment options require deep therapeutic area expertise, which for MSLs includes the following:

  1. Understand the therapeutic area landscape and the complex treatment options
  2. Understand the clinical research and clinical practice specific to the therapeutic area
  3. Understand the patient journey and needs of patients in the patient-centric model of care
  4. Understand the marketplace including product competition and current/future scientific advances in the therapeutic landscape
  5. Understand the economic value of the drug or device in consideration, including current and future drug/device pricing along with improvement in clinical and quality of life functional outcomes
  6. Understand (and first generate) clinician and patient insights on current evidence needs and demands.
  7. Understand how to share these insights internally to support new indications, new target markets, and possible new clinical development approaches including RWE studies, investigator-initiated studies / research (IIS/IIRs), comparative effectiveness studies, etc.

PEOPLE

The model of proscriptive medicine in which treatment decisions were made almost solely by healthcare providers has given way to a new model in which patients are collaborators or even drivers of treatment choices, often taking into account quality of life alongside quantity of life. This shift results in new stakeholders, including but certainly not limited to the following:

  1. New patient populations based on personalized/individual disease traits, disease incidence, etiology, pathogenesis, clinical outcomes
  2. Integrated delivery networks (IDNs) & payors, market access and reimbursement groups, accountable care organizations (ACO’s), ambulatory surgery centers (ASC’s), patient advocacy groups, pharmacy & therapeutics committee (P&T), value analysis committee (VAC) with non-clinical leadership decision makers (e.g. supply chain, finance, quality, IT, peri-operative services, etc.)
  3. Digital KOLs, real-world physicians/surgeons and specialists, local/community HCPs (supported by community focused MSL teams i.e. Community Medical Liaisons)

PLATFORMS

Along with new Products and new People are new Platforms that offer significant opportunity for MSLs to reach stakeholders with new creative digital tools for scientific engagement and education, including the following:

  1. Public-facing and HCP-facing digital media including articles, podcasts, social media, virtual events, and even thought-leader forums such as TED talks and other curated communication events
  2. Emerging tools for data visualization and scientific knowledge exchange including advanced data analytics, artificial intelligence/machine learning, virtual and augmented reality. Of course, along with the ability to generate more data and increasingly granular data, MSLs are challenged to discover and utilize innovative ways to customize data for external and internal information consumers
  3. Virtual communication platforms, e.g. Zoom, WeChat, Salesforce, Google hangout, etc. These digital platforms allow MSLs to interact with geographically diverse stakeholders including HCPs, KOLs, advisory boards, patients, payors, and internal/external audiences, but also present the challenges associated with communicating complex information without face-to-face interaction.

PERSONAL

The paradigm shift in the industry, requires MSLs to adapt their practices through specialized training including continuous learning for role proficiency, along with enhanced performance and career growth. The following considerations can guide organizations and individuals in their development of training programs and curricula. MSL training should be:

  1. Practical and able to be used immediately
  2. Tech-based, flexible & available 24/7
  3. Available in all formats
  4. Consumable as individual, low-commitment offerings but placed within a larger framework
  5. Collaborative and engaging, with learning enhanced by coaching and mentoring, games,accountability partnering, collaborative case study reviews, etc.
  6. With reduced burden of learning (cognitive load) to improve learners’ experience, for example bysimplifying messages, keeping trainings relevant to the role and accounting for time constraints.

Furthermore, trainings designed to help MSLs build the skillsets needed to keep pace with changing market, social, technological and regulatory conditions should include assessment and certification requirements, often including the following:

  1. Comprehensive certification, which includes disease area and product knowledge, communication skill, presentation skill, knowledge of relevant policies, compliance, and SOPs
  2. Modified manager certification based on field visits by manager to observe a Field Medical Professional interacting with Scientific Managers and Key Decision Makers
  3. Emerging assessment tools such as Axonify, an adaptive microlearning gaming experience that uses brain science techniques to build employee knowledge
MSL Training Figure

The Four 4 Ps: Considerations for MSL Training Design

SUMMARY

Innovations in science, data and digitization have transformed the healthcare landscape, leading to the emergence of new decision-makers and stakeholders. Alongside these innovations are shifts in culture and society that see patients playing a more active role in their treatments. These shifts are not hypothetical – they are here. The evolving healthcare environment presents both opportunity and challenge for MSLs to further differentiate their competencies, for example through specialized understanding of the therapeutic landscape, healthcare networks, and the requirements and desires of a diverse population of stakeholders. Through proactive engagement with new learnings, MSLs have the opportunity to broaden their vision, role and influence. These new skills will allow tomorrow’s MSLs to elevate performance across medical engagements to optimize experiences and outcomes for physicians and patients.

This publication represents the consensus opinions of the authors and various members of MAPS, but does not represent formal endorsement of conclusions by their organizations

18

APAC Town Hall: The New Competencies Required for MA Professionals to Excel in the New Environment

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Topics Discussed in the Town Hall Include:

-Managing Individual Performance Remotely

-Virtual Leadership Mindset & Skills

-Effective Team Engagement in the Virtual Space

-Engagement of KOLs Virtually

 

SPEAKERS:

Cezary Statuch
VP, Medical, Intercontinental Region
Biogen

 

Greta James-Chatgilaou
Field Medical Strategy and Execution Director
Biogen

 

Alan McDougall

VP, Head of Medical Affairs, International Markets and Greater China

Astellas

 

Qasim Ahmad
Corporate Officer/VP, Head of Japan Medical Affairs, OBU
Novartis

 

WATCH IT HERE:

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Practical Tips for Virtual Interviews and Onboarding During COVID-19

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Practical Tips for Virtual Interviews and Onboarding During COVID-19

 

COVID-19 has wildly accelerated our transition to remote interviews, onboarding, and virtual work. Your organization will quickly fall behind the 8 ball if you don’t adapt. Pharmaceutical and biotech companies can’t afford that risk. For the Medical Affairs industry, what’s the alternative to virtual hiring right now? Hazmat suit interviews? If employees can produce great work in an office, they can produce great work anywhere. There’s just one catch – how can you determine if a potential employee is capable of great work when you haven’t met them in person? How can our industry interview and hire reliable team members virtually rather than face-to-face?

 

As someone who has helped lead the recruitment charge since the outbreak of coronavirus, I have actionable advice for any Medical Affairs team attempting to hire through the pandemic.

 

In short – if you don’t trust someone enough to hire them remotely, you shouldn’t trust them to work for your organization in any capacity. Epidemiologists from every corner of the world are hiring right now (in dozens of different languages) to make new discoveries via remote technologies like Zoom. Your team can do the same. They just need to know how.

 

Most hiring managers believe that face-to-face interviews help manifest a certain personal connection. They’re absolutely correct. However, it’s downright reckless to base hiring decisions off of this alone. Such a connection is nothing more than a measure of likability rather than a consideration of legitimate factors like work history, education, and subject matter expertise. If anything, virtual interviews bring these important qualities front and center.

 

If your virtual hiring process is to succeed, your company must have specific processes in place. Most remote interview setups motivated by a global pandemic aren’t going to be wildly productive unless these are followed.

 

Video chats should be the preferred medium for your hiring process. Webex, Skype, Zoom, and Google Meet all do the same thing. Choose whatever tool you believe is easiest to navigate and understand. Whatever you select – consistency matters for new recruits and employers alike. Don’t alternate between platforms.

 

Most individuals have a natural (albeit, slightly narcissistic) tendency to spend half their Zoom call looking at themselves to make sure everything appears alright on their end. Stop doing that! Resist the urge! Start making digital eye contact, instead.

 

Lighting is important during video interviews. Whether it’s a home office with blinding amounts of natural light or a poorly lit room that looks like a cave, you need to find a happy medium for your interviews. Simple light fixtures behind the camera can easily solve any darkness problem. If your image is too bright, just ensure the screen isn’t facing a window.

 

In a typical face-to-face interview, informal ‘get to know you’ questions only occur in the first 3-5 minutes of a conversation. We suggest you ask three times as many of these informal questions when speaking with potential remote candidates. This can help build a certain foundation of understanding and trust that would otherwise be forfeited due to a lack of physical presence.

 

The personal qualities that companies seek in remote employees differ slightly from the qualities of a standard medical affairs hire. If you think they may need to start their first day from a home office, look for stories where they were calm under pressure or quick on their feet. Seek out personality traits such as dedication, resourcefulness, and adaptability.

 

Cornell University recently conducted workplace research on the topic of virtual hiring. They partnered with Fortune 500 companies like IBM, Citigroup, and Cisco – all organizations with significant remote work experience. These three enterprises listed self-motivation, self-discipline, effective communication, and tech-competency as the professional traits most correlated to remote success.

 

Good interview questions might involve asking how they intend to structure their first day of work. How do they intend to meet co-workers? How will they seek to better understand their work and the company culture? It’s equally important that your team has the answer to these questions, as well.

 

Burnout, isolation, work-related anxiety, lackluster cultures – they’re all very real risks for remote onboarding, but they’re avoidable. Companies new to these remote processes will prop up workflows that barely scrape by because they don’t yet know a better way.

 

Here is the better way:

 

Hiring teams should over-communicate every step of the way. Explain your anticipated schedule to potential hires so they know what to expect. Share all pertinent information with them.

 

Managers should make a list of roadblock issues. Adopt a ‘continuous improvement’ mindset to resolve these issues for future onboarding classes. You should always seek to learn more.

 

Teams can have high expectations for candidates while simultaneously recognizing that this is a stressful time for your entire team. Be professional – but understanding. If a dog barks or a kid screams during the interview, it’s not a negative sign. It’s life.

 

Remote hiring may seem intimidating if your company isn’t yet accustomed to such a practice, but thousands of teams make it work. Some just do it better than others. Now is the time for Medical Affairs professionals to get [remote]ivated!

 

Whitney Morris
Recruiting Specialist
Medical Affairs Recruiting wmorris@medicalaffairsrecruiting.com
+1 910-742-7620

 

 

 

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Managing Your Career – Part 3: Five Modern Medical Affairs Competencies

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Five Modern Medical Affairs Competencies

Dr. Qasim Ahmad, Corporate Officer, Head of Medical Affairs, Japan, Novartis

 

Since joining the pharmaceutical industry (PI) 2 decades ago, I have been lucky to have lived through and experience the exponential growth of medical affairs function, not only in size and ever expanding responsibilities, but also the importance and value it brings to the industry. There are several internal and external factors, contributing in the evolution of medical affairs from a mere support function to becoming a core pillar, and an equal partner with drug development and commercial functions with the PI.

In recent years, we have seen significant and unprecedented advances in biotechnology, delivering novel treatments and data sets, faster than ever before. There is an information overload, which calls for smart and innovative ways to design, analyse, disseminate and communicate the value of evidence, to the right end user (the customers), at the right place and the right time.

Concurrently, health systems across the world are becoming over-burdened, facing considerable sustainability challenges, due financial constraints, ageing, increasing population, changing disease patterns, persisting as well as new communicable diseases (COVID-19) and cost burden of chronic non-communicable diseases, including cancers.

You must also develop command on evolving health care environment and be equipped to meet the challenges associated with growing drug approval complexities and health technology assessment criteria for access. Develop unique competencies and transformative operating models to address these requirements, build capabilities that are ideally suited for medical affairs organization to generate data beyond traditional registration trial safety and efficacy packages, to facilitate evidenced based decisions making based on patient centric, clinically meaningful, health outcomes, access and quality of life real world data (RWD) data sets.

As you think of building your career in medical affairs, keep the above opportunities and challenges in consideration, the following 5 core medical affairs competencies will help nurturing your talent as patient and customer centric medical champions, ready now for future.

  1. Enterprise Perspective
  2. Functional Excellence
  3. Health System Thinking
  4. External Facing Organization vs Internal focused
  5. Effective Leadership & Governance

 

 

1. Enterprise Perspective

Medical Affairs has evolved to be one of the most strategically important and valued functions in a pharmaceutical industry. As successful medical affairs professionals, you need to build the skills and scientific acumen like that of a clinical development expert, while demonstrating the strategic intellect and real life customer oriented mind-set of a commercial leader. You will have to champion cross functional navigation, show enterprise vision, logical and critical thinking, develop broad and long range strategic direction throughout product life cycle and build bridges between unlimited internal touch points as well as external stakeholder.

 

2. Functional Excellence

In order to demonstrate value, your medical affairs competencies should be geared to exceed internal and external expectations, meeting the demands of above mentioned expanding responsibilities, while acquiring new skills and capabilities. You will need an all-rounder approach, adapting new technologies, digital tools, precision medicine approaches, and introduce novel engagement models. Thus continuously striving for medical and operational excellence, not only in designing and delivering high quality clinical trials based on meaning actionable insights, but also excellence in executing deep scientific exchange with medical experts, incorporating the voice of patient, payer and all stakeholders at launch, and across life cycle strategies.

 

 

3. Health System Thinking

In medical affairs, you are perfectly placed to lead, plan and deliver health care solutions and to shape the environment, playing a key role in health systems sustainability. You should build capabilities and competencies to assess health system needs and developing solutions, supporting public health initiatives; disease awareness & educational training programs; research collaborations in area not only limited to company core business (orphan diseases, rare indications, special populations); managed patient access programs and many other patient focused projects, partnering with health system players. You will require special skills for this mind-set shift, and thinking beyond the pill to building trust with the society. This competency is distinctive and vital for future role of medical affairs.

 

4. External Facing Organization

As part of modern medical affairs organization, you should have involvement and ownership across life cycle of assets, from early development to late stage planning. Either you are in field medical teams, medical advisors or MSLs (medical science liaison) role, you are the eyes and ears of the organization to external world. With external customer base expanding beyond prescribers and policy makers, you well have to learn rule of engagement and proficiency to work with providers, payers, private non-state health actors, patients and patient advocacy groups, as they are all taking central stage in health care decision making. This will be the game changers in reversing the traditional internal fixated industry approach to a strategic patient and customer focused, outward facing organization. Building this core competency by incorporating patient journey, stakeholder need assessment and changing health care limitations in your strategies, will enhance collaborations, speed of innovation, resource waste reduction and improved patient outcomes.

 

5. Effective Leadership

Modern medical affairs is not a support function, it is about leading from the front as equal partner with commercial, departing from prior passive back seat mind-set and demonstrate value to the organization through proactive leadership, vision and measurable impact. You will have to steer this transformation from current medical advisory role to leadership status, breaking unnecessary internal silos and taking ownership as well as accountability of business deliverable. Creating this new room within the organization will requires your commitment, change agility, interpersonal skills and inspiring leadership to take on completely new responsibilities or replacing those previously championed by other functions.

 

Conclusion

Traditional sales and commercial models are becoming obsolete, success of future pharmaceutical frameworks relies on vision, foresight and appropriate investment in building medical affairs (MA) talent, ready now for future. With ever changing external landscape, regulations and compliance requirements, the role of medical affairs will continue to grow as the key pillar, vital to achieve organizational objectives. By building these core competencies, you can demonstrate to your leadership, the value medical affairs brings, and its strategic far reaching business impact.

 

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Managing Your Career – Part 2: How To Maximise Your Chances of Success at Interviews

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How To Maximise Your Chances of Success at Interviews

By Alan McDougall, MD, VP, Head of Medical Affairs, Asia-Oceania Region, Astellas

 

Interviews are stressful but you can reduce your adrenaline levels through proper preparation. Medical Affairs has transformed in the last decade and there are a number of key competencies which are sought after and which you should attempt to demonstrate through each and every contact you have with both the recruiter and your prospective employers. Below is a not exhaustive list of the most desirable competencies and behaviours.

 

Communication

The ability to communicate clearly and effectively and through a variety of channels is essential for anyone working in medical affairs. Having a high level of knowledge but an inability to share it or teach it effectively is of little value. Communication also includes using appropriate body language, listening skills and the ability to provide feedback. Make sure every verbal or written contact you have with the company or the recruiter is carefully thought through and proof-read in the case of written contacts.

 

Passion and enthusiasm

Employers want to hire someone who demonstrates a passion to work at their company, sometimes described as being “hungry” for the role. Having the right attitude is often more important than knowledge, because attitude is very hard to train but knowledge can be learned. Carefully word your cover letter and individualise your CV for each job to stress key experiences or skills that are mentioned in the advertisement and job description (JD). Spend time browsing through the company’s corporate website and come armed with pre-prepared questions which are thoughtful and specific to the role and the company. If possible, ask about a recent company press release and the implications (if any) for the role for which you are applying.

 

Technical skills

Medical affairs positions require certain technical skills that are usually listed in the job advertisement or JD. You should already possess many of the skills the company is looking for, at least to some degree. You may not yet be an expert in all of them but there should be a solid foundation upon which you can build. Typically, at interview, these technical competencies will be assessed (presentation skills, therapeutic area knowledge etc.). Take note of the JD, advert and recruiter’s comments and use every contact opportunity to mention where your current technical skills fit the role being offered.

 

Work ethic

It should go without saying that employers expect you to be at work on time, do what you were hired to do, meet targets and deadlines and work to the best of your ability. Sadly, we have all worked with colleagues who do not always meet these basic requirements. Make sure you are early for interviews, meet all deadlines when replying to emails, phone messages etc. and do everything you can to give your prospective manager confidence in your own work ethic. You have only a few contact opportunities with your potential next company and so make sure each one says something positive about you and your personal standards.

 

Flexibility

More than ever before, employees need to react quickly to changing business conditions. Agile companies and agile teams are currently popular subjects in articles written by business thought leaders. Employers need employees who can quickly adapt to change. Come to interview with examples of how you demonstrated your own agility – perhaps covering another role on top of your own, taking on a project about which you had no little or no previous experience and delivering a successful outcome or dealing positively with an unpredictable environmental change.

 

Resilience

We all typically get challenging but (hopefully) achievable goals and deadlines. The key to successful delivery is often being able to work hard and to keep moving forward when you encounter the inevitable and frustrating obstacles that regularly happen in business. Come to interview with examples of how you overcame particularly difficult challenges and show that you did not give up but that you persevered and ultimately met your objectives.

 

Teamwork

Little in the pharmaceutical industry is achieved by a single individual. Roles in medical affairs are becoming more diverse and specialised and therefore there is an increasing need for reliance on your colleagues to get things done. The ability to get on and work collaboratively with others is therefore a key competency. Using real examples, show how you contributed to successful teamwork under challenging circumstances and how you “did not give up”.

 

Life-long learner

As product portfolios and market environments change, there is a need to seek out new information, challenge your beliefs and explore new ways of doing things. Long-held “facts” can change when new contradictory evidence emerges. People who are naturally curious with an interest in learning combined with a willingness to share this with others, make great co-workers. At interview, explain what new skills or knowledge you have learned, how you applied this at work and describe the impact that it made.

 

Problem-solving skills

Managers look for people who are motivated to take on business challenges, ideally with minimal direction. Most of us prefer our employees to “come to us with solutions not problems”. Employees should see when something needs to be done and react accordingly. Come to interview with examples of how you observed an issue at work, took ownership of it and solved it. This can be even more impactful if it wasn’t in your job description in the first place.

 

Loyalty

Employers want people to stay with them for many years due to their financial investment with the recruitment company and the time spent on interviews and on your on-boarding process. Multiple job moves in a relatively short time period with different companies is usually an alarm bell and indicates a risk that you will not stay long if you are even offered the job. If you unfortunately have had several short-term moves recently, make sure that you come to interview with a clear explanation as to why and what you learned. Try hard not to criticise your current or previous companies or managers as this can come across quite negatively, even if you feel you have every right to do so. Employers always prefer someone running towards the role on offer than someone running away from their current job as the former is a positive choice whereas the latter can be simply escaping to “any port in a storm”.

 

Conclusion

It is a truism to say that you only have one chance to make a good first impression and so at interview be well prepared and make sure you have done your homework well in advance. Tell the employer why you really want this job and make sure your passion and enthusiasm come to the forefront. Show your agility, resilience and ability to learn, which are all highly valued competencies by employers. Finally, do remember that all contacts with the employer and recruiter, no matter how trivial, are likely to be judged so make them count!

 

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Managing Your Career – Part 1: A crash course on how to manage your career in Medical Affairs

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Managing your career – Part 1: A crash course on how to manage your career in Medical Affairs

By Cezary Statuch, MD, VP, Medical, International Markets, Biogen

Like many things in life, when managing your career timing is everything, and being in the right place at the right time is important. Knowing whether it is the right time for you to move on is not always easy. The pharma and biotech industries are an attractive place to pursue your professional dreams, and some markets are in great demand for medical affairs talent–so the phone rings more often than ever with calls from headhunters. Unfortunately, at times of high demand for talent the recruiters are less likely concerned if you have completed your career cycle, and if your skill set fits what they are after you will have to deal with serious temptations. Here are a few tips on how to manage your career planning and how to get ready for your next job.

  • Look back and do a quick assessment of your career to date. Understanding your career trajectory, what you have accomplished and where you want to go will significantly help with the challenge. But most importantly understanding your limitations is critical. Only when you know them will you be able to close the gaps. Ask yourself these questions: Have you have been in your current role long enough? Have you completed a career cycle? Have you fully learned the role? “Job jumpers” or “non-stickers” as I call them are very easy to spot. If you happen to have a very short stint in the role, be prepared to provide a compelling explanation why.

 

  • Understanding what the industry can offer is a common challenge for candidates, especially the younger ones. The knowledge of basics of drug development and the commercialization process is crucial as it will help in understanding what opportunities exist in your country/territory and how to navigate them. The industry has evolved dramatically over the past decade and there are many roles now which never existed previously. There is a wealth of resources offering insights into how pharma companies are structured. Many companies offer training in the drug-development process as part of their curricula for employees. If your company does not, look online. Talking to more senior colleagues is also a good source of acquiring that knowledge.

 

  • Compete for the right job, one which matches your skill set. Understand your strengths and create a competitive advantage. Create a simple checklist of attributes/skills which may differentiate you from other candidates competing for this position and sell yourself well.

 

  • Do not be a title junkie! Titles are important as they help to position us in the industry and make us proud of what we have achieved. We all like attractive titles, particularly those which reflect our seniority, but beware of inflated titles which are easy to spot. Do not take the job simply because it offers a higher grade or a more impressive title, as this could easily put your career on the wrong track. Reversing this could take a long time.

 

  • Having a great boss is a big draw, but don’t choose the job purely because of the manager. Follow the job content and opportunity to learn, not the person. Your boss will always remain part of your professional circle and you will always be able to rely on his/her career advice, even if you stop working together.

 

  • Having the right work-life balance is critical for your success, so ask yourself how moving to your next career step will affect your personal life and if you are ready for it. Frequent travel, need to relocate, necessity to work out of hours—these things can seriously impact your job satisfaction.

 

  • Creating the right image is very important and is a process which takes time. You can start with creating a high-quality LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn has become a powerful tool. Read profiles of those whom you respect and admire. Use a professional, high-quality photo and ensure the use of proper English. When you apply, provide a quality CV adapted to showcase your skills for the role for which you are applying.

 

  • Always respond to recruiters but be very transparent about your true intensions. Do not interview if you are not seriously considering the opportunity. Telling recruiters that you are not ready to change the job yet will speak highly of you, proving you to be loyal to your organization and mature about your career goals. They will remember that and will keep you on their radar screen.

 

  • Get help from those around you. Pay attention to relationships and build your social capital. The pool of professionals in the industry is defined, and so is the number of companies. The proverbial “small world” applies to our industry as well, so take care of your reputation, not only within your own company, but most importantly within the industry. Become visible within your organization and outside of it. Build your own pool of advisors, coaches and mentors. They can be peers, but don’t have to come from the same department or the same company.

 

  • Make your company aware of your aspirations; otherwise your manager may assume that you are not interested and therefore not consider you for the job you want. Apply for the jobs which may be a stretch for you even if you think that the probability of getting them is low. It will send a strong message to your manager as to what you aspire to, and will help you and your manager to understand what you need to learn to land the job the next time. Treat every interview as a lesson and always ask for feedback. Unfortunately, providing high-quality, timely feedback for those candidates who failed to get the job is still not a common practice in the industry. If feedback was not provided to you, do not be afraid to reach out to the hiring manager or the recruiter to discuss the outcome of your interview. Constructive feedback is an invaluable source of direction for your future career steps and providing it is not always easy. You may need to be persistent and ask questions as to why the interview was not successful or why you were not chosen. Regardless how well you are supported in your career development, there is one principle which should always guide you: remember that ultimately, you own your career and no one else but you should drive your development.

 

build career as Medical Affairs

How To Build A Successful Career As A Medical Affairs Professional

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Objectives:

In this session, you will hear “insider tips” from three senior-level Medical Affairs leaders from leading multinational biopharma companies. The discussion will be broken into three practical sections:
1. How to advance your career in Medical Affairs;
2. What employers look for when hiring;
3. Competencies required for a modern Medical Affairs organization.

At the conclusion of this session, participants should:

  • • Be able to create a checklist of the key (basic and advanced) capabilities that managers and recruiters expect MA professionals to have experience and knowledge in
  • • Walk away with specific tips and expert advice to help develop a strategy to manage a successful career in the Medical Affairs field
  • • Discover the importance of gaining enough tenure in a specific role to acquire necessary breadth and experience as well as the value of building “social capital” within your organization to advance your career

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The Human Touch: The Real Issues Behind Burnout

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The Human Touch: The Real Issues Behind Burnout

Executive stress has come under scrutiny recently, most pointedly in an open letter published by Arianna Huffington, founder of the Huffington Post, to Elon Musk, in which she appealed to him to change the way he works to be more in line with the science of how humans are most effective.

The letter came hot on the heels of the Tesla chairman and chief executive’s anguished New York Times interview where he broke down multiple times as he recounted the excruciating pressure he was under in what he named “the most difficult and painful year of my career”. Asked if the exhaustion was taking a toll on his physical health, Musk answered: “It’s not been great, actually. I’ve had friends come by who are really concerned.” The public admission subsequently sparked a tumble in Tesla shares.

Huffington decried Musk’s 120-hour weeks and continued with an argument calculated to break through his denial – science. Musk is nothing if not a scientist, so Huffington asked him to look at the science of human overwork and sleep deprivation: “The science is clear. And what it tells us is that there’s simply no way you can make good decisions and achieve your world-changing ambitions while running on empty.”

 

“To cite just one study, after 17-19 hours without sleep, we begin to experience levels of cognitive impairment equivalent to a blood alcohol level of 0.05%, just under the threshold for being legally drunk. No business leader would hire people who came to work drunk, so don’t model that behavior for your employees.”

The missive drew a Twitter response from Musk. “You think this is an option. It is not.” Huffington, founder of wellness website Thrive Global, where she published the open letter, refuses to accept that. In fact, she sees a lesson here for us all. “This is not about sleep, or about slowing down, or about asking Elon to chill out under a mango tree,” she said in a statement shared with CNN. “It’s about how we can unlock and sustain our peak performance, and see solutions and opportunities where others can’t.”

 

The running debate highlights some key points. “Firstly, people who are burnt out are the last to see it and it takes others, family members or friends to point it out to them,” says Lewis Garrad, Business Lead for Employee Experience Research at global consulting firm, Mercer. “Secondly, there’s the question of whether it’s an employer’s responsibility or that of the individual.”

Huffington would argue that burning out is not the price of success. “As all the recent scientific findings show, the opposite is true,” she said, noting people “perform better” when they “take time to refuel and recharge.”

 

Picking up the pieces

According to Jenn Fenwick, Founder of Rebel Road Executive Coaching, who frequently coaches stressed-out executives, it comes down to sustainability. “There’s a balance between the duty of care of the employer to support the employee and the responsibility of the individual to manage their own health and wellbeing. Frankly, in my experience, leaders are frequently left out at sea, especially during extremely stress-inducing times like transitioning into more senior positions. The employer is often not forthcoming in terms of providing onboarding support, and employees are left floundering – not sleeping, experiencing severe anxiety due to lack of internal support, lack of clarity around the role, and this ‘all-or-nothing’ approach where the employee forsakes all health and wellbeing activities in order to prove to their employers that they made the right decision in hiring them.”

It’s a considerable cost to the employer. “Many often leave because of burnout. In this one case, it was going to lead to losses of £200,000 if this particular senior Medical leader resigned – not to mention the impact on team morale if she left. As a coach, I’ve had a lot of experience of rescuing situations where leaders are on the point of leaving due to overwhelm. Employers need to provide better support particularly at flashpoints like transitioning to new roles, or during mergers and takeovers where people can suffer due to lack of communication from the top and insecurity surrounding the continuity of their role. But employees also need to learn how to self-care,” says Fenwick.

 

A tailored approach

While well-managed wellness programs are beneficial in redressing the onset of workplace stress and burnout, they often target the wrong cohort. “You’ll often see the highest uptake in these wellness programs are among those that least need them – the people who are typically health-conscious anyway and are into health and fitness. The likely burnout candidates may not take up these initiatives and this is where we need to have a more personalized approach to the issue of burnout. Are there other stressors at play within the overall culture? Are there other stressors at play, which are impacting on employees’ stress levels, like financial concerns? Tailored programs – for example, financial security programs – may be appropriate in this instance so it’s vital to acknowledge that one-size does not fit all. We need a very tailored approach to the issue,” says Garrad.

Christina Maslach, creator of the Maslach Burnout Inventory and author of The Truth About Burnout, has identified six “mismatches” that make a person more likely to burn out – and only one of these factors is too much work. “It is a common belief that there is just one dimension to job stress, work overload. Indeed, overload is often considered to be a synonym for stress. But in our burnout model, overload is only one of six mismatches in the workplace. And it’s not always the most critical, especially it things are going well in some of the other areas.” (2) Maslach cites five other triggers than can lead to burnout, including lack of control, insufficient reward, lack of community, absence of fairness, and conflict in values.

 

Mental health strain

The health and safety precautions applied to an employee’s physical health apply equally to their mental health. Jeffrey Pfeffer is professor of organizational behavior at Stanford University Graduate School of Business. In his most recent book, Dying for a Paycheck, he writes:

“The workplace profoundly affects human health and mortality, and too many workplaces are harmful to people’s health – people are literally dying for a paycheck.”

Pfeffer cites extensive examples from across the globe of the negative effects toxic work practices have had on people – to the point, in some cases, of pushing them to suicide. Other examples given include serious health effects such as collapsing from fatigue, developing a dependency on anti-depressants, or substance abuse. (3)

“For men, prolonged exposure to work-related stress has been linked to an increased likelihood of lung, colon, rectal, and stomach cancer and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Moreover, we are increasingly understanding the mechanisms linking stress to disease.”

Pfeffer namechecks a few positive cases throughout the book. He cites companies such as Southwest Airlines, Toyota, and SAS Institute for their resistance to layoffs, and Patagonia and Aetna for progressive policies regarding healthcare insurance and work-life balance.

 

His response to corporate wellness programs as a salve to reduce burnout is that they are largely ineffectual, mainly because they focus on the wrong things. “We know, from extensive research summarized in Dying for a Paycheck that individual behaviors such as overeating, smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, and drug abuse are related to the stress, including workplace-induced stress, that individuals experience. So instead of trying to get people to engage in healthier individual behaviors, workplace wellbeing initiatives would be more effective if they focused on preventing the stress-inducing aspects of work environments that cause the unhealthy individual behaviors in the first place. Simply put, companies need to build cultures of health – and that begins by creating work environments that help people thrive both physically and psychologically. Not on trying to remediate the harm that toxic workplaces inflict through limited-intervention ‘programs’.” (4)

The solution is simply the flip side of his data: it’s providing more job control, reducing work-family conflict, being fair to employees and providing social support at work. It’s also avoiding lay-offs; Pfeffer quotes evidence that while layoffs “increase fear and stress, they do not lead to higher profits, productivity, stock price, innovation or quality.”

 

Creating safe, supportive human environments

For Danie du Plessis, it’s time to bring workplace stress out into the open. The Executive Vice President of Medical Affairs at Kyowa Kirin, du Plessis has a strong background in coaching and mentoring, with a heavy emphasis on employee health and wellbeing.

He explains: “In the UK, there has recently been a huge emphasis on mental well-being in the workplace, including support from the House of Windsor. This is great and can unfortunately also have a downside of not seeing the bigger picture and how many factors influence an individual’s resilience. Both individuals and employers have responsibilities. Employees need to take time to understand their own purpose in life, in the first instance, and how that relates to the work they are doing and their career aspirations (a great coaching/mentoring conversation). They need to be aware how they manage problems, emotions and their own physical well-being, and be prepared to change their own behavior if the status quo does not serve them well. This will increase their resilience and fulfillment. It is quite amazing how often resilience becomes a key conversation in coaching and mentoring. Sadly, many people are scared to be open at work and discuss this with their managers.”

According to du Plessis, employers need to create a safe space for employees to be themselves at work and be vocal about the fact that it is OK to be human. “Offering access to different programs that inform the journey of growth towards managed resilience is the ideal – either in-house or through third parties. I believe this should be the norm for all companies and organizations, while one should appreciate that different size companies will have different offerings. What is in it for the company? Resilient employees perform better and retain their aligned passion for the purpose of the company, which is why they joined in the first place. It becomes easier to really be present (which links again with mindfulness and mental well-being). This takes the term ‘presenteeism’, coined by Professor Cary Cooper, a psychologist specializing in organizational management at Manchester University in the UK one step further. And by default, absenteeism decreases which reduces workload on co-workers. Having a reputation of caring about employees can in no perceivable way harm any organization.”

 

Psychologically safe versus fearing the next round of layoffs

Prioritizing your employees over the short-term goals of your company can be the best strategy in the long run, according to Simon Sinek, author of Leaders Eat Last.

“The irony is when our top priority is to take care of our people, our people will take care of the numbers. People-focused companies outperform numbers-focused companies over the long-term dramatically.”

When organizations take care of their employees to such an extent, they make them feel safe. And according to Simon Sinek, the natural response to feeling safe is to offer trust and cooperation.

“Charlie Kim, who is the CEO of a company called Next Jump, a tech company in New York City, makes the point that if you had hard times in your family, would you ever consider laying off one of your children? We would never do it. Then why do we consider laying off people within our organizations? Charlie implemented a policy of lifetime employment. If you get a job at Next Jump, you cannot get fired for performance issues. In fact, if you have issues, they will coach you and they will give you support, just like you would if one of your children came home with a C from school.”

 

Ben Whitter, Founder and CEO of World Employee Experience Institute, suggests that both employees and employers have a role in creating the conditions for burnout to occur. “The thing about some companies, and the tenure figures from Silicon Valley bear this one out, is that they can create a fantastic workplace experience, but in return, they expect EVERYTHING an employee’s got to give, which is very intense and challenging to sustain over the long-term. The increasing numbers of people opting to work freelance within the gig economy is an indicator that people want to take back control of their life and work to hours that suit them. Companies are responding with various flexible working arrangements, and also the four-day week is growing in popularity, to deliver stronger productivity that can be sustained by the employer and employees. Work and life are converging at a rate we haven’t seen before, and everyone needs to get ready for radically new ways of working within the economy.

Employees are no longer resources to be exploited and commanded, they are now allies in a shared mission to co-create experiences that deliver better results. For Whitter, the future of work and HR is human and this human touch is where we need to get to. “A quote I love from Trudy Purchase (an Employee Experience Award Winning Learning & Development Manager) is: ‘“Don’t judge the quality of an employer by how they treat you on your best day. Instead, judge them by how they treat you on your worst day.’ And in return for that humanity you get a whole lot more: discretionary effort, loyalty, creativity, innovation, because if you treat me like this, I’ll give you everything I have. It certainly beats free snacks or fußball tables.”

 

Read Huffington’s entire letter HERE

References:

1: Why Companies Should Care About Employee Health and Wellness,

https://spectrumwellness.ie/resources/companies-care-employee-health-and-wellness/.

2. “The Six Causes of Professional Burnout and How to Avoid Them,” https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnrampton/2015/05/13/the-6-causes-of-professional-burnout-and-how-to-avoid-them/#7953ffcf1dde.

3. “One the brink: Burnout in the workplace,” https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/lifestyle/healthandlife/on-the-brink-burnout-in-the-workplace-857855.html.

4. Jeffrey Pfeffer on his new book Dying for a Paycheck, https://www.personalbrandingblog.com/jeffrey-pfeffer-new-book-dying-

paycheck/.

 

Professional Education, Capabilities and Identity in Medical Affairs

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Objectives:

MA has seen an exponential growth over the last decade as it value and place within the pharmaceutical industry is being realised. The evolution of MA from a support function to strategic partner has changed the direction of MA and also required an evolution of skill sets for the roles which underpin MA.

As a profession, there is still a void with a globally recognised advanced scientific qualification, capability frameworks across the main 3 role types and accreditation.

This collaborative webinar aims to discuss available postgraduate courses and insights from alumni into how their qualification helped advance their understanding of pharmaceutical medicine and their career.

  • • Understand what educational opportunities are open to MA professionals and also those aspiring to enter the profession
  • • Comprehend the content of programmes and how it relates to roles
  • • Discuss the future of MA in terms of universal recognition of a base qualification which can then be regionally adapted

Access Options

4

Podcast: Transitioning between Pharma and MedTech…And Vice Versa

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