Healthcare: A Right, or a Privilege?
5. May 2009
admin
While reviewing my students’ research project from this past academic year, I stumbled upon Andorra. What does Andorra have to do with healthcare, you might ask? Well, they have healthcare as a right, built into their constitution.
“The right to health protection and to receive services to look after personal needs shall be respected.” Interesting. And I will leave you with something to ponder, as Michael Moore did in his movie, Sicko.
Is healthcare a right, or a privilege in the US? Furthermore, should it be a right, or a privilege?
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Genius Wanted: Looking For Employment
12. March 2009
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Most companies looking for looking for candidates tend to run software to find keywords of appropriate candidates as a first screening. So, my genius friend Mike (also a MSL and seeking employment) put a list of keywords relevant to his skill set at the bottom of his CV and made the text white, so it visually wouldn’t be there, but the computers screening for keywords would find them.
Now, we aren’t here to promote people promoting themselves inappropriately; however, if you have the keywords in your background, there is nothing wrong with getting your resume in the short pile.
Thanks to Mike for sharing!
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What I don’t understand….
5. March 2009
admin
So, here’s one of the most totally baffling things to me about the pharmaceutical/consumer products industries. I’ll explain it through a situation I went through just today.
I called a pharmaceutical/consumer products company (who shall remain nameless) and asked them for extra patient support materials on an OTC so I could use it to teach students in one of my pharmacy labs about the product. (It is a product that is pretty technical, with potentially messy side effects, mind you.) After dialing two different 800#s and getting the run around, I finally dialed the 3rd number, only to be put on hold for 5 minutes, and then for a human being at the company to finally tell me they were "out" of patient education materials and "didn’t know" when they would have more in.
When the rubber really hits the road, do companies REALLY want their patients and consumers educated? After the Supreme court decision yesterday about a case on this very topic decided, I’m baffeled by why companies wouldn’t want to instead empower as many people as possible with as many pieces of information as possible. Granted, I understand that littering the world with patient education materials to everyone on the planet is a losing business proposition, but shouldn’t that outweigh patient counselling and proper use of medications? Why not just put all the stuff online and refer people to a website?
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Laid off?
4. March 2009
admin
Yes, economic times are tough - even for pharma and even for MSLs.
This book looks interesting, although I have not yet read it. Thought it should be passed along…
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FDA’s Guidance for Industry on Good Reprint Practices
14. January 2009
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The FDA recently released its latest Good Reprint Practices for the Distribution of Medical Journal Articles and Medical or Scientific Reference Publications on Unapproved New Uses of Approved Drugs and Approved or Cleared Medical Devices . At first glance - the only question I have is, if abstracts from meetings can no longer be disseminated, how can clinicians better understand what innovations could occur with already existing compounds? It is interesting to wonder - if aspirin, for example was just released in 2009, would it ever have been discovered for other useful indications other than treating some pain?
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New Book Coming Soon on the MSL!
10. January 2009
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I am often asked about what other resources are available for the future or potential medical science liaison. Here’s a brand new book coming out soon by Dr. Susan Malecha entitled, Bridging Scientific Knowledge: The Role of the Medical Science Liaison. I personally cannot wait to read it! Also, I think we need more published resources and tools on the work and life of the MSL.
Congrats, Dr. Malecha, for providing another resource to the profession!
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Who Will be the Next FDA Commissioner?
18. December 2008
admin
With the change in presidency just around the corner, there is a lot of buzz about who will become the next FDA Commissioner. Some are calling for a person who is skeptical of the pharmaceutical industry, others are calling for someone who is familiar with the industry.
Here’s an idea: why don’t we get someone in who is familiar with patients and optimal patient outcomes? Someone who is a champion for improving healthcare on behalf of the patient? As it has been told all along: NO drug is 100% safe, every drug has trade offs–a balance between efficacy and safety. But that’s why we have healthcare professionals in the first place, isn’t it?
On the flip side, if it gets easy to ‘just say no’ to every new drug coming to the FDA for review because it may cause a potential adverse event, where is the place for innovation? No innovation would be the worst atrocity of all….UNLESS of course, we had a cure for every disease known to man and knew how to effectively treat it. We’re not there, yet. But if we kill innovation, we’ll never get there either.
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MSL Appreciation Day - 11.7.08
31. October 2008
admin
It is that time again, believe it or not! MSL Appreciation Day this year is 11.7.08! If you are a leader or manager of MSLs, please be sure to thank your hard working team for their efforts. If you are a MSL, thank a boss or co-worker who in turn has helped you out this year as well. Celebrate your successes! We all need to share the good things happening in our lives, and MSLs no doubt are doing some great things.
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Mentoring 2.0
27. September 2008
admin
Everywhere I went this week, there was talk of mentoring. Kind of a no-brainer for business–if you want to keep your best and brightest, you should consider internal mentoring. However, there is value to external mentoring sources as well. The Wall Street Journal had a fantastic article on "A New Approach To Mentoring" that you should consider checking out dated 9.22.08. It discusses things like group/team mentoring and a lot of other cool ideas on how to kick your mentoring process up a notch. In these tough economic times, the first things to go are sometimes investing in yourself as a professional; however, I would argue that keeping mentoring as a priority is a MUST for the people who want to not only survive, but thrive even when the going gets tough.
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