Category: In the office

An exciting outlook for Medical Communications globally

Peter LlewellynLeave a comment

Thank you to the many who joined us for today’s #MedComms webinar. The recording is now freely available below – or you can catch up at NetworkPharma.tv or the MedComms YouTube channel, along with much, much more.. Enjoy!

The MedComms sector is thriving. If anything the COVID-19 pandemic has shone a bright spotlight on the need for accurate, timely scientific exchange and how MedComms specialists can play a pivotal role in facilitating that activity. In this webinar we are joined by representatives from McCann Health Medical Communications. Charlie Buckwell (Global President), Faye Daley (HR Coordinator and Lead for their Mental Health First Aiders programme), Folabomi (Bomi) Oladosu (Medical Writer and Member of their D&I Council) and Michael Stevinson (Global Head of Caudex) will reflect on the journey that MedComms has taken to where we are today and discuss current priorities and ponder future opportunities. And we answer questions from the audience.

 

Flat out with flat packs

Peter LlewellynLeave a comment

Blair Hesp is building his team – and the office to go with them – at Kainic Medical Communications in New Zealand and sent in the following message after another busy day that isn’t over yet.

It’s been another busy day for the team at Kainic working on everything from overnight Veeva uploads to competitor intelligence activities for some of our clients from around the world. To keep up with demand Kainic has recently moved into newer, bigger offices to accommodate our growing team that expanded by one yesterday and we’ve been performing reference checks today for a second new hire to bring our team up to six full-time writers.

Alongside that, there has also been a lot of office admin, including figuring out why internet connection at our old office hadn’t been disconnected, approving our new office signage, signing off our end of financial year accounts, receiving (almost) all of some of our new flat pack desks and break room table (one piece got left behind at the yard apparently) and organising more computer equipment for our growing team, which requires some scrambling given supply issues into New Zealand as a result of international shipping delays.

Unfortunately, we missed the NZ writers call today because of other commitments that tied everyone up, but I’ll still be working into the night as we correspond with clients in the Northern Hemisphere as they come online for their working day before starting it all again at 7AM tomorrow morning.

PS What’s behind door number 3? Feel free to ask us if you need some freelance writing support as there might be a medical writer with some time on their hands in early July.

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Finishing the day on the west coast of the USA

Peter LlewellynLeave a comment

This is probably wrapping up our #MedComms Day 2020 activity… Tim Collinson from Fishawack Health has sent in his news from the west coast of the USA.

Hi everyone, happy #MedComms day… or evening for most of you at this point. The day here in California is well underway, with the string of early morning calls being the norm; a new norm is that previously camera-shy physicians, clients and colleagues have pulled that blob of gum off the camera lens and are now practically filmstars completely at ease with kitchen/bedroom backdrops, pets, children…  I work remotely anyway, and the uptick in face-to-face contact is a welcome shift (for me at least – not necessarily those subjected to my 7am face and wild social-isolation-hairstyle).  For this year’s #MedCommsDay, Fishawack is celebrating ‘Distance is no object!’. Today also brings our regular West Coasters’ virtual coffee break – nothing virtual about the coffee or the break, just 15 mins’ chitchat about nothing in particular among the Fishawack Pack in San Diego, up to Redding CA and a few places in between.  It’s a habit we’ll keep post-pandemic.  I’m wondering how interactions during next week’s ISMPP virtual annual meeting will go – I always look forward to seeing people at the live meeting but virtual is the next best thing. Maybe see some of you ‘there’… Stay healthy!

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A welcome return to office life

Peter LlewellynLeave a comment

Blair Hesp and his team at Kainic Medical Communications are back in the office after the end of lockdown in New Zealand.

It’s another busy start to the day at Kainic Medical Communications in New Zealand on another cold winter’s morning in the south of New Zealand. Most importantly, we’re also celebrating the move to COVID Alert Level 1, i.e. completely back to normal, but with border restrictions, after eliminating COVID-19 from New Zealand.

Following a quick run for coffee at our local café, taking advantage of the prepaid tab we set up to support them while they were closed for lockdown, we have sat down for our usual morning team meeting where everyone gets up to speed on incoming work from the Northern Hemisphere overnight. In addition to the usual posters, manuscripts, slides and other med comms work, the team are also hard at work with a number of internal initiatives.

We’ve just launched First in Human Communications, our specialist pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics/toxicology offering, and not only have writing work coming in for that already, but have plenty of work to cover off including managing international trademark applications today and follow-up materials to support the launch. We’re also working on putting a preprint up on MedRXiv as we await peer review comments to an internal research project analysing how open peer review affects both reviewer and author behaviour, which we hope to be getting comments back on soon.

We will of course also be joining the NZ medical writers group Zoom call later in an hour so, and now that we are back in the office, we hopefully won’t have kids and animals gatecrashing the call on our end anymore.

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Winding down in San Francisco

Peter LlewellynLeave a comment

So, it looks like #MedComms Day 2019 is winding down quickly now. Before he went on holiday, our regular west coast contributor, Tim Collinson, Business Unit Head, West Coast, Fishawack Group, prepared a short message for us to make sure we ended the day in the right place and on time! Thanks, Tim.

Hello from the world’s largest life sciences cluster (according to the California Life Sciences Association)!  I’m enjoying a week’s break from my busy #MedComms role in the San Francisco Bay Area (pre-writing this message so that I can enjoy the offline great outdoors).  A wonderful team at Fishawack means reliable cover for each other when we want to recharge our batteries.  And this week’s battery charging will be the energy for next week’s UC San Diego Extension’s ‘Expert Strategies and Skills for Medical and Scientific Communication’ Professional Workshop – a gathering I’m looking forward to, where I’ll be participating in a panel discussion with some friendly familiar faces and experts from California biotech, academia and agency, on trending topics in medical and scientific communication.  Before long it’ll be the 2nd annual ISMPP West meeting too – preparations already underway in earnest for that.  Best wishes for the last hours of MedComms Day, everyone!

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Safi Dale’s MedComms Day Diary

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Safi Dale takes a moment on MedComms Day, to reflect on her work experience placement with Nucleus Global.

I finished my A-levels last summer and am looking forward to going to Manchester University in September to study Biochemistry. Taking a year out has been really exciting and a great experience. However, I’ve been very conscious that I didn’t have a clear understanding of the avenues I could pursue after I graduate. So I was excited to arrange work experience at Nucleus Global and see what life is like in medical communications, which I hadn’t previously known much about.Read More »

A Prime Global MedComms Day

Peter LlewellynLeave a comment

This in from Kate Shepherd of Prime Global…

For this year’s MedComms Day, Prime Global discussed what makes a good MedComms team and how the Prime Global culture provides a balance that ultimately benefits our clients. We posted quotes from our amazing staff and any team events taking place in our global offices. This generated record numbers of impressions and engagement on social media.

Here are some highlights…

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Rain doesn’t stop MedComms

Peter LlewellynLeave a comment

The great British weather has been causing some problems today for some. This from Bryce McMurray, Vice President, Global Medical Communications at Springer Healthcare.

Dedication just to get here today! The Chester office of inScience Communications was practically cut off this morning as a month’s rain in 48 hours left the whole area badly flooded. Not to be put off we have a full complement busily working on a large range of projects. We are bringing a couple of new clients on board at the moment and kicking off some interesting infographic projects. Preparation for the meetings season is in full swing too. All of this frenetic activity has led to an afternoon of popcorn gorging!

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Another productive Wednesday

Peter LlewellynLeave a comment

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Beatrice Ferri, Digital Strategist, has written in to say this year’s MedComms Day is already proving another productive Wednesday, at Remedica!

Thirteen members of the team were in Barcelona last week running a meeting for 1600 doctors interested in thromboembolic disease. Not only did we help front-line doctors to discuss practical patient management with many of the world’s leading experts, but we also engaged our audience with some informal learning via a networking fair featuring ‘wheel of fortune’, ‘hook a duck’ and the ‘clot-buster’ coconut shy! Today we’re busy wrapping up a very successful event by preparing an evaluation report, showing exactly what delegates thought of the meeting. We’re also preparing all of the slides presented at the meeting for download by delegates via a link sent in next week’s Eblast, which we’re also preparing!

Right now, several of our medical writers are in Madrid for EULAR (a major, annual, international rheumatology congress) attending advisory boards, where they will be capturing the thoughts of expert thought leaders on a variety of topics. Later today they will be making a start on writing up their reports.

Back in the office, the rest of the team are occupied with a variety of tasks, including creating slide decks for training client Medical teams on a new indication for their drug, to be delivered by webinar-type training sessions, a live training event for the US affiliate to be held in 2 weeks’ time, and via the client’s in-house global slide repository. We’re also finalizing an extensive presentation we have created on competitive intelligence for a product, showing the place and need for the product within the treatment landscape, as well as how the product indirectly compares with key competitors in terms of mechanism of action and clinical data, within the context of the differing study designs and populations. Additionally, we’re reviewing a paper in order to develop a short presentation that will highlight the key data from the manuscript, ensuring the client knows the latest data and is primed to discuss the details with their colleagues and customers alike. 

Another task we’re working on is to develop three oncology symposium agendas for the same client. Working out how to present core information in ways that appeal to three very different audiences is a challenge! The fun bit is thinking of ideas for interactivity, to keep the session engaging. Bingo, anyone? And among all of that, there are weekly teleconferences to attend today to update clients on the status of their (numerous) projects. Happy MedComms Day everyone!