Infectious Diseases TRP's career workshop series kicks off
Published: 13 Jul 2021
The Infectious Diseases Translational Research Programme (ID TRP) aims to provide a holistic, patient-centric approach to infectious diseases that are relevant to Singapore and the region. The Programme focuses on programmatic research areas including pathogen evolution and transmission, host-microbe interactions and vaccine and therapeutics development.
Beyond that, the team also hopes to provide development and continuity opportunities within the realm of academia, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, start-ups, regulatory affairs, medical writing and management consulting. This led to the organising of a career workshop series to introduce members of ID TRP to a variety career options within the industry. Each session would feature alumni from NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine’s post-graduate programmes who will share from their experiences. Topics would include how they secured their current jobs after graduating, some of the challenges they faced transitioning into their new positions and advice that they might have for their fellow colleagues working and learning within the ID TRP.
In the opening session of the series, Dr Issac Too, Medical Advisor at Novartis Singapore, and Dr Sheryl Tan, Regional Head of Medical and Clinical Affairs at Bayer Consumer Health Asia Pacific, shared their experiences.
Dr Issac Too graduated with his PhD at NUS Medicine, extensively pursuing research in the area of infectious diseases. In his current role, he focuses on optimising patient access and outcomes by providing up-to-date compound and disease-area medical expertise, co-creating healthcare solutions with healthcare systems to improve patient outcomes and transform clinical practice.
Dr Sheryl Tan received her PhD at NUS Medicine for Cancer Biology and completed her post-doctorate fellowship in Lung Diseases. She now leads a team of medical advisors across 18 countries in the categories of nutrition, allergy, dermatology and analgesics at Bayer.
Dr Too shared that his greatest advice for those looking to pursue a career in medical affairs is “to be curious and always ask the ‘why’ questions in order to understand how to make improvements in their area of work.” He also strongly believes in networking as a powerful enabler in building up an arsenal of tools that help medical affairs executives excel in their role.
Dr Tan also shared on the importance of building a network, emphasising how making friends and finding mentors helped her realise just how many people were willing to partner with her on her journey to help her succeed. She also suggests that the continual sharpening of commercial acumen makes one an asset within the function of medical affairs, enabling one to learn how to quantify their successes better. In her case, it was most helpful to spend time with her colleagues from the sales and marketing divisions to “learn their language”.
The session closed with a Q&A segment for participants to ask more specific questions to the speakers, with heartfelt sharing of struggles by speakers and concerns by the participants taking centre stage.
All in all, the event was a cosy affair that was certainly helpful in opening the eyes of ID TRP’s team of researchers to the commercial opportunities available to them.
