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<\/p>\nWe sat down for a conversation with Dr. Ann-Marie Richard, who received her PhD in Pathology from GMS in 2003. She currently works in Pfizer’s Internal Medicine Division as a Patient Engagement Lead.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Can you tell us a little about your role at Pfizer? <\/strong><\/p>\n I actually came from being a full-time scientist. I moved from principle scientist to the patient engagement role about three years ago. I always say I\u2019m the bridge between the patients and scientists. The ultimate goal is to be able to understand the diseases that we\u2019re working on from the patients\u2019 perspective.<\/p>\n We build relationships with advocacy groups, and then we speak directly to patients. We try to understand what they experience with their disease and what sorts of outcomes are most important to them. It\u2019s really about understanding the unmet needs from the patient\u2019s perspective, not just what we believe the unmet need is. I take that information back to the scientists, and they ensure that the targets that they are assessing can modulate those sorts of outcomes.<\/p>\n How did you make your way into this role from your education at GMS?<\/strong><\/p>\n My PhD is in pathology, but I\u2019ve done very little \u201cstrict\u201d pathology in my career. I did my dissertation in a metabolic lab with Dr. Keith Tornheim and Dr. Barbara Corkey. A lot of the work that I had done was on diabetes research. Then I went on to Pfizer and I was also in the metabolic disease department, again, primarily working on diabetes.<\/p>\n I was doing that basic science work and drug development for ten years. I got to a point in my career where I didn\u2019t feel as fulfilled as I wanted to be. I loved the science, but I couldn\u2019t quite see the direct impact on the patients. So, I started looking at what sorts of opportunities were out there that would allow me to work more closely with patients. I spoke to people in patient-facing roles to understand what their day-to-day was like and to get a better feel for where I really wanted to go in the next phase of my career. That\u2019s what led me to the decision to go into patient advocacy.<\/p>\n At that time, the entire healthcare industry was becoming more patient-centric and recognizing that patients are really the experts in their disease. My department recognized the value of creating a patient-facing role, which I ended up moving into. Now, all of our scientists are excited about meeting with patients who actually live with the conditions they are working on. It gives a sense of purpose for what they\u2019re doing. Meeting someone you have actually impacted or have the potential to impact makes a huge difference. It makes me want to come to work every day.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Meeting someone you have actually impacted or have the potential to impact makes a huge difference. It makes me want to come to work every day.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n What do you see as the impact of the work you\u2019re doing now?<\/strong><\/p>\n I think the biggest impact is empowering patients to give them that voice in research and the opportunity to educate scientists and clinicians on how to better serve them. From very early stages where we\u2019re doing pre-clinical work, the insight we get from patients allows us to start assessing whether our drug targets the outcomes they need.<\/p>\n For example, let\u2019s say that a patient with a particular condition reports that what\u2019s most burdensome is loss of energy and appetite. We can start assessing energy levels, locomotion, and food intake in our models. Then as we move into clinical studies, we understand what endpoint we should be looking at in our trials. By the time the drug gets on the market, we\u2019ll know it\u2019s actually doing what patients want it to do. Ultimately, we want to put a drug on the market that patients will take. There\u2019s value on both sides: patients get their needs met, and the pharmaceutical company is delivering a drug that will change patient\u2019s lives. And of course, for me, it\u2019s just true passion and fulfillment, so everybody wins.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I think the biggest impact is empowering patients to give them that voice in research and the opportunity to educate scientists and clinicians on how to better serve them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n Last question: Do you have any advice for students at GMS?<\/strong><\/p>\n First: leverage mentors. Mentorship has been one of the things that has had the biggest influence in my life. One of the key things that helped me make my career change is when a mentor said, \u201cIf this is what you really want, let it be known. Inform your manager, because a good manager will help you meet your career goals.\u201d That was what I did. I made it my five-year goal to see myself in this type of role. I had a manager who was really willing to help me reach those career goals, and who started connecting me with the right people. I learned what it really means to be a patient advocate. It was mentorship that helped drive that.<\/p>\n Second: explore different career paths through networking. Very often we tend to have a narrow mindset about where it\u2019s possible to go with our career or degree. You\u2019re thinking, \u201cWith this particular degree, this is where I\u2019ll end up.\u201d But you really haven\u2019t opened up your mind to all of the possibilities. For example, I always thought that I would end up in academia. It wasn\u2019t until I ended up in industry that I recognized the breadth of opportunities there. I\u2019d really encourage students to explore different career paths by speaking to people who are in some of these roles. Open yourself up to the many different options.<\/p>\n Finally: bring others with you. That\u2019s the big one. Always be willing to share and mentor others, because you had mentors. After you\u2019ve gotten to a certain point, you should always be willing to go back and help others come along.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We sat down for a conversation with Dr. Ann-Marie Richard, who received her PhD in Pathology from GMS in 2003. She currently works in Pfizer’s Internal Medicine Division as a Patient Engagement Lead. Can you tell us a little about your role at Pfizer? I actually came from being a full-time scientist. I moved from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16373,"featured_media":77663,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7164],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77382"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16373"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77382"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77819,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77382\/revisions\/77819"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}