Creating a Professional Identity in Pharmaceutical Medicine and Medicines Development: GFMD

Professional Identity

The vast majority of professionals created, over the years, a strong image of their professional identity: this happens not only in Life Sciences (where most if not all professionals have a clear identity, like Oncologists, Biotechnologists, Molecular Biologists, among others), but also professionals working in legal matters, economics, physics, et cetera.

Some years ago, while discussing this matter among IFAPP officers, we realized that professionals working in Pharmaceutical Medicine were lacking a Professional title. Indeed, most may identify themselves based on their medical certification (pneumologist, infectiologist), but this title frequently has no more link with their present job role.

Working Group Created

Our discussion was then closed with the unanimous idea that we had to build our professional image of global experts in Pharmaceutical Medicine. According to the IFAPP style, a working group under the leadership of Dr. Honorio Silva, IFAPP Past President and current IFAPP Academy President, was formed to create a professional certification path involving combinations of the postgraduate academic education and continuing professional development along with professional experience and contribution to the fields of Clinical Research and Medicines Development. Three professional certification levels: Certification in Medicines Development (CMD), offered by IFAPP Academy and IFAPP, Specialist in Medicines Development (SMD offered by PharmaTrain and IFAPP) and the Global Fellow in Medicines Development (GFMD, offered by IFAPP Academy and IFAPP with the support of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine), were formed. A scoring system was created, aimed at evaluating the contribution of each professional based on Education, Contribution to the Profession (presentations, publications, experience, patents), and contributions to the external Awareness of Pharmaceutical Medicine as a discipline for the GFMD.

To our knowledge, this is a unique certification approach organized by biomedical professional associations.

Pilot Experience

The Working Group arranged a pilot experience to assess the accuracy of the criteria for the various domains. They distributed Individual invitations during the 4^th Quarter 2019 to a group of selected candidates meeting the above criteria.  A total of 117 applications were submitted, evaluated, and approved. The domains and scoring systems were thus validated. Initially, the award ceremony was to be held during ICPM 2020 (Rome, March 2020), but the event was canceled due to Covid-19. The ceremony was held virtually on July 16^th, 2020. Awardees were invited to join the event and receive their certification.

Looking Ahead

This project is the first step of a long journey.  IFAPP and IFAPP Academy are committed to inviting many more professionals to be part of the community of Global Fellows. We are expecting all members will be involved in a lifetime program of continuous professional growth and contributions to leverage health at national and global levels. Join us in the GFMD community! Be part of an international team devoted to the development of safe and efficacious drugs for the benefit of patients worldwide. More details will be distributed shortly on the process for the identification of the second cohort of GFMD.