Continuing our series on Professional Identity and Medicines Development, we are delighted to welcome the publication of another great essay from a graduate of our 2022 cohort, Toshiya Sugino.

Toshiya Sugino is the Senior Medical Manager for Pfizer, Japan in Tokyo.

“Discuss Professional Identity and the Sense of Purpose in Medicines Development and their relevance for professionals involved in the field.”

Toshiya Sugino, M.D., Ph.D.

A Professional Identity is defined as “a set of beliefs, attitudes and understanding of one’s professional role” (Bloom L and Dole S. 2014) and also defined as “a person’s viewpoint of who they are as a professional serving in a domain of expertise” (Stricker AG, et al). A strong Professional Identity leads to individual’s behaviour with confidence and is associated with career commitment and workplace satisfaction, which is important for us to work. Therefore, the development of Professional Identity is known to be essential in the education of health professionals and should be an educational goal for health professionals. The development of Professional Identity takes place within the context o individual identity formation (Cruess RL, et al. 2014), and it involves individual socialization, that is, the process by which a person learns to function within a particular society or group by internalizing its values and norms (Oxford English Dictionary. 1989), resulting in a complex combination of identities that represents how each individual is perceived and perceives herself or himself.

Considering Professional Identity in Medicines Development, it is important to think about the purpose of pharmaceutical medicine /Medicines Development. Our ultimate purpose as Medical Affairs professionals is to develop beneficial and safe medicinal products for  patients and the public. To achieve this, the functions such as clinical research, safety, clinical operations, regulatory and Medical Affairs are essential in Medicines Development.

Focusing on the roles and responsibilities of Medical Affairs professionals in the pharmaceutical industry, the functions of Medicines Development have been reinvented, and Medical Affairs are constantly required to update their knowledges and skills and to quickly adjust to change to meet greater demands and expectations from the medical community to include therapeutic specialties, patient groups, regulatory authorities, and the pharmaceutical industry. Due to rapidly changing needs of the customer as well as changes in the external environment, Medical Affairs needs to efficiently change and adapt from a traditional, supportive function to a more proactive role.  To do it, it is essential for Medical Affairs professionals to have a strong sense of purpose which becomes a core driver of strategy and decision-making and leads to the ability to deliver revenue growth and drive successful innovation and transformation. Purpose is connected to transformation, and such fundamental changes might require performance measurement and the capabilities to achieve it (Harvard Business Review, 2015). Although Medicines Development has fundamental roles in data generation, data dissemination and the engagement with external community, I would like to develop the following capabilities as a Medicines Development professional for the future:

  1. Adapt a new way of real world evidence generation,
  2.  Become familiar with the acceleration of the digital transformation such as artificial intelligence for insight gathering or several ways of digital delivery of information to the stakeholders,
  3. Measure the impact and outcomes of medical activities to show the value of Medicines Development/Medical Affairs.

The Academy’s program has provided me with not only diverse topics related to Medicines Development but also an understanding of the principles of health economics, marketing, as well as drug discovery and development. I believe that the Academy programs will be involved in the development of my Professional Identity and will help me transform and develop new capabilities. 

References

  1. Stricker AG, et al. Identity Growth in the Professions. 2019.
  2. Bloom L and Dole S. Virtual School of the Smokies. 2014.
  3. Cruess RL, et al. Reframing Medical Education to Support Professional Identity Formation. Acad Med. 2014; 89:1446-1451
  4. Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press; 1989.
  5. Harvard Business Review. The Business Case For Purpose. 2015.
  6. EPA 2022 Deck

Disclaimers

  • The material in these reviews is from various public open access sources, meant for educational and informational purposes only
  • Any personal opinions expressed are those of only the author(s) and are not intended to represent the position of any organization(s)
  • No official support by any organization(s) has been provided or should be inferred