Several years ago, the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) designated September 25th as World Pharmacists Day. This year the theme is “From research to health care: Your pharmacist is at your service”.
This got me thinking about my own 30+ year journey as a pharmacist, starting in healthcare as a community pharmacist before moving into the pharmaceutical industry and clinical development. A relatively normal career path for a pharmacist so far, you may say. But on completion of my MBA and with a merger afoot, I accepted an opportunity to move into business consulting with and spent 6 years working around the world on consulting projects from discovery and development, across the supply chain and back into community pharmacy.
That was until 2002 when the company was acquired by IBM, a technology company. My feeling at that time was that of panic; what did ‘Big Blue’ want with me who knew nothing about computers! I was fortunate to find a very wise mentor who sat me down and said “Heather, IBM has loads of bright techies-that’s not what you’re needed for. But you know the pharmaceutical industry and can converse in that language to discover future business requirements so those ‘clever techies’ can develop the right technology solutions.”
And fourteen years later I’m still here leading the global healthcare and life sciences team in the IBM Institute for Business Value, IBM’s business think tank. We research and develop thought leadership on topics as diverse as alliances and ecosystems; genomics and pharmacovigilance; and cognitive and blockchain.
I still couldn’t tell you what a BladeCenter did or what the zSystems are about but I do understand how the power of technology can help drive innovation for our industry and build a healthcare ecosystem fit for the future.
So that’s the story of what this pharmacist is doing in technology. As this is World Pharmacist’s Day let’s now move across ‘the pond’ and hear from my colleague and fellow pharmacist, Tina Moen at Watson Health.
Like Heather, my early career was spent in more traditional pharmacy roles. I enjoyed time as a clinical pharmacist in hospital, home care, and specialty pharmacy settings. In each, I learned about taking care of unique patient populations and serving as member of multidisciplinary teams working together to care for individual patients. My time in clinical pharmacy practice shaped my perspective on health and healthcare – knowing that we will ALL one day be a patient has always been my “why” as my career has evolved.
My move into healthcare technology 15 years ago was a twist of fate, when my family moved to Colorado and I began working at Micromedex (now part of the Watson Health family). I had the pleasure of working with a wonderful team of pharmacists and other multidisciplinary clinicians to create evidence based content used by pharmacists around the world. My job evolved over the years providing me opportunity to learn more about the technology, the business, and the global healthcare IT market.
Currently, I am a Deputy Chief Health Officer for Watson Health – with the incredible opportunity to talk with clinicians around the world about how cognitive computing and advanced analytics can unlock insights from the vast stores of healthcare data. Knowing I have been able to support solutions that are helping clinicians take better care of patients around the world is the thing I love the most about the direction my career has taken. There are so many fantastic opportunities for pharmacists to impact the health of people around the world – seems like a great reason to celebrate the profession!
So, next time you see an IBM advert at the airport or a IBM till in your local pharmacy, spare a thought for your fellow pharmacists working within the technology sector.
Happy #WorldPharmacistsDay
For more information contact: Heather Fraser at hfraser@uk.ibm.com or Tina Moen at tina.moen@ibm.com
