Tell us a little bit more about your role.
Our team is part of MMIT’s Clinical Center of Excellence (CCOE). I’ve been on the Clinical team for over three years and have recently moved from senior clinical advisor to supervisor. This new role will provide opportunities for me to support colleagues in their work and career development.
Our team acts as the source of clinical truth across the company, helping both internal teams and our clients cultivate a deep understanding of the treatment landscape. Clinical advisors are tasked with translating the key findings from market trends and evolving payer policies into data points that our teams can use to provide actionable information to clients. We make sure that the insights MMIT delivers to clients are comprehensive, consistent, and clinically sound.
How did you join the company? What in your background brought you to pharma?
I’m a pharmacist by background, with fellowship training in Drug Information and Formulary Management. In prior experiences, I’ve been more hands-on in the patient journey. I’ve seen the frustration caused by care delays and felt the heartbreak of knowing that a beneficial therapeutic option is out of reach for a patient. I’ve also been in the position of researching a new product and making clinical recommendations to a P&T Committee.
Those experiences give me a deep appreciation for the complexity of the pharmaceutical landscape and the many challenges involved in getting the right therapies to the right patients. When I began my career at MMIT—I started as a senior market research analyst before moving to the Clinical Advisor team—I was really drawn in by MMIT’s mission, to illuminate and resolve patient access barriers.
That mission still resonates with me. Access to medication feels deeply personal, because we’re all patients at some point in time. I also enjoy working through complicated business questions. It’s rewarding to work more on the business side of access knowing that the impacts of our work will be felt later on down the line.
What does your day-to-day usually look like?
My daily work is highly dynamic because the spaces we work in are ever-evolving. As every clinical advisor supports approximately 50 therapeutic indications apiece, we’re always learning and sharing knowledge. We frequently have great discussions with our clients about their respective business needs. We provide context to the data they receive, recommendations on the most useful ways to view that data, and explanations about what’s driving these trends in policy criteria or restrictions.
We also help guide internal teams as they’re reviewing payer policies. We spend a fair amount of time acting as a translator of the most complex policy criteria, often giving recommendations on how to create a more digestible insight from that data. We’re also busy staying abreast of new therapies in the pipeline, new approvals and guideline recommendations, trends in the market, etc.
In addition to the nearly 400 existing therapeutic indications we support, the CCOE team is also responsible for shaping new indications that MMIT is now selling to clients. We help lead our policy assessment teams as they analyze the policies and develop data points. We also support manual research programs, where we deep-dive into a custom client need that can’t be addressed via any of our existing indications.
What are some of the larger projects you’re working on?
Recently, I’ve been looking at the indications I support and thinking about how we can improve the usability and consistency of our data. For example, I’m analyzing how we capture policy criteria—are we flagging the most crucial and interesting information for client recommendations?
Many of our clients purchase multiple indications, and so we’re all working to maintain consistency between our indications so that everyone knows exactly where to look for information. As a company, we’re investing in new technology to improve the standardization and the robustness of our policy captures, so our indications need to be ready for that in advance.
I’m also working on being proactive about bringing new trends to both internal and client conversations, not just for one indication, but for all I support. That one is kind of a never-ending initiative!
What are some of the common challenges of your role?
A lot of teams count on clinical advisors’ input, both for internal education and external client support. We’re often looped into client calls to provide credibility, comment on the market, and ensure we are meeting client needs with sound clinical data. The clinical advisors are great problem-solvers and thorough researchers, and we have a good handle on the impact of solutions that we recommend.
For all these reasons, I think we’re a valuable go-to resource for any client who has questions, but many internal ‘quick questions’ end up becoming a deep dive with the client. Each question takes time and care, and we’re often being pulled in quite a few directions.
Another challenge is just the complexity of the treatment landscapes, which are always changing. Crowded spaces are becoming even more so, and novel product approvals are creating new spaces. Maintaining an expert clinical point of view and ensuring that all of our guidance is up-to-date and readily available to all who count on it can be a lot of balls to keep in the air at once!
What’s been your career highlight to date?
I really appreciate all that MMIT does to showcase the expertise we have throughout the company and on the CCOE team. Every member of my team brings their various pharmacy experiences and background knowledge to our conversations, and we’ve all become experts in the indications we support. We have a granular view of the nuances, but we also have an overarching view of how payers are currently managing our indications and where coverage is headed.
One of my career highlights so far is being consistently called on to speak to that knowledge, both internally and externally. I also see my teammates being recognized for their expertise, and it makes me really proud of the team I am a part of.
Having the opportunity to speak to media outlets and a larger audience about new products and trends is also really fulfilling, because it underscores that the perspectives we develop here—after years of research, using all the data we have at our fingertips—are quite valuable and impactful to a larger audience.
What industry trends are you seeing right now that MMIT is in a unique position to help with?
We are right on the pulse of any shifts in coverage and management. For all of our Analytics indications especially, being able to pick up detailed policy changes at the plan level is so useful to our clients. When they have questions about what’s happening in a specific market basket, or across therapeutic categories, we’re able to give them an idea of the prevalence of certain management criteria and even drill into specific plans with them. As the crowded categories become even more crowded, our closeness to the data allows us to pick up on those management changes and trends so we can keep our clients informed.
Which company principle resonates most with you?
I’m a big fan of the ‘humility, gratitude and learning’ principle, because I learn so much in this role. As I said, the CCOE team is highly collaborative, and we ask each other questions all the time, with the common goal of improving our processes to better serve our clients.
Of course, I think humility pairs with learning very well, as you need to keep an open mind and be ready to have your perspective challenged. All of that keeps you primed to accept new information. If you think you already have all the answers, you’ll never grow. And quite honestly, if you think you have nothing left to learn, this just isn’t the industry for you!
What would you tell someone just starting their career with MMIT?
Nobody begins their career as an expert. There’s a reason why learning is one of our company principles! There’s an immense learning curve, but we have so many resources to support your development. Ask plenty of questions, be curious, and be patient; the products and tools we have at our disposal require training and practice.
I think maybe the most important element of working here—whether you’re new or not—is to always remember the why of our work. On the other side of these business questions are real patients, who are counting on pharmaceutical innovation. There’s no shortage of unmet needs. You have to stay passionate about your job, because what we do here helps create a smoother journey for those patients who are seeking treatment. That’s a reason to log in every morning.
What do you like most about working at MMIT?
Definitely the people! Even though I’m working entirely remotely in the Midwest, several states away from most of my colleagues, I do not feel isolated at all. My team bounces ideas off of each other constantly. I’ve learned so much from the way their minds work.
Plus, they’re really funny! I’m always startling the cat by laughing out loud during our Teams chats. I enjoy our spirit of collaboration, and I’m really inspired by everyone’s diligence, as I can see just how valuable that kind of thorough, painstaking support is to our clients. There are lots of really smart and passionate people to learn from at this company, which is exactly the kind of room you want to be in.
What do you like to do outside of work?
To unwind, I usually go for a walk with an audiobook or podcast keeping me company. But my husband is an extrovert, so I do have to interact with the world sometimes as well! We like to go to concerts or try new restaurants—he’s always got some idea in his head. In the fall, we’ll certainly be going to a lot of football games, and of course I love a good tailgate.
