Julie Mohammed is the associate manager of PAR [policies and restrictions] Insights at MMIT, a role she’s held since her promotion in January 2022. She leads PAR Insights’ data production and quality control efforts, producing 50 to 60 reports per month, and is currently training her team of four on integrating content work into their process. PAR Insights provides context and understanding into how policies and restrictions impact a therapy’s overall patient access position.
How did you join the company?
I have an undergraduate degree in biology, and I have a master’s in public health from St. John’s University in Queens, New York. I fell in love with public health, I really loved working with people and helping them gain awareness of their health coverage and insurance because it’s such a complicated area. From there, I initially wanted to go into health outcomes and economics research, but I needed to build up a pharma background. I joined Zitter in April 2018 after a recruiter reached out to me on LinkedIn, and from there it was history!
What does your day-to-day usually look like?
Every day is different with PAR Insights! You always have your usual reports and you have to keep track of your deliverables, but a lot of ad hocs [custom requests] can come in from a client, so it’s always changing. Our sales team is doing an amazing job, we have a lot of new clients coming in for indications that we haven’t worked on before, so we’ve had an influx of new projects. One thing we’ve noticed recently is that we have a lot of PAR and Analytics clients that we’d like to have come over to Insights. So we’re working on getting our reports, kick-off decks and teasers out there. We can paint an insightful picture of what clients are seeing in Analytics, so if any of them are having trouble seeing the narrative that’s where our team can come in.
Do you have a favorite topic to cover?
Severe asthma has always stood out to me as I have a personal stake in it, having had asthma when I was younger. The cardiovascular space is also really interesting because our team hasn’t done a lot on it yet but it’s a growing market and we’ve put together quite a few strategic launch packages to help forecast new drugs for clients.
What are some of the larger projects you’re working on?
We’re starting to work on integrating Evaluate’s data into our reports as of last month. [Evaluate united with MMIT in August 2021]. We have a lot of analogs and trials within Evaluate’s capabilities, along with epidemiology data, so it’s been really interesting to see what we can work into our reports to encourage more sales.
What are some of the common challenges of your role?
I feel like the biggest challenge is making sure we’re aware of what the client wants and we’re meeting their needs. Sometimes when a client hires us for their very first report, there’s more pressure for us to deliver something that will keep them with us. We have to make sure that we’re working diligently to display our data accurately and tell the story they want to see. They really value our data, so we just want to make sure that we deliver. It’s the most challenging aspect, but it’s also the most rewarding part of the job when you get that great feedback.
What’s been your biggest win so far?
Honestly it’s probably going to sound cliché but my biggest win is definitely my team. We’ve gone through a lot of change in the past two or three years but we’ve always kept true to our reporting. We’re all very autonomous but we come together as a team to get things done. We have a few new analysts on our team right now, and getting them acclimated to how we work, it’s been easy to continue that dynamic. When it comes to helping another team or analyst on a certain report, everyone’s always happy to help.
What indications should clients be paying attention to right now?
Oncology has usually been dominant in terms of new launches and label expansions, but lately I’ve been seeing a lot of non-oncology indications blow up. I’m seeing HIV/PrEP and hepatitis B and C vaccines, and we just got a contract for migraine prevention, which we’ve never worked on before. In the past few years oncology has been the focus, but now we’re seeing that shift.
What was most exciting about Zitter joining MMIT?
Integrating our data into MMIT’s was a bit daunting at first, but it quickly became a welcome challenge as it was great to see how Analytics 3 worked and how easy it was for clients to navigate. Being able to quickly pull parity coverage data as well as coverage from controller to state level data was a huge advantage for us, helping to develop our insights and improve our executive summaries for our reporting.
Which company principle resonates most with you?
Resiliency, mettle and grit. Resiliency truly sticks out to me, it’s the one that pops up most in my day-to-day. With all the progressive changes our company has gone through, my team has always been resilient and followed through on all reporting and client requests that come in. We’re always trusting the process. While day-to-day challenges within reporting can come up, we have such a good dynamic across teams that we diligently work together and make sure all deliverables are ideal for our clients!
What do you like most about working at MMIT?
I feel like I’m coming into my own in terms of people management. I love working with my direct reports and making sure I’m supporting them in any way that I can. It’s never something I thought about for myself before, but now that I’m actually cultivating how I work with people, I really do love this aspect of my role.
What do you like to do outside of work?
My family is from Barbados and Trinidad, and we love getting together and enjoying our type of food and music. I love to travel and do adventurous things like skydiving, ATV riding, jumping off waterfalls. I’ve been to the Caribbean a good bit and I’m excited to eventually do trips to Africa and Europe with friends and explore other cultures.
