Section Styles spotlight-header
I am a
MEDICAL AFFAIRS SCIENTIST
Hamed Mirzaei, PhD
Presented by AMGEN Foundation
BIOTECHNOLOGY CAN GET VERY COMPLICATED.
As a Medical Affairs Scientist, I make sure that the results of our research make sense to everyone.
MY WORK SETTING
Indoor vs. Outdoor
I spend my time working inside at a desk.
People vs. Alone
I spend most of my time collaborating with other people.
Creative vs. Defined
Most of my work is creative and involves designing new strategies.
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As our scientific knowledge has become more advanced, it’s also become more complicated. In order to approve medicines to go to patients, clinicians and government authorities must have a good understanding of the clinical and scientific data behind them. I oversee the strategy and creation of materials to communicate important insights from our company’s research. My job is to understand the results of our clinical science experiments and make sure the most important takeaways are communicated across our teams in the most effective ways possible.
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I work with people who specialize in data visualization to create graphs and figures to capture important takeaways, write reports, and create engaging content to make sure the findings are understandable for people who are not necessarily experts in a given field.
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At large biotechnology companies, there can be a lot of different people with different expertise who all need to stay informed about the results of the research going on. It’s really important to have people who understand both the science and effective communication strategies so that everyone at the company understands our current gaps in knowledge, how we are meeting the needs of patients, and what challenges clinicians are facing. It’s about making sure all of the dots stay connected so no critical knowledge gets missed.
My Work NeedsEssential Skills:
INTERDISCIPLINARY EXPERTISE
Having a strong background in both business and the science being done and the technical details is essential to make sure my strategies fit both evidence and business priorities.
COLLABORATION
I speak with researchers and attend meetings with scientists and leaders involved in the drug development process. I need to be able to listen carefully and digest what is being said.
PROBLEM SOLVING
Science communication is a problem-solving task: we take a lot of hard-to-understand information and translate it for others who may have no background knowledge.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
I’m often juggling a lot of different ideas, strategies, objectives, and people. A big part of my job is keeping things on track and on goal.
Days in the Life
Come along and explore what three days at my job might look like!
DAYS IN THE LIFE
How I Work
Check out what my place of work looks like on an average day.
This is what my workspace looks like!
My electronics. A phone, laptop, keyboard, mouse and 2 monitors.
A bookshelf. Full of some of my favorite books and research resources.
A collection of old cameras and microscopes.
Decorations. I love my disco ball & skull plant.
Lots of plants. To add life to my space.
Did you know...Many scientists go into roles focused on communication.
As our science and technology become more complicated, there are a growing number of roles that focus specifically on making STEM easy to understand for the people who need (or want) to. While some of these individuals may work in public-facing roles, like on TV or writing articles that anyone can read, the majority of science or medical communications roles are at big companies or organizations.
When a new finding is discovered, or the results of a clinical trial for a new medicine come out, there are a lot of people who may benefit from knowing about it but may not be enough of an expert to read it themselves. That’s why so many roles are focused on doing it for them. Often (but not always), the best people to fill these roles are people who were trained in a related field as a scientist, because they understand the complexities of the research so they can help make sure it’s communicated accurately.
Science isn’t just about what happens in the lab or field; it’s also about what happens after.
Rewarding
These are the parts of my job I find particularly rewarding.
Traveling to conferences around the world to give presentations about my work.
Putting out fires and constantly troubleshooting problems.
BUT EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT! DRAG THE CIRCLES TO PLACE THEM WHERE YOU WANT TO RATE THEM.
Challenging
These are the parts of my job I find particularly challenging.
Being tasked with goals and responsibilities that feel lightweight or low impact.
Working through long, routine processes.
Section Styles movable
These are the people I work with:
Business & Marketing Professionals
These are the people on the commercial side of the industry that make decisions about how to sell our products.
Regulatory & Legal Professionals
These team members make sure that the medicines being produced and sold are safe and held to FDA standards.
Medical Professionals
I learn about our results and medicines from medical professionals - from the engineers and scientists making them in the lab, to the oncologist testing it on patients.
WHAT’S NEXT?
What’s next for my field of work?One of the most exciting things about working in STEM is how fast things change. Things that aren't possible today could be possible tomorrow.
Automating Tasks to Unlock Our Time
I'm looking forward to utilizing machine learning and computer language processing to read through electronic medical records. We nearly have the technology we need to read patients' scans and identify their diseases with far more accuracy and quicker than a human does. We can make things more efficient and easier to understand and free up time for humans to do more creative and complex work.
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