Category Archives: Featured

Conversations, Diversity, Education, Featured, Leadership, Mentorship

Transforming the Worry of Challenges and Struggles to Opportunity

CPSA Everyday Conversation

Ute Gerhard, The University of Hertfordshire

“There were never TV shows that showed success (to the underrepresented). It was all of the other cultures.” – Ute Gerhard, The University of Hertfordshire

Ute Gerhard is on the frontline, training the next generation of students for the future of health care.  She has one passion – developing education models so that students leave as professionals and credible scientist, so that they may have good careers.  Being in a unique position, she works to train those that are underrepresented in the field of healthcare.  Her passion extends to those that have different cultural backgrounds, and to truly give them the chance to be successful.  Furthermore, she works to set-up strong role models for these students, including programs at the university and with pharma companies.  Mentorship is one of the most important aspects of early career development, and Ute’s dedication is a model for all to follow.

Communication, Conversations, Featured, Leadership, Patient Centric, Pediatric

Clinical Research in Very Sick Children

Plenary Speaker – 23rd Annual Symposium on Clinical & Pharmaceutical Solutions through Analysis (CPSA USA 2020)

Athena Zuppa, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

“You know by blood volume alone… you can’t approach certain studies.” – Athena Zuppa, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

Athena presents a passionate plenary talk, discussing may of the aspects related to caring for extremely sick children.  Clinical Coordinators and Assistants are faced with real world challenges, Everyday – with each day being different.  Each day, they have to bring their A-game, working in community and unison, applying true empathy and altruism while interacting with the children and their parents.  Of the many complexities discussed, they need to balance decisions based on the clinical and research community – often being faced with several treatment options and what is best for a particular situation.  As well, Athena and her teams are on the frontline for discussions with the parents about their sick child – diagnosis, consent, and progress – a challenging balance of information that needs to be delivered with care.  A dance Everyday, that is not scripted, balancing prioritizations, while making real time decisions, and speaking to the parents of very sick children.

Bioinformatics, Conversations, Featured, Integrated Healthcare, Patient Centric, Standardization

Breaking Barriers to Biomedical Data for Efficacious Drugs, Faster

CPSA Everyday Conversation

Abhishek Jha, Elucidata

“Plant (data) in rows if you are going to harvest.” – Abhishek Jha, Elucidata

Abhishek Jha describes the urgency and challenges with curating data to improve decisions in patient care.  Towards the dream of collecting data, integrating data, and generating usable information – the path starts with how the data is collected and stored at the beginning.  Working backwards from the patient, different data repositories are often not structured, making data mining challenging.  Often data cannot be used because of the lack of structure in public and proprietary repositories.  Abhishek’s dream to structure data with better quality control – and standardize – will help streamline bioinformatics performance, allowing experts to make better decisions, and improve patient care.