Our "Meet the Expert" series introduces you to our team of experts around the world. This "behind the curtain" view will help you get to know who we are on a professional and personal level, and highlight how our colleagues work together on our higher purpose to improve patient health and safety throughout the complete product lifecycle.
Meet Valerie Huh, Associate Director, Global Innovation and Implementation
What do you do at ProPharma? How does your role support our higher purpose of improving the health and safety of patients?
I am responsible for providing strategic inputs and leadership for the creation of innovative blueprints for global Medical Information, start-up, and implementations for high-value Medical Information projects, and streamlining internal processes for efficiency and effectiveness of operations.
One example is the integration of Patient Support Programs (PSPs) within Medical Information Contact Centers (MICCs) to achieve enhanced customer journeys.
MICCs provide scientific and evaluated clinical information about the marketed products to support healthcare professionals (HCPs) and members of the public in making informed patient care decisions.
PSPs deliver patient education about disease and therapy, patient assistance with onboarding and adherence to therapy, and provider’s office support. Having PSPs in MICC adds value to the clients and their customers as they can utilize one contact center for a variety of healthcare needs.
My role contributes to ProPharma’s higher purpose by expanding programs that patients and their HCPs can access for information crucial to improving the health and safety of patients.
What is one lesson you’ve learned in this industry that has most helped you?
Most readers would agree that agility is critical to any operations, especially after most of us were forced to test out the organizational level agility during the pandemic.
One thing I learned years ago is that agility at work comes from employees, not procedure. We can have an agility plan detailing action items down to the 5th sub-bullet points but when things change, what drives the successful transition is how quickly and flexibly people voluntarily turn around in situations. It makes employees more agreeable to change and empowered by their ability to adapt. This ultimately makes us deliver consistent quality Medical Information and Patient Support services no matter how things change for our clients and their customers. A business continuity plan is important, but what’s more important is cultivating agility within individuals by promoting open communications, encouraging decision-making, and commemorating changes to help shift mindsets.
Tell us about a day in the life of an Associate Director Global Innovation and Implementation.
What I love about my job is not a single day is similar to another day. This may sound unstable or uncomfortable for some readers, but coming to work with the mindset that I will explore the unknown and learn new things is quite exciting. Innovation doesn’t just come from being creative or imaginative, but from a deep understanding of current processes and technologies, identification of gaps and opportunities, endless research and brainstorming sessions on improvement options, multifaceted feasibility and business case evaluations, and working with key stakeholders from multi departments from piloting to go-live and continuous monitoring.
Although I joined ProPharma with expertise in Patient Support Programs, implementing this in the new organization was a big adventure navigating through the new infrastructure, and procedures, and collaborating with various experts in ProPharma.
What is a current trend you’re seeing in the industry and how does it impact our clients and patients?
One current trend in Patient Support Programs is a personalization of therapy and patient care support. Personalization involves tailoring treatment to the patient’s unique needs and circumstances, recognizing that every patient is different. Personalization can shape in many forms such as targeted drug or biological therapy, coping strategies, and monitoring through wearables and mobile apps. This impacts our clients to develop and study specific use cases to support personalization and we help their patients to get onboarded to the therapy by working with the patients, their caregivers, healthcare providers, payors, and pharmacies. We also follow up and monitor the therapy, sharing any progress and addressing barriers or difficulties, and aid patients stay adherent.
Personalization and patient-centric services are in tune with ProPharma’s purpose to improve the health and safety of patients.
What is unique about our culture at ProPharma Group?
ProPharma has been growing through partnerships, leveraging new acquisitions, and building creative solutions at the intersection of talent and capabilities. As you can imagine, the interaction is full of diverse perspectives, experiences, and business know-how that makes ProPharma versatile and unprejudiced to take on ventures of any level of complexity and scale. We respect and embrace the revolution of our company together and harmonize with the same purpose, mission, and values.
