Welcome on my personal site. It is a pleasure having you here.
My name is Christian Velten. And this site will reveal everything you ever wanted to know about me. About my professional experiences, my passions, my achievements, my life, … and even my nickname if you invest a bit to explore.
Enjoy reading all about me.
Christian Velten
P.S.: Also feel invited to my ‘CX Inspiration Hub’ blog, please
Since late 2022, I am leading the Roche Pharma corporate Voice-of-the-customer (VoC, customer feedback) Program. During the past ~2 years,…
I joined Roche Pharma in Nov 2019 to build & develop the Medical Customer Experience department in the Global Medical…
I was leading the digital branch of the integration of Actelion into Janssen/J&J after the acquisition in 2018. This also aligned…
Achievements
Do you also sometimes feel flooded with bad news? Wars, climate change, natural disasters, species extinction, hate speech, political egomaniacs, weakened economy, financial uncertainties, real or perceived restrictions to freedom … an endless list of mental toxins that are bombarding us day by day by day. Do you also sometimes feel an antipathy to continue watching or reading the news? I recently was reminded about the amazing amount of positive things that are happening on our beautiful planet, too. How many aspects have factually improved over the last decades. And to not let the ‘bad-news-sells’ principle allow to dominate my mindset and thinking. “Five sensations, by which the world is currently essentially improving” (“Fünf Sensationen, durch die sich die Welt gerade entscheidend verbessert”, WELT 10.11.2024) was written by the German journalist Axel Bojanowski in the newspaper WELT, is the article which inspired me to this post. Let me share just 10 things (and there might be many more) which get better … Does all of this mean that everything is perfect in this world? No! But also … not everything is getting worse and we are not “sliding into hell”. No, we do not. Two of my personal mantras are “Never panic!” and “Fear is a bad advisor.” Yet another time I am really happy to see that real-world data are supporting this mindset. And it is such a great thing to remind oneself about all the positive things happening. READ MORE…
Dear “family & friends”, Just a quick update that I have decided to leave Twitter. Actually, I am not happy with it for quite some while already. I am basically fine with Elon’s mindset towards “free speech”. And I appreciate him as an inspiring innovator challenging existing dogmas. But I am not happy with Elon’s autistic not-consideration of me as a customer. The renaming to “X” … is OK for me. If you are (partially) living in the digital space for >30 years like me, you have learned that nothing is for eternity. But what really hit and annoyed me has been “X”‘s unilateral decision to cut all API connections. Which simply makes it much more difficult and painful to use for me personally. This came together with the fact that over the past years X/Twitter became less and less relevant to me and actually adding no value to my life anymore. I don’t really remember last time I got useful information from there. It feels being less and less useful information, but more and more false information from all sides. Less and less listening & discussion, but more and more “shouting”. And to very honest, I value my lifetime too much to waste it. You anyhow know where to reach me (otherwise you wouldn’t read this ;-)). And I continue looking forward to having controversial, challenging and opinionated discussions … but always based on mutual respect and open mindsets. Best…
‘Agility’, is without doubt a key enabler for digital transformation. Most organizations request their teams applying agile approaches to business . You might now that the agility idea originates from a revolution in IT software & tools development, where lean, flexible and iterative project management methods replaced the old way of doing projects with a huge gap of months if not years between specifying requirements and delivering/testing. One key principle of agile approaches is to fail quick, learn, and improve in an iterative way. Repeatedly, in short cycles. Flexibly and step-wise approaching the ideal solution starting from a minimum viable product (“MVP”), instead of having a single big shot. A few years ago, I had the exciting opportunity being part of a great cross-functional team developing an in-house “PubMed+” at Novartis. Within 6 months from mandate to launch! Following the ‘Scrum’ framework for agile development. This experience had been a true eye opener for me. As the agile methodology has been proven to revolutionized software development and successfully shown its effectiveness in IT project management, I was very happy to see that the same concepts are being more and more applied to business projects. So far, so good. But does the following sound familiar to you? “We want you to be more agile! Instantly and consequently! … … … but(!) watch out sticking to the processes … and don’t bypass established decision lines … and do not forget to include Aaaaa, Bbbb, Cccc and Ddddd … and do not forget to provide me with your 3-years plan …” What??? Sometimes, management seems to expect their people winning the surfing world championship … but in the Sahara desert. ‘Agility’ necessarily means finding new ways of doing instead following the established. ‘Agility’ requires the readiness for taking smart risks and aiming at failure. ‘Agility’ expects iterative approaches following the paths of customer needs, and not the needs of process paths or organizational structures. If agility as a business approach is wanted, it needs to be part of the corporate culture, consequently. If you miss this culture, then be brave and take smart risks! Have the courage being an example that agility works and delivers. READ MORE…
Yes, pharma is behind most other industries in terms of digital transformation, e.g. of customer engagement and solutions. As a permanent repetition of the evident, multiple studies (example), journal articles and blog posts are frequently reporting about pharma’s digital retardation. But that is not a fair comparison. Also being part of the truth, markets for treatments, medical devices and health services are actually no free markets similar to other industries. They are highly regulated. I am not complaining, there are good reasons for having limitations in place. It is just a general circumstance which needs to be considered with the challenge of leveraging pharma customer engagement in the digital space. But, despite a limiting environment … there are a things we in pharma actually can change … to facilitate digital transformation of our customer engagement. There are some self-made road-blockers, which can be addressed and changed. Willingness assumed. Customer-centricity … comes first. And should be self-understood … but actually is easier said and assumed than properly done. I am afraid to say that we at pharma sometimes have a fatal tendency falling in love with fascinating innovative technologies, intriguing eHealth solutions and exciting digital projects … without checking if factually a prioritized customer need is met … if any at all. Serious customer-centricity means that asking and listening comes first. What are the burning needs of physicians or patients? Which of them can be met with digital measures, which by other? Which communication channels does each single one of them prefer? Where are bottlenecks? How can we marry customer needs with our business levers? How can me measure success? … Getting the right message to the right customer at the right time and the right place via the right channel. It is not about what we would like to do or what we think our customers would need. It is about knowing real-world customer needs and preferences first. Culture “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”, one of my personal favorite sayings, originating from Peter Drucker, legendary management consultant and thinker. And it is nowhere else more true than with digital transformation. Many people hear “digital” and think “technology”. No, that is exactly not what digital is about. At least not in the first instance. Certainly, technology is a key enabler. But it is not the solution. Especially with digital customer engagement, technology is nothing without a cultural change. Digital does not fail due to lack of technology; there is a vast and multifaceted market of digital technologies available, which simply need to be picked-up and applied. Digital does not fail due to a lack of ideas for exciting projects; the heads of pharma guys are full of them. Digital fails because we focus on innovative and exciting digital projects, and not on customer needs and preferences. Digital fails because it is ending up on top of the other stuff on people’s desks. Digital fails because people are concerned it might make their job redundant. Digital fails because it is seen isolated from other business activities. Digital fails, because the culture of the organization is no ‘fertile soil’, e.g. in terms of agility, collaboration and mindset. Digital transformation is not about technology. It is about changing the way we work, prioritize and communicate, actually an organizational cultural change. And this challenge needs to be tackled seriously. Digital upskilling A key enabler of the cultural change mentioned before, is a general and broad digital up-skilling of the organization. Digital is not a niche for nerds and digital passionates. Again, it is about changing the way we work and interact with our customers. So, everybody needs to be included … and to be trained in digital basics. Actually that is also what pharma associates themselves tell us again and again with every survey done. People want to do more digital, but don’t feel well equipped regarding the what and how-to, and broadly miss opportunities to develop. Willingness is not the issue, but enabling is a clearly identified bottleneck. Over-engineered compliance processes As mentioned before, we are working in a regulated environment. This is a given. But the responsibility for a pathological tendency to persistently over-achieve as well as for numerous over-engineered internal review & approval processes for digital tools and content, this responsibility is with pharma enterprises alone. Most of those processes are still developed and optimized for creating printed brochures or one time launches of (static) websites. They typically do not at all fit to the highly dynamic reality of digital content and tools updates. E.g. … There is no doubt that a the requirement for review & approval is vital. But digital business demands lean and agile processes for the same. And I dare to say, whoever is going to provide a smart solution for this general issue to the industry, is going to be a rich (wo)man. “Cobbler, stick to your trade” Honestly spoken, pharma should not try being the better digital tech provider. This simply is not our core competency, and all arrogant attempts being better than specialized companies have spectacularly failed. Always started with a lot of noise, but died silently after a couple of months if not years. Let’s focus on pharma’s core business and its challenges first, where there is still more than enough to do, but simply shop the digital tech parts from the true experts. So, let’s stop complaining about our industry being behind and authorities’ regulations repressing us. Let’s start doing our part, removing self-made road-blockers and creating frameworks for pharma digital transformation unifying agile innovation and the legitimate wish for patients’ safety and…
Earlier this year, I was visiting a presentation by the Basel business development agency on the challenges of Medical Device Regulations (MDR) for the providers of health apps. There had been around 30-40 IT guys locally supporting pharma with the development of health-related digital solutions, some from agencies, some freelancers. What they all had in common were shocked faces at the end of the presentation. I was not really surprised. During many years I have now been involved in the development and realization of various digital tools and solutions in pharma, I got used to digital agencies’ naivety if not reluctance to deal with regulatory requirements. Sometimes there was not even basic knowledge about MDR and CSV. Guys, you really should know what an audit trail is! I frequently met a thinking that this ‘annoying, boring and painful stuff’ should stay with the client who is obliged to all those pharma regulations, where digital is not. You thought wrong! Let me summarize some general developments I claim to watch … So, no let’s calculate 1+1+1+1 = … there is a huge market for digital solutions in pharma, but companies more and more take for granted that vendors meet their high level expectations regarding regulatory requirements. This is not going to happen in the future. This happens now, and has happened already. I dare to predict that in 5 years ahead … You want to do digital business with pharma in the future? Then stop being reluctant and learn to love MDR and…
At least inside the pharma branch of industry I am working in, there clearly is a preference for iOS devices, iPhones and iPads. Everyone has at least one of those stylish tools in his pocket, if not in his or her hand most of the time. iOS devices are internal corporate if not even industry standard. Now, I am not going to start an ideological discussion today if this is good or bad, respectively which mobile platform would be the better one. In all pharma companies I was working with so far, iPhone is standard and many people really love it. They are used to it and enjoy it. Having an iPhone in your hands every day is absolutely normal and felt as a matter of course. And that is where the issue starts. Because iOS devices are used inside the company like a duck takes to water, they are often also unquestioned as the standard when it comes to developing innovative mobile apps for outside, e.g. for promotional use, for sharing information with target groups, or for communication with stakeholders and multipliers. Meaning, any mobile app for outside the company is inconsiderately expected to look and feel like an iOS app, to work and behave like an iOS app does, to be smoothly working inside an iOS environment, and to be developed by a digital agency selected for being strong with iOS apps, and and and … But actually, outside the pharma microenvironment, the use and usability of iOS devices is by far not given. In the “normal” world, there are dramatically more Android mobile devices in use. According to Gartner, in 2017 Android had a global market share of 86% compared to 14% for iOS. (other mobile platforms can factually be ignored) OK, you might say that your audience also has a high affinity for iOS. Yes, sure, might be. But even provided the ratio might be reverse, with more iOS devices owned than average, it will never be 100% and cannot just be taken as granted. In my case for example, one major audience for our promotional or medical apps are physicians. I dare to say that with physicians you will also find a much higher frequency of iPhones compared to the average population. But in all projects we were facing a considerable number of people which could not be reached by an iOS app. An with another pharma major target group, patients, there you anyhow have to consider the general Gartner figures. It is obvious that limiting your digital solution to iPhone/iPad … As a result people frequently realize quite late in their mobile app development, that yet an Android version is needed in addition. And this late change misses cost-reducing synergies you have when considering both versions early on. The solution is easy Don’t be prejudiced by blinkers, remove the iOS fences in your brain. And with mobile apps … consider versions for both key mobile platforms, iOS and Android, … as soon as possible in your project. Get rid of the limitation by being focused on a single mobile platform. And avoid the trap realizing later in your mobile app development, that yet another platform version is needed in addition. With this late change jeopardizing your project milestones as well as missing cost-reducing synergies you might have had when considering both versions early on. At least do an analysis of the mobile platforms used by your audience … to early identify the one used by 99% of them. Certainly provided that the target audience of your digital solution is such confined and has such a clear preference for a single platform. Alternatively consider handing out device+app … which we did in one of my projects targeting a very small group of users, “SAMS – saccade analysis made simple”, a training tool for medics and paramedics on recognizing oculomotor function deficits. This device+app package approach also has some challenges, but to be addresses separately. Not limiting yourself to any technology platform will be beneficial for your target group penetration … and your…
Why do agency representatives always show up in the same black or dark blue and ill-fitting suits?
A few questions to the colleague who is coming to office with a severe cold or even flu. Do you really think that coming to office sneezing and coughing would be an achievement, a sign of commitment, or in any way productive? No, sorry, to my opinion this is just an explicit mindless, inconsiderate and irresponsible behavior. So, just stop it … please! Stay at home, take a short break, sleep a lot, recover well, and be back restored and filled with…
We are currently facing a system migration. From Google tools (with Gmail and Google calendar) to Office365 (with Outlook in the cloud). Allow me to publicly share my very personal user perspective on how it goes.
How to smartly manage being off for 2-3 weeks without caring for business email and phone.
Recently, an esteemed colleague was thanking me for “courageous openness” with a previous email by me. I have been very happy about this feedback. But I was also asking myself: is it really courageous to address important issues by mail … if there also had been opportunities to speak? Honestly spoken, talking would have been courageous, face to face, eye in eye, vouching for my words. Writing email is…
Well … honestly spoken … I appreciate myself. Not always. But again and again. And I admit to enjoying it. I appreciate myself for minor and major achievements. Every time something worked as planned. Every time I kept milestones and budget … or even overachieved. Then, I am as pleased as Punch, deeply proud of myself, and I inwardly tell myself: “Well done, Christian!” No, I do not miss appreciation by others. Most of the time I have been very fortunate having fellows and leaders, who acknowledged and esteemed my contribution … and myself. Hence, I always felt privileged. I never took it as granted, and I know that many others have to go without appreciation by others. But especially then it is even more important to honor yourself, to self-appreciate your performance. For me, the joy about my own success goes along with self-respect; the value I give myself. Frankly spoken, for quite a long time I thought that it would be absolutely common being pleased about own successes. A natural element of intrinsic motivation. Praise has been proven to be the best motivator. By praising myself I motivate myself. And that is how it also always felt for me. And over the years it carried me through various difficult situations. Meanwhile I have learned that self-appreciation is by far common and generally understood. From time to time I meet people having a serious problem with appreciating themselves, appreciating their own performance. But I think we agree that most successes are earned through hard work and are not to be taken as granted. For that reason, it should be well justified being proud of any single success. Not the narcissistic, foppish type of self-praise … but the well-deserved inward self-appreciation for a real performance. No pride which is exaggerating the own person. But joy because you successfully delivered. If I do not appreciate myself and my achievements … why should others…
If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Of course yearning alone is not enough. You certainly need quality wood, good tools, clear allocation of tasks, a plan and much more. And yes, unfortunately I also know more than enough ‘hot-air guns’ in leadership positions, who contribute great visions (= yearnings) … but that has been it. I would like to talk about myself instead. In the past, I realized that sometimes I got lost in bits and pieces of strategic or project planning and management during workaday’s life. This simply happens when you are working quite intensively and focused. I am sure you know what I mean. The issue is that then the big picture easily gets lost. But this big picture is really important. It actually is the destination, the purpose of everything being done! Not adhering perfectly to the project plan or KPIs. Those are just resources and tools … but in daily routine they sometimes end in themselves. Neither the wood is the destination, nor is the ship. The destination is being able going out to sea and sailing to other places. It is about motivation. To take along people, employees and colleagues. To not just let them settle tasks. But to actively include them in an exciting, promising and joint journey. For me, Saint-Exupéry’s “yearning” is anticipation, joy, enthusiasm and identification. I am deeply convinced that this kind of “yearning” does not only yield in settling required tasks … … but to jointly deliver superior achievements and true innovation. More than the best project plan ever could…
Emphasizes the importance of delivering high-quality products over being overly lean.
2015 has been a good year!
It might not appear as such on the first view. And unfortunately there are always enough “devaluators” who are first and foremost fixated on crises and conflicts.
But a lot of positive and good things happened in 2015 which are worth to look back on. In the German newspaper DIE ZEIT (#52, 23.12.2015) Hannes Soltau, Merlind Theile and Doreen Borsutzki published a remarkable collection of facts.
Why do new department heads continuously fool themselves?
I so far met basically three archetypes of human characters within – esp. larger – companies: Builders, Maintainers and Destroyers. Builders Building is their passion. They are restless. The status quo never is good enough. After the implementation is before the implementation. Builders are thinking forward, innovatively and constructively. They see changes as tools for improvement and development. But they set a high value on a well-founded and provable rational for any changes needed as part of their overall plan. Builders know that for being successful they have to convince others (like Maintainers) and bring them in. They are usually quite clever in positively influencing people, and they can be very inspiring and motivating for others. On the other side of the coin, Builders can be quickly frustrated by resistance to – in their view – obvious room for improvement. E.g., Builders have the tendency to underestimate the importance of politics, esp. when going beyond factual businesslike objectives. If they fail it is often due to a outflanking by games at work. Beyond that, Builders will always be strong drivers of innovation and development. Maintainers Maintainers merge into ensuring stability and consistency … of processes, services, tools, etc. They can do the same set of tasks over and over again, day after day, year after year. Continuity is their mission. As a convenient side effect, Maintainers are extremely good in identifying deviations and threads. So, Maintainers love the status quo. But they are not just resistant to changes, a common misunderstanding and complete misinterpretation. Factually, they just insist on a well-founded and convincing justification for a change. What is actually a fair approach! Factually, Maintainers are the backbone of most companies, ensuring business continuity. They bring overeager Builders back to earth, and steadily mop up behind Destroyers. Destroyers The dilemma of Destroyers is that most of them are deeply convinced they would be Builders. So, a mismatch between self- and external perception is definitely an issue with Destroyers. Well, basically they are right. Building often needs changes, and changes sometimes also need destruction. But they make 2 major – to my opinion – mistakes. First, they are biased and fixated on change. And second, they generally mistake change with destruction. Many Destroyers follow the illusion that the event of a change itself would be good. They are disciples of change. In their thinking it boosts organizational creativity and evolution. The origin of this misconception is an outdated and wrong sociological interpretation of the biological evolution paradigm. On top, Destroyers often undervalue the importance of sound change management – not in proclamation but in implementation. Then, destruction is not an intrinsic consequence of the change but of bad (or no true) change management. “Chopper managers” are typical Destroyers. So, you don’t know “chopper managers”? I am sure you do! “Chopper managers” are hopping from one position to the other, like tourist doing a helicopter sightseeing tour. They simply fly in (whence-soever), make a lot of wind when landing, create a maximum of confusion, and fly out again soon enough before they need to face the outcomes or take responsibility for long-term consequences. Unfortunately, Destroyers have the highest impact in many companies, giving Builders and Maintainers a hard time. So, what are you?! I found myself without doubt having a very strong Builder component. I love to develop, to implement and to provide new solutions. I can also be a Maintainer … for a while. But sooner or later this stops satisfying me, and I start looking for opportunities to do some “building” and improvement at least within my proximate range. I am also open to destruction, but I insist on well-founded and convincing rational as well as sound change management. And I absolutely hate destruction of a so-called “running system” without true need, or doing a change just for its own sake. Altogether, it looks like that I seem to be a Builder, with a secondary Maintainer facet, and only constructive Destroyer qualities. Builder, Maintainer or Destroyer … what are…
You might have asked yourself already, why I once selected “TrapperPhD” as my online nickname? The story behind TrapperPhD … To make a long story short … during my university time my nickname was “Trapper” (honestly spoken, one out of a couple). And after finishing my doctorate, “Trapper PhD” was a logical consecutive consequence … but also a tribute to “Trapper John, M.D.”, a famous TV series in the 80s of the last century (when I grew up, “those times long ago”). Last not least, I like this name because I like the qualities, trappers stand for. What trappers are famous for…
It is turning around … around … around … and around. Always the same turn, always the same things in view. With changing perspectives, but actually always at the same place. Sooner or later just boring. And once you overwind … well, mhh … might become unsavory. I exactly feel like sitting in such a carousel since I seriously entered the world of Knowledge Management (KM). I regularly find myself hanging around at places where people interested in good knowledge working meet virtually or physically, like KM blogs or meetings of like-minded colleagues. In any case, places where people with a greater awareness for the importance and value of Knowledge Management are, many of those knowing each other already for quite a while. “Knowledge workers”, “knowledge experts”, “knowledge managers”, “knowledge enthusiasts”, “knowledge evangelists”, gurus, consultants, etc. pp.. We then intensively discuss the meanings of terms, theoretical and innovative concepts, as well as why so many companies are such ignorant regarding the benefits of KM. Assumed that you are such a rational guy like me, you can glory in that, and without doubt you will meet a lot of interesting people. And normally all will agree, that they know how it works … or as it actually should work. And it’s true. We know how it could be done, efficiently and with maximum value for a company. But … it is completely for nothing! Well, yes, it always has been nice to talk to each other again. But finally with zero impact on real life. At the end all together spin around, and ever and anon the same people are having the same (philosophical) discussions. They feel comfortable with each other and don’t need anyone else. People know each other, appreciate each other, understand each other. Just to avoid any misunderstanding. The strategies and concepts developed and discussed by us “knowledge experts” are in general really good and trendsetting. They have the potential to substantially change and improve enterprise knowledge sharing. It is just never applied. Somehow none of all the good ideas and solutions becomes real, in a true implementation. I frankly do not understand so far what leads to failure, and I am thankful for any hint. By the way, this general tendency for parallel universe seems to be common with all “managements” (Information Management, Knowledge Management, Innovation Management, …). Perhaps a fraction of the problem is within the name already. As a first step I decided to have real life feasibility and implementation as my personal benchmark in the future. I say yes to hot air … if a turbine is driven by it. And I don’t really expect it to be the big strike, the complete new knowledge strategy within the company. I also accept minor steps and improvements, if they go into the right direction. And by the way, this fits to the latest crowd-intelligence-social-media-hype in Knowledge Management (which to my opinion is absolutely overrated … but that’s another story). One important thing with carousel rides is not to miss the right moment to get off and back on solid ground. Otherwise … as mentioned before, well mhhh…
A couple of days ago, I had lunch with a colleague, and we once again reflected on the question why big companies work internally like they just do. That one might get the impression of a stone field, where the stones are obvious to everybody … but are not moved away by anybody. But perhaps this is basically the wrong attitude. Later the picture of a fish leaped into my mind. A fish who moves through wild and troubled whitewater. People like us would probably say: well, let’s take out the stones first. This will calm the water and make our way easier. But the fish … gets ahead without difficulties and without our strategic approach. And finally reaches his goal even against the stream. On top of that, he most likely reaches the goal more efficiently and faster as if he would have waited for the calming of the river. He just swims. He does not moan about the troubled water and that this was caused by the last reorganization. He is not annoyed at the “not well elaborated structure” of the river. He does not stop in front of each stone philosophizing if this particular rock is at its right place or how this could be changed. He just swims … around the stone, passing underneath, passing over, or perhaps sometimes vaulting it. But always with a smile. And finally reaching his goal. I also resolved to be more like a fish in the future. Not to wait for big changes and ideal conditions. Not to be annoyed at wrong corporate structures and management decisions. But just to lead the way every single day, by using existing possibilities and opportunities, to bring things forward. Not to moan about the drawbacks of actual conditions, but to use their odds. Not to wait for the big changes and improvements, but to take the small steps. And to never lose sight of the virtual goal. Because the stones are neither the goal nor the mission … Addendum: One saying should not be missed in that context: “Only dead fish swim with the stream!” Well, in fact this is not completely true. Fish always swim to where the food is. And they actually do not really mind if they have to swim with or against the stream to reach it. But this should now be enough of animal allegories ……
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Life
Do you also sometimes feel flooded with bad news? Wars, climate change, natural disasters, species extinction, hate speech, political egomaniacs, weakened economy, financial uncertainties,…
People who know me a bit better also know that photography is my personal passion. Even provided it is not really my preferred genre, but I took an opportunity to improve my capabilities on landscape photography at a 1-day small-group workshop in the Black Forest, Germany. Together with a professional photographer we started in the darkness of the pre-sunrise morning, walking up the Herzogenhorn peak (where the photo above was shot). This was followed by additional locations around, the Feldsee (lake) and the Fahler Wasserfall (waterfall). Photography is my perfect way to clearing my head and resetting my brain. Looking to the world through a lens makes you being fully focused and concentrated. Photography allowed me to learn how different perspectives can be and how exciting it is to explore different ones. Some selected shots by me @Flickr…
Music was my first love … and I really enjoy playing it. As a young man I had been a quite active trumpet player. For the last ~20 years I switched to singing in a choir. I particularly enjoy doing music together with others, forming one orchestrated musical body, listening to each other, contributing to a unified sound, and – certainly – performing on stage. Plus, it is pure fun. You can listen to us on December 14th and 15th 2024 in Müllheim/Germany, and enjoy two fantastic pieces of music, the “Sunrise Mass” by Ola Gjeilo and the “Misatango” by Martin Palmeri … who I had the pleasure to meet and sing together with a couple of years ago. But this is another story. I am sharing some YouTube clips of our choir below. Curious if you can spot me. And looking forward seeing you at one of our next…
My wife and I have a new project. We are renovating a new home in the Black Forest. A truly lovely place to be. The woods around produce a lot of good air, oxygen and positive energy. Hiking trails are nearby. We instantly perceived a kind of ‘revitalization’ on the spot. And it is an area where other people go for vacation. OK, in all honesty, there is also a lot of work to be done as we are factually fundamentally renovating the house. On some days this might be more a challenge (esp. when it is about bureaucratic paper chase). On others it is absolutely fun planning how we are going to live and making it happen hands-on. And a great opportunity to get the brain freed from mental load and a more intellectual day-to-day…
Leadership
When I joined the new enterprise-level position as a Strategic Lead for Digital Customer Experiences at Roche Pharma in early 2022, I firstly did an in-depth…
Digital
Today, I had the great pleasure to discuss with Olivier Mourrieras how customer journeys reveal no only moments-that-matter but also…
Pharma
After moving to an enterprise role as Strategic Lead Digital CX at Roche Pharma, my first effort had been to assess the internal readiness of the company for executing on state-of-the-art CX models and approaches. I provided an internal ‘Roche Pharma state of CX’ report which was revealing … The results of the assessment helped me to prioritize next steps and enabled me to take action on. One outcome had been that Voice-of-the-customer is absolutely foundational (how can provide better customer experiences without knowing costumers’ experiences) I took the opportunity to take the lead of the just-about-to-start corporate VoC Program. Another key learning had been that a much closer linking and alignment would be critical of teams and individuals contributing to the evolution of CX at Roche Pharma. So, I started a collective CX Exec Coaching, supported by previous senior CX leaders from other industries as external coaches. CLIENT:Roche Pharma Global Product Strategy(as a Roche employee)PROJECT TIME FRAME: February – May…
In 2021, members of my team of the Roche Pharma Medical CX department together with the Roche Pharma Global Medical Information team were driving an truly exciting initiative on innovating how Roche answers to medical information inquiries. The initiative called ‘Customer Driven Content Authoring’ (CDCA) was based on a systematic co-design approach with Roche customers, physicians, pharmacists and patients. Medical information requests (MIRs) or medical inquiries are an obligatory and vital service provided by pharma companies. It is a bit similar to service call centers in other industries, but much more sensitive and regulated. Every answer provided could have an impact to an individual patient’s life. A big pharma company like Roche, serving millions of patients around the globe, receives ~100k medical inquiries each year. Mostly questions by health care providers (~75%) and patients (~25%), e.g. on treatment safety and treatment efficacy under specific circumstances. Now, what people typically experienced as an answer to a medical inquiry were long, text-heavy, scientific language based documents. Those were not easy to read and ‘digest’ for medical and pharmaceutical professionals (HCPs). And they were – in my opinion – nearly impossible to understand for lay people like patients and their families. As a result, HCPs and patients told us that the find it hard to access the information they need at the point of need. They clearly asked that answers provided by us need to be easier to use & understand. Within less than 3 months, the team provided a new set-up and design for global medical information responses. They used agile methodology, customer-centric needs research, personas, journeys, sentiment analysis, A/B testing and actively co-designed with physician, pharmacist and patient representatives. Now you will be curious about the outcomes … Amazing, right?! Remember, this was achieved in less than 3 months, simply by collaborating cross-functionally plus actively involving customers. Obviously, the biggest improvement was with patients, not really surprisingly. But even with physicians (MD) and pharmacists an increase of ease-of-use of 20-30% had been achieved associated with an increase of confidence in answers provided by the company. I had the pleasure presenting the approach and top level outcomes at a session of the cross-industries’ CX Council (I am a member of) and at the 2021 CX Management for Life Sciences conference, where it received a remarkable amount of acknowledgement by colleagues and…
In my role as Global Head of the Medical Customer Experience department at Roche Pharma (global) I have been co-initiating and co-sponsoring an initiative which aimed to make a Roche therapeutic area (“product line”) more patient-centric. Together with the TA’s medical director, the Global Head of Patient Partnership and smart colleagues across all functions involved we focused on identifying barriers (to be removed), providing enabling resources enabling (facilitating patient-centricity in day-to-day business), and ‘building on successes’ (sharing best practice…
I was leading a global biomarker+genetic testing program aiming to identify hidden patients with Niemann-Pick type C, an ultra-rare and severe neuro-metabolic disease (prevalence 1:89’000, ~1’000 patients on treatment worldwide). The project included 44 countries, mostly in Europe, Latin America, Middle East and North Africa. We used a highly specific and sensitive biomarker, Lyso-SM-509, provided by the Centogene AG lab, who was also performing the analyses. We were able to identify >200 additional patients, achieving surprisingly high hit rate of 5 in 100, corresponding to 4 patients per month on average. Investment per patient identified was in the range of 5.2% of yearly treatment costs. CLIENT:Actelion Specialty Care Global Business Unit(as an Actelion employee and member of)PROJECT TIME FRAME: January 2014 – August…
I developed and provided a medical education program on MF-CTCL disease, supporting the launch of a new treatment product for the rare dermato-oncological disease. The program includes … CLIENT:Actelion Specialty Care Global Business Unit(as an Actelion employee and team member)PROJECT TIME FRAME: February – May…
Do you know the “Society for Participatory Medicine”? They claim that the internet brings patients together with information and with each other, and by that is revolutionizing the relationship between patient and health care providers. David deBronkart, or better known as “e-patient Dave” was diagnosed in January 2007 with kidney cancer at a very late stage. Odds were stacked against him; with tumors in both lungs, several bones, and muscle tissue. He received great treatment and after removing the extensive mess, and by means of therapy was able to fight through and win the battle over his cancer. His last treatment was July 23, 2007, and by September it was clear he’d beaten the disease. Dave is now actively engaged in opening health care information directly to patients on an unprecedented level, thus creating a new dynamic in how information is delivered, accessed and used by the patient. This is revolutionizing the relationship between patient and health care providers, which in turn will impact insurance, careers/jobs, quality of life and the distribution of finances across the entire spectrum of health care. The e-Patient Scholars Working Group consists of pioneers, both medical and lay, who have been quietly (and not so quietly) altering the balance of power in healthcare, demonstrating that as the internet brings patients together with information and with each other, a new world of Participatory Medicine is evolving, in which patients become potent agents in creating and managing their own health, in partnership with physicians. Connected resources…
Medical microbiologists and hygiene experts are warning against the excessive use of antibiotics for years now. They observe more and more resistances which have been forced by the constant misuse of antibiotics. Now, a July 2002 article in the online issue of the journal New Scientist reported that vancomycin – one of the final weapons in the fight against infectious bacteria – lost his power. A strain of Staphylococcus bacteria that is insensitive to vancomycin-treatment was found by medical staff in a hospital in Michigan (USA). Furthermore, VRSA strains (vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) already turned up in Japan. Bacteria are distributing (that should not really be a surprise), and during their travels they are “talking” with each other (if you allow me to call information exchange a talk). Vancomycin-resistant enterococci, bacteria from the gut, are well known already since 15 years. Enterococcus is a low-grade opportunistic pathogen which is completely harmless unless a person has reduced immunity. But scientists already expected to find other species carrying the information for the resistance sooner or later as a result of “talks with colleagues”. Staphylococcus aureus now is much more of a problem with greater pathogenic potential. The bacteria are common inhabitants of human skin and nose. Under normal conditions the species is a harmless microfloral companion like many others living in and on our body. But when Staphylococcus aureus enters open wounds it is able to cause inflammations up to – sometimes fatal – blood poisoning. The finding of penicillin by Alexander Fleming in 1928 and the following development of a variety of antibiotics helped to fight these infections as well as a broad range of bacterial diseases that let people around the world suffer till the middle of the past century. The following age of the antibiotics had also been a period where the believe that there is a pill against everything dominated common thinking as well as public health programmes including medical education. But today common antibiotics do not work anymore with many ubiquitous germs – many of them already carrying multi-resistances. For example the methicillin-resistant Staphylococci, an extremely harmful variation who is resistant to all standard penicillin antibiotics. In these cases only glycopeptides like vancomycin have been the last bastion against often deadly infections. Vancomycin has always been known as the antibiotic of last resort. Another bastion that fell now. If we stay in this military view and language one has to realize that we had a lot of furious and quite successful tactical manoeuvres during the past decades, but the overriding strategy is going into the wrong direction. Latest findings of scientific disciplines like population biology and population genetics need to be much more included. And – as bacteria do not care about national borders – there still is a deep need to improve international standards for medical education. Progressive strategies for the usage of antibiotics must not be under control of national authorities anymore. The escalation of the bacteriological arms race has been caused by people who should really know it better: doctors. Doctors who are using the antibiotic tool not correctly. To my opinion latest issues of medical microbiology and population biology should be far more integrated in university courses and further education. Let me give you an example. When I had been in France last Christmas, I got a painful ear infection. I need to explain that I had had an operation some years earlier that left this ear without tympanic membrane, and so every infection is a reason to take care. But I was already used to it, and knew the standard procedures from my ‘doctor in charge’ at home in Germany, that always included a detailed diagnosis of the infecting germ. So, coming back to Christmas in France, I went to a local hospital (quite modern and fashionable, by the way) to see an otologist, an ear specialist. I was surprised! Everything was going very fast. It seemed that this entire diagnosis stuff was not really necessary. I finally left the hospital after 15 minutes with a prescription. Later in the hotel I had a closer view to the drugs I was honored with. I had three heavy-stuff antibiotics and cortisone in my hands. Someone seemed to think that I was really close to death. And that without any state-of-the-art diagnosis of the causing agent, if it was viral, bacterial or fungal type 1. Sorry for my open words, but to my opinion this had been an irresponsible conduct. Not irresponsible regarding the single patient (me in that case), but to a general health situation that finally affects every ‘single patient’ again sooner or later. My wife – who is French by the way (“o la la”) – later told me that this a normal behavior in France. Many doctors are giving antibiotics for everything, even a simple viral (sic!) cold. And this for sure is not a French problem. Meanwhile I heard similar reports about some German practitioners, who take the easiest way by prescribing pills without any clear diagnosis, too. And in the United States everybody can buy antibiotics on one’s own in a pharmacy without any prescription??? Hey folks, we are not talking about vitamin C or Aspirin! These are drugs that need to be used under strict control and with a certain strategy. These are drugs that are pillars of our health systems. And everybody knows that there is no other group of drugs that are under such a pressure by emerging resistances. I would not waste a thought about some stupid doctors who are not aware what they are doing. But I am deeply concerned about the basic faults in our health systems that lead to misuse along a wide front. Yes, I am really angry. Meanwhile I have become somehow an extremist targeting medics as well as public health systems … as regards the antibiotics misuse. I am sad about the current situation because if some people would have had just used their brains but their prescription pads we might not need to worry about it today. Just go to any university hospital and ask them for ‘hospital infections’. These people are in the front line. They know the problems we already have. And they have to pay for it. The Michigan patient infected by the vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus finally survived after treatment with an “antiquated” antibiotic called chloramphenicol, but – according to doctors – the VRSA’s susceptibility to this drug was fortunate. We need to change the direction. Now! 1 I have to note that in past cases it has been always bacterial or fungal, and I am not sure if there is any causative viral agent of the middle ear. Read more … Revised version of the article “Superbugs knockin’ on the door”, originally published in August 2002 by Inside-Lifescience, ISSN…
Let’s start with a joke. “What are three Germans doing that you have put into one room? – Founding an association!” In Germany we have associations for everything in the smallest village. Associations of hen breeders, associations of stamp collectors, associations of local singers, associations of hobby gardeners, associations of wine drinkers, associations of The Kelly Family concert visitors, and so on. Since late 2001 we additionally have the German Society for Proteome Research (DGPF), whose very first founding charter was wrote down on a beer mat (well, we are in Germany, aren’t we). The foundation of the DGPF by scientists and industry representatives was a reaction on latest market and application movements towards protein research. Germany already has had strong Proteomics (& protein) research when others were still chasing the holy grail Genomics. But – to my impression – it was never really well communicated. So, one major aim of the DGPF will be to improve the international knowledge about the high level of German Proteomics. But why are researchers and the industry more and more focussed on Proteomics? One of the major disadvantages of Genomics approaches is the missing connection between a gene and its cellular function. The fact that a gene has been sequenced does not give us the cellular function of the gene product. That makes genomic results so difficult to interpret. Even the sequence analysis with bioinformatics tools does not yield the full picture. Additional problems arise through the organisation of the genetic information as well as the fact that only a subset of genes is active in a specific cell at a specific stage. So, scientists are moving to the functional level, to the gene products, to the proteins. And they developed the new term, “Proteomics”, for the complete set of proteins (functions) of a cell in a specific stage, in analogy to “Genomics” that addresses the complete set of genes (information) of a cell. Similar to other attempts with a large-scale option in industrial applications (drug discovery e.g.), it will depend on the technology developing and supplying industry if Proteomics will get its chance. When I was doing the research for this article I had the impression that some companies just stuck the Proteomics label onto their existing products. This is neither a solution nor does it really fit the researchers needs. But where are the bottlenecks and what has to be done? There is a dramatic increase of complexity while switching from the genetic to the functional level. A gene is a gene is a gene. There is slight variation caused by introns and foreign elements as well as expression control. But our scientific thinking is dominated by the “one gene – one protein” paradigm, even since the knowledge about posttranscriptional modifications has shown that it is not just that simple. With proteins one has to view every single candidate in the context of multi-functionality and networking. In many cases one protein is not just one function. It is part of a high-complex cellular network of interacting and cascading activities. The function of most regulatory proteins for example depends on environment (regarding ‘cellular clock’ and location), posttranslational modifications and interacting partners. As a result one protein might have a couple of functions depending on where, when and with whom it is. This puts Proteomics to trouble. At first, there are still no powerful technologies for many aspects in large-scale protein research available. Friedrich Lottspeich, head of the protein analysis group at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biochemistry in Munich and DGPF-chairman, said that recent methods exhibit great potential but are not yet ready for the industrial job, in drug discovery for example. There are only few suitable solutions for automation and high-throughput. Early stage MALDI-TOF applications work pretty well, in Structural Proteomics e.g.. But problems with high-throughput sample preparation, low abundant and hydrophobic proteins are unsolved. In Functional Proteomics automated interaction-screens based on the 2-Hybrid, SPR (surface plasmon resonance) or TAP (tandem affinity purification) technologies – that are essential to discover the networking aspect of proteins – are at its infancy. Antibody-based biochips already show the direction. At second, Proteome research results in huge amounts of data. Corresponding to the higher complexity, Proteomics causes exponentially more data than Genomics does. But drug discovery (and scientific research in common) is not just collecting data, even if one might suspect some scientists to think so. No, the scientific progress depends on results derived by the analysis and interpretation of collected data. And this is getting more and more difficult with increasing complexity. Finally, the complexity of protein functionality has to be taken into account while moving forward. An attempt to this is the field of Integrated Proteomics that considers various views by the combination of data coming from different approaches and sources. But . this again increases not only the total amount of data to be analysed but also the level of complexity. According to Thomas Franz, head of the Proteomics core facility at EMBL Heidelberg, existing bioinformatics solutions are not able to quantitatively and qualitatively analyse the produced data. This opinion is shared by a couple of colleagues working in the field. Scientific teams are analysing the data manually again because this is more effective and still yields the most meaningful results. The conclusion is an answer to my question what has to be done. There is a deep need for at least a) large-scale protein research technologies, b) suitable bioinformatics solutions and c) Proteomics-optimized devices. I am curious about the future development of Proteomics. It might be overrun by other “-omics” in public attention. But I am convinced that Proteomics will contribute important findings to our understanding of how a cell works. And for sure it is and will be a major market for technology suppliers and bioinformatics companies. Originally published in April 2002 by Inside-Lifescience, ISSN…
Within 5 weeks in Q2/2009, I designed and implemented a new literature support process for periodic safety reports by Novartis Drug Safety. The service was fully compliant to regulatory requirements and covered all global Novartis drugs (~160) as well as all periodic safety reports to relevant authorities by Novartis Global Drug Safety (PSUR, PBRER, ASR, DSUR). For example in 2012 and 2013, around 1’000 produkt-related literature searches per year were processed by the service (on average 85 per month). Originally this process had been intended to be an interim solution. But due to its stability, reliability and scalability, it was subsequently expanded to Sandoz (generics) and Novartis Vaccines products, and continued beyond me leaving Novartis in 2014. CLIENT:Novartis Drug Safety(as a Novartis employee)PROJECT TIME FRAME: May – June 2009…
Between 2009 and 2013, I responsibly cared for the internal customer relationship management on behalf of the Novartis Knowledge Management business unit. My objectives had been to proactively manage customer relations, to align our deliveries with our clients’ business needs, to design efficient customer service processes ensuring high levels of customer satisfaction, and to coordinate the customer support team. In this role, I responsibly conducted an internal customer survey by doing series of interviews with middle and senior management stakeholders. I published the results in April 2009 as internal report “Current situation of the Novartis Pharma internal information supply – An analysis of needs and bottlenecks”. In the following years, I had the opportunity to complement the business analysis by an additional round of customer interviews on end-user level (2010) as well as an in-depth internal analysis on the impact of efficient literature research on the productivity at Novartis (2013). CLIENT:Novartis Knowledge Management(as a Novartis employee)PROJECT TIME FRAME: December 2008 – April…
Intelligence
In 2020, a highly talented CX Insights lead in the Roche Pharma Medical CX department (which I had the pleasure to lead), together with cross-functional colleagues, set-up and drove the first global customer feedback program at Roche Pharma. The initiative called ‘OneFeedback’ (leaned towards the ‘OneRoche’ vision wording) had been the forerunner of and was later fusing into the Roche Pharma corporate Voice-of-the-customer program. OneFeedback was initially focusing on key corporate customer touch-points in the web, which all were homed in the MedCX department at that time. Within the initiative the team was also closely collaborating with the Roche Technical Operations (PT) division, which was partially serving the same customers. And over time, a couple of trailblazing Roche affiliates joined to run local feedback pilots – also on email channel – which gave early real-life evidence of positive business impact. I am not overstating when saying that the OneFeedback initiative is one example of the trailblazing innovations initiated within the Medical CX department at that time, which continued to resonate in the organisation years after. It early allowed the organization to “play with” & learn how customer feedback could be smartly done by a pharmaceutical company. And it was paving the way for the larger-scale corporate VoC program which was initiated in mid-2022, and which I have the honor to lead since…
Pharmaceutical companies have an inevitable need for regular if not permanent analysis of literature published on their products. They are not only legally obligated with regards to pharmacovigilance (e.g. processing of any undesirable drug effect reported somewhere) and medical information (e.g. answering product inquires by practitioners and pharmacists). Beyond that, product reports within the scientific literature are a full treasure of real-world product behavior findings which support marketing, competitor intelligence, product innovation, and more. But we are talking about giant pool of millions of publications within thousands of scientific journals which is growing every single day. Ad-hoc searching and analyzing costs reasonable amounts of money: The solution So-called “product literature databases” (PLDs) or “corporate literature databases” deliver the knowledge about what has been published about your own products … much more efficient than highly redundant and multiplied individual ad-hoc literature searches. PLDs are sort of subsets of the worldwide literature, including only publications which mention at least one product of the company. Typically, they are filled by automatic search agents (search profiles) or by feeds delivered by database providers. Well-designed PLDs also provide mechanisms for rating publications, annotating information and signaling predefined events. External PLD providers UK-based Pi2 solutions Ltd. is an established vendor for customized pharma and biotech PLD solutions and was acquired by ProQuest Dialog this summer. Pi2 traditionally supports Pfizer, and since 2009/2010 also Wyeth (who had worked with OvidSP® for ad-hoc literature research before). A 2013 poster presented at the 9th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Medical Publication Professionals might give some information on general approaches. Beyond that are no public information available regarding Pi2’s market success or market share, and I am quite curious about impact of the new collaboration with ProQuest. Other potential providers of PLD solutions are major B2B specialist information database and service providers, like Reed Elsevier, Thomson Reuters and Wolters Kluwer, who are factually dominating the mass market for literature raw data. Particularly Elsevier has already shown strong interest in providing more customized and mature services to industry clients. They quite recently build a kind of customized product literature service for Sanofi’s pharmacovigilance by combining their database content with the QUOSA literature management software. In-house PLDs The Novartis pharma group had their own internal PLD since the late 60’s, called “eNova”. This solution has been the most mature and significant PLD I have ever seen. Novartis not only collected literature on their products, they also applied a kind of in-depth ‘digestion’ of reported product findings and clinical data. As a result, the PLD was able to very precisely answer questions on any aspect of real-world drug behavior at the push of a button. “eNova” was finally discontinued and shut-off by Novartis end of 2013, despite the fact that internal analysis had shown substantial positive impact on productivity and individual time savings for product related literature research & analysis of 93% and more. Roche once also had an internal PLD similar to “eNova”, which was shut-down a couple of years ago already. As a “side effect” corresponding product literature research & analysis activities and workload were distributed across the organisation. For example, each national affiliate had to substitute the service by an own solution to continue mandatory MedInfo deliveries and to comply with regulatory expectations. It goes without saying that this split-up of different solutions and approaches did not really result in an overall productivity increase nor in overall cost savings. A little later, after negative effects became more and more evident and clear, Roche tried to reactivate their in-house PLD. But unfortunately the reintroduction failed as 2-digit million CHF investments were needed but not provided. By the way, much more money than continuing the Roche in-house PLD would have costed. Why do PLDs have such a poor standing? Watching the developments at Novartis and Roche, one automatically ends up with the question for what reason their PLDs were shut-off … despite obvious downsides for the enterprises? Actually, there are some dependencies and basic conditions for the reasonable operation of an in-house PLD. And those dependencies and basic conditions are sometimes contrary to currently practiced management paradigms. Summary An in-house PLD – cleverly designed and implemented – is able to reliably cover the need to know that has been published about a company’s own products. It also prevents troubles with regulatory expectations and authorities, and increases productivity at once. But “cleverly designed and implemented” also includes a long-term strategic integration within the enterprise as well as a reasonable degree of independence from short-term decisions and tactical changes. Any short-term shut-down of an established in-house PLD bears the risk to create hidden but substantial costs. And in all known cases it had been an irreversible back to zero. Currently, one of the biggest challenges of PLDs is, to give medics and other non information professionals efficient access to product answers, especially by more productive and intuitive user interfaces. Success will be result of votes by the feet … resp. by the…
Information research on freedom-to-operate is daily business patent research. But it should never be undervalued. Every single project somehow is a class of its own. And missing the tiniest piece of “public” information can have major impact on the success of your IP strategy. So, standard guides and how-to’s do not really serve the need for distinct research strategy and brain power. But 10 basic rules might help to be more effective and successful … As a it could be of special interest, I added some tips to reduce your costs with FTO research at the end of this post. Step 1 – Asking questions will be crucial for success FTO research should not be like tapping around in the dark. With the words of a good friend of mine, FTO research should be defining the borders and specs of the football field (“playground”). So, start your mission with asking questions. A lot of questions. From different angles and viewpoints. As a patent attorney or research manager, feel mandated to give your information searcher as much background information and direction as possible. And allow him or her to bother and challenge you. Jointly develop authoritative search keyword synonym groups as well as a sound search strategy, which is a proper balance between quality and quantity. Last not least do some early preview searches in database indexes while developing the strategy, which will give you an impression if your strategy works as well as on volumes. Step 2 – Include non-patent literature Sometimes it is helpful to think through the backdoor. Non-patent scientific literature can increase the certainty of your FTO. Is there any publication (scientific literature, common press) that might prevent a 2nd party application? But consider the following peculiarities of scientific literature databases, please: Step 3 – Choose the right information sources There are public sources, e.g. for patent literature, like esp@cenet, USPTO, DEPATISnet, and with other national patent authorities. Pro’s free of chargequickly accessible via the internetCon’s limited search opportunitieslimited service only You get what you pay. Specialist information databases on the other hand provide “pre-digested” high quality information. Established vendors are STN, Delphion, Proquest Dialog, and FIZ Technik (in Germany). Pro’s editorial post-processingadded value (indexing, reviewing)extensive and effective search functionscrosslinks between different databasesoption of multi-file searchessubstantial service and support(e.g. helpdesk, trainings, documentation)Con’s considerable costs (royalties)professional search tools needtraining & experience So, you pay what you get. Step 4 – Dare to get external support External information specialists (agencies and freelancers) provide you a sound information research & analysis competence, a considerable level of flexibility, and – last not least – an independent viewpoint. But there are a few things you might want to consider and check before working together … Step 5 – Know peculiarities of sources No, I don’t want to give a lecture on professional information research. But again, there are some peculiarities of source databases, you should take into account when interpreting results. Taking all together, most information professionals prefer to use multi-files searches (database clusters) instead of single file searches. But a proper level of experience is needed to not just get more, but to ensure that nothing relevant is lost. Step 6 – Know peculiarities of content Be critical regarding accuracy, completeness and timeliness of any search database content. All databases are full of errors, some created with introduction of the data, some originate from the original document already. Spelling mistakes … by patent applicant, by OCR reading, by misinterpretation of special characters with some languages, by data errors during processing. As a result, your keywords do not match. Solution:truncate your search keywordsuse character maskinge.g. “er!thropo!tin*” matches “erythropoetin”, “erythropoétine”, “erithropoetines”, … Applications not using right terminology … by patent applicant, perhaps intentionally. So, again your – right – keywords do not match. Solution:think beyond the typical terminology to find additional unusual synonyms for your search keywordstruncate your search keywords Not helpful keywords … that have multiple meanings or occur regularly but unspecific within the literature. E.g. “protein”, “cell”, “screen”, “agent”, some substance names, acronyms, etc. Those keywords can give you non-relevant hits and bothersome background noise. Solution:do not use these keywords with your search increase stringency by delimitation or combination limit search to single database fields (title, claims, e.g.)use acronyms in combination with other keywords only Filing dates Several circumstances create problems with time period limitations used by your search. E.g. by the period of application, by the time gap between filing and database entry as well as by different characteristics of static and dynamic literature databases. As a result, you don’t get some publications you should. Solution:include “preview” databases with your search repeat search after 18 months to completely cover the time frame of one general application period monitoring Hidden applications and “submarines” With some search strategies you might accidentally miss relevant publications. E.g. using IPCs in search profile increases stringency…. but might overlook applications that are located in exceptional classes. Another issue are unpublished US applications. Solution:try a search with excluding your IPCs of choice (“NOT”) High numbers of hits Solution:check search profile for sources of “background noise”check efficiency of family sortgo back to database indexwith full-text databases, limit search to selected fields (title, claims, abstract, …)increase stringency – further delimitation possible?reduce truncationsreduce acronymsuse IPCscreate sub-searches Step 7 – Have positive control references up your sleeve Hold back at least one internal positive control (publication) that should be found by the search strategy. If the positive control(s) was not found, improve the search strategy. Step 8 – Ensure availability of specialist expertise for special topics and tasks Some types of FTO searches, like on bio-sequences, chemical structures or statistical analysis (competitive intelligence) – require specialized tools, special sources as well as particular knowledge and expertise of the analyst. It is vital to have all three in place! Step 9 – Carefully interpret results Here is a list of my recommendations with interpreting results … Step 10 – Stay up-to-date To my opinion, it is not sufficient to just state FTO at a certain time point. It needs to be watched. So, monitoring comes into game. Most professional database providers offer alert functions for a given search profile, which automatically drop you a note to your mailbox once a new piece of information is available. It is a quick win to use this functionality. In addition, current awareness searches might be needed at larger intervals to complete the full picture. This approach also allows you fine tuning or search strategies, resp. the adjustment to a changed “football field”. Special: 10 steps to keep down your costs This post is based on a presentation first given at the C5’s European FTO Congress, Munich, November…
Since the late 1960’s up to the end of 2013, eNova was the Corporate Product Literature Database of Novartis and its ancestors. But in fact it was much more than that. Over many years of continuous improvements, eNova had evolved to the most sophisticated, mature and powerful information source on real-world product behavior. Providing an outstanding high level of “digestion” of source data, eNova was able to answer very specific questions regarding clinical findings and medical evidences on Novartis products 24/7 and within just a few minutes … where alternative methods needed hours to days. During my time at Novartis, I was responsible for the content of eNova which was systematically and continuously picked out of the scientific literature and conference abstracts and analyzed. I was the owner of the corresponding Novartis-specific guidelines for information classification and analysis, and continuously improved and streamlined the rule sets to assure the expected level of quality. I cared for the quality and stability of corresponding eNova content creating and updating processes. In addition, I was in charge for (internal) customer relations, user support, and user training. CLIENT:Novartis Pharma AG(as a Novartis employee)PROJECT TIME FRAME: November 2008 – December 2013 READ MORE…
With a so-called “bibliographic search” you are looking for the abstract or full-text of a scientific publication. This means, you already have at least some citation information on the publication, like author name(s), publication year, title, journal name, volume#, issue#, and/or page#. There are some known traps and pitfalls with bibliographic searches, that I would like to share with you. 6 pitfalls for bibliographic searches … 1. Always assume a typo Generally assume typos in either the database record of the publication, or your notes, or the original publication. 2. Do not use special characters If the known publication title you would like to search for includes any special characters, like hyphens, colons, commas, semicolons, brackets, Greek symbols and so on and so forth, use only those parts of the title for your search which do not include any of those. Example:”Oral fingolimod (FTY720) in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS): 2-Year αData efficacy results; the phase III FREEDOMS I trial”should be searched as”Oral fingolimod” AND “multiple sclerosis” AND “efficacy results” AND “phase III FREEDOMS I trial” However, some literature databases handle brackets, hyphens & co. quite well. When they are phrased. Example:”Oral fingolimod (FTY720) in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS)” By the way. In literature databases non-Latin characters (Greek symbols e.g.) are normally translated to the corresponding Latin character (α -> a) or written out (α -> alpha). Similar for local characters, like the French accents (à, á, â) that most likely will be used just as “a”. 3. Do not trust publication titles Even if the known title of a publication can be the quickest way to identify the reference, always doubt it. If you do not find anything with it, it does not necessarily mean that the publication is not there. The source, where you have it from might have included an error, or there could be an accidental typo. Also think about the already mentioned different notations for Greek symbols, special characters, numbers (3, III, three) or abbreviations as well as differently use blanks, that are all potential variations resp. sources of mismatches. If you cannot pass on searching the title, the solution might be to not use the complete but just a fragment of it, which seems to be more valid (= less opportunities for variations) . Examples:”Oral fingolimod (FTY720) in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS): 2-Year αData efficacy results; the phase III FREEDOMS I trial”could be searched in the title field as”Oral fingolimod (FTY720) in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis” 4. Use author’s last names only For “Jean-Paul Sartre” you would find the following alternative writings in scientific literature databases: Sometimes you find even in a single database notation variations of the same author’s name. So, the only stable and consistent values are the author’s last names. 5. Use sparse search values only If you know the full citation data, a search with the first authors last name, the publication year and the first page number alone in most cases will be sufficient and bears minimum risk only for mistakes and typos. Examples: 6. Avoid journal names Search for journal names only if there is no other opportunity to identify. But keep in mind that there might be variations of the journal name like “Proceedings of the National Association of Science”, “Proc Nat Assoc Sci”, and “PNAS”. Better limit by clearer values, like volume number, issue number, publication year, first page number … without using the journal name. So, and now just enjoy your next search! Try those 6 simple rules, and failure should be…
The major challenge for most IP workers is to know where and how to retrieve up-to-date, high-quality patent as well as patent-related information. Well, for simple searches regarding a known patent number, inventor, assignee, head title, etc. there are already a couple of easy-to-use Internet sources provided by national and international patent authorities. For example, esp@cenet (EPODOC), DEPATISnet and the USPTO databases. Another promising source for basic searches – especially in the context of drug development – is DrugPatentWatch. But this one – as the ones following now – unfortunately is not for free. For more complex information research, like comprehensive FTO, patent infringements, intended patent revocations, patent portfolio analysis, etc., more suitable tools for executing efficient and in the end successful searches are needed. In those cases patent experts consult highly specialized databases provided by database hosts like STN, Lexis-Nexis, Dialog and others. What is a ‘database host’? Hosts give a whole set of databases by various producers a virtual home. Their major advantages are that … The hosts major disadvantages are that they are not for free, and that you need to be trained in their specific retrieval languages. But these retrieval systems are essential for using the most powerful search and analysis tools. The hosts are already aware of that problem, and they try to win even those customers that are not used to retrieval languages. For example, they offer more and more search masks via Web interfaces. But to be honest … a search mask will never really be able to provide the same versatile functionalities a retrieval language does. What host should I use? Most hosts set priority to a specific field of information. STN concentrates on scientific and literature information (biotech, pharma, chemistry, engineering, material science, etc.), Dialog on business and market information, and Lexis-Nexis on law and legal information. Interestingly, most hosts offer patent literature as this branch of specialist information is one of the most lucrative … shame to him who thinks evil of it. Delphion (formerly IBM patent server, now member of the Thomson Derwent Group) is the only host that offers just patent databases without the option to do cross-research with non-patent databases, but with extensive analysis tools. You should also have closer look to the type of clearing procedure. With Dialog for example, you pay a flat fee in advance that expires after a year, independently if you used your account or not. Others, like STN Classic, calculate database usage time plus document royalties. Others, like STN Easy, have no time costs but slightly higher document royalties. Our recommendation for starting with host information searches regarding Life Science topics would be ‘STN Easy’, as this retrieval surface is more easy to use for beginners and the costs are comprehensible. Finally, if you say “no, I do really not need to do also THAT”, you may consult a professional information searcher, called infobroker or information broker. Information brokers are experts in retrieving specialist information from various sources. Most of them are specialized to branches of businesses, and are organized in associations like the AIIP (Association of Independent Information Professionals) or the German DGI (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Informationswissenschaft und Informationspraxis). In future posts I will go more into detail on pros&cons of specific databases and on proper strategies to get the most out of your research. Look forward! Revised version of the article “Identifying High-Quality Patent Information”, originally published in June 2004 by Inside-Lifescience, ISSN…
Within two weeks in November 2010, I conceived the “Drug Intelligence Report” concept (360° view on a product) for Novartis Global Medical Affairs. The mission was to provide senior management with a daily-basis full picture view on Novartis products. Factually, the general situation at Novartis at that time was a high fragmentation of internal information sources and services, so that colleagues quite often had to spend considerable time with gathering information themselves. The core principle of the Drug Intelligence Report concept was to provide a single location where all information sources could be accessed in a consolidated and integrated way. The team subsequently provided a Sharepoint-implemented prototype successfully showing proof of concept. Concept and principles of the “360° view on a drug” had then been considered with the development of “eNova NG” at Novartis. CLIENT:Novartis Global Medical Affairs(as a Novartis employee)PROJECT TIME FRAME: November…
I would like to share this article that was once published by Patrick Scholler in my former online journal Inside-Lifescience. I think it is worth not to be lost … Originally published in November 2001 by Inside-Lifescience, ISSN…
Between 2000 and 2008, I investigated prior art, freedom-to-operate, infringement evidences and patent portfolios for reputable patent attorneys and life science industry clients, like Roche and BASF. In 2004, I ad-hoc joined a BASF due diligence team that was preparing a company buy-in as an external expert for analyzing the biosequences portfolio (assets) of the company planned to be acquired. I locally evaluated the IP relevance of the protein and DNA sequences offered, e.g. by checking for uniqueness and redundancies. I applied in-depth computer-based sequence analysis using algorithms like BLASTx, TBLASTx, FASTA, FASTM, Smith-Waterman, and ClustalW2. CLIENT:BASFPROJECT TIME FRAME: May…
Pharma
I was leading a global biomarker+genetic testing program aiming to identify hidden patients with Niemann-Pick type C, an ultra-rare and severe neuro-metabolic disease (prevalence 1:89’000, ~1’000 patients on treatment worldwide). The project included 44 countries, mostly in Europe, Latin America, Middle East and North Africa. We used a highly specific and sensitive biomarker, Lyso-SM-509, provided by the Centogene AG lab, who was also performing the analyses. We were able to identify >200 additional patients, achieving surprisingly high hit rate of 5 in 100, corresponding to 4 patients per month on average. Investment per patient identified was in the range of 5.2% of yearly treatment costs. CLIENT:Actelion Specialty Care Global Business Unit(as an Actelion employee and member of)PROJECT TIME FRAME: January 2014 – August…
I developed and provided a medical education program on MF-CTCL disease, supporting the launch of a new treatment product for the rare dermato-oncological disease. The program includes … CLIENT:Actelion Specialty Care Global Business Unit(as an Actelion employee and team member)PROJECT TIME FRAME: February – May…
The peer-review principle for scientific publications is a well established and sound approach to ensure publication quality … in theory. In real life it is regularly found to be leaky. This is a current example, reported by Retraction Watch
It is turning around … around … around … and around. Always the same turn, always the same things in view. With changing perspectives, but actually always at the same place. Sooner or later just boring. And once you overwind … well, mhh … might become unsavory. I exactly feel like sitting in such a carousel since I seriously entered the world of Knowledge Management (KM). I regularly find myself hanging around at places where people interested in good knowledge working meet virtually or physically, like KM blogs or meetings of like-minded colleagues. In any case, places where people with a greater awareness for the importance and value of Knowledge Management are, many of those knowing each other already for quite a while. “Knowledge workers”, “knowledge experts”, “knowledge managers”, “knowledge enthusiasts”, “knowledge evangelists”, gurus, consultants, etc. pp.. We then intensively discuss the meanings of terms, theoretical and innovative concepts, as well as why so many companies are such ignorant regarding the benefits of KM. Assumed that you are such a rational guy like me, you can glory in that, and without doubt you will meet a lot of interesting people. And normally all will agree, that they know how it works … or as it actually should work. And it’s true. We know how it could be done, efficiently and with maximum value for a company. But … it is completely for nothing! Well, yes, it always has been nice to talk to each other again. But finally with zero impact on real life. At the end all together spin around, and ever and anon the same people are having the same (philosophical) discussions. They feel comfortable with each other and don’t need anyone else. People know each other, appreciate each other, understand each other. Just to avoid any misunderstanding. The strategies and concepts developed and discussed by us “knowledge experts” are in general really good and trendsetting. They have the potential to substantially change and improve enterprise knowledge sharing. It is just never applied. Somehow none of all the good ideas and solutions becomes real, in a true implementation. I frankly do not understand so far what leads to failure, and I am thankful for any hint. By the way, this general tendency for parallel universe seems to be common with all “managements” (Information Management, Knowledge Management, Innovation Management, …). Perhaps a fraction of the problem is within the name already. As a first step I decided to have real life feasibility and implementation as my personal benchmark in the future. I say yes to hot air … if a turbine is driven by it. And I don’t really expect it to be the big strike, the complete new knowledge strategy within the company. I also accept minor steps and improvements, if they go into the right direction. And by the way, this fits to the latest crowd-intelligence-social-media-hype in Knowledge Management (which to my opinion is absolutely overrated … but that’s another story). One important thing with carousel rides is not to miss the right moment to get off and back on solid ground. Otherwise … as mentioned before, well mhhh…
In his today’s newspaper column Sebastian Turner 1, initiator of the Falling Walls Conference 2 (“leading thinkers at the intellectual frontier” ), writes about the lack of qualified professionals in Germany. As part of that he mentions studies done by Manfred Prenzel 3 from the Munich Technical University, that are worth to also be shared with the English-speaking knowledge community. While studying the German school system, Manfred Prenzel found that for 42% of the investigated students one year at school did not result in learning advancements. They had exactly the same knowledge and skills as 12 months before. Manfred Prenzel did dig deeper into it, esp. for the subject physics, and found even worse. Those students who had shown noticeable learning progress in physics during one year, unexpectedly and remarkably lost interest in this particular subject. In other words, those physics students who learned most also abandoned the field above average. Just the good school students turned away. This could be seen as the more knowledge is hammered into students heads, the more interest is hammer out. The scientists did some video analysis of the classes and finally realized that teachers nearly never spoke about why something has to be learned. Good students nevertheless learned … but only as long as they had to. Once they left school, motivation was gone, interest had been killed, finally resulting in a home-made lack of professionals (physicists, engineers e.g.). So, the drying out pipelines for young professionals in some fields of industry can also be a wake-up call to deal less with “dressage” and rouse more interest. Interest is the basic principle of knowledge, the driver to knowledge. 1 Original article by Sebastian Turner published in the German newspaper “Die Welt”: http://www.welt.de/print/die_welt/debatte/article13394902/Die-Fachkraefte-Mangel.html 2 Blog of the Falling Walls Conference: http://www.falling-walls.com/blog/en/ 3 Homepage of Manfred Prenzel at the Munich Technical University:…
Journalists are mediators. And they are translators. Take me as an example. It is my job as a scientific journalist to translate scientific contents to the public so that people can understand what things like “cloning” and “genetic engineering” are. And, well, I am trying my best and it truly is an advantage for me to be an educated molecular biologist. I do understand scientific subjects as well as the technical terminology of the biosciences. But what’s about my non-scientific colleagues? If a standard magazine journalists is in duty to write about – let’s say – Dolly the sheep, does he really have a chance to produce something meaningful? It is even hard for him to understand the details … and we expect a founded judgement. This colleague however is a translator to the public. Like a Chinese-English translator who never learned any Asian language and is working with a 1970 edition of a common dictionary (and avoid asking him for the Chinese signs). Taking this into account, can we really be surprised that the public opinion about biotechnology and gene technology is such bad in Europe. This also had been a major point at the “Biotech in Europe” session of the recent BIOTECHICA BUSINESS FORUM 2002 in Hanover, Germany. Speakers included Crispin Kirkman (BioIndustry Association, UK), Claude Hennion (France Biotech), Christian Suter (BioValley Basel, Switzerland), Rob Janssen (Netherlands’ Biotech Industry Association) and Hugo Schepens (EuropaBio). During the discussions Christian Suter mentioned that we are missing true science mediators in Europe. He quantified fruitful cooperation between journalists and scientists as lucky exceptions. And others added that there is a completely different communication culture in North America where scientists don’t worry about sitting in a TV shown and propagating their views to the public. I do agree. We are really missing true translators and mediators of our contents. Where are the colleagues that are able to help journalists to understand? Dear scientists, journalists desperately need you! Help them to translate. Go out, be present and be the bridges crossing the river between scientific knowledge and the society. In my view many American scientists are highly sensitized regarding their role and duty for public understanding that is the base of public opinion. European scientists are much more afraid of being in the limelight of the media. But – honestly spoken – to my opinion it is part of their (publicly financed) job. Why do so many European scientists avoid the public? Well, they never learned it. Being a public translator for scientific knowledge is not part of scientific education. Many researchers are just not able to translate. It is a matter of terms … and a matter of relevance. Let me explain what I do mean with the “matter of relevance”. A true scientist talking about the developments in research will never make an absolute statement, like “Newton’s apple will definitely never go upwards”. He is always qualifying and seeing things in relative terms, even when there is just a hypothetical 0.0001% chance for an alternative event. Perhaps, one day, Newton’s apple may go upwards. It does not matter if this is relevant or not, it always will be a possibility. This basic kind of thinking is a result of the scientific knowledge finding process’ structure, that is driven by thesis and antithesis. But for the average man or woman this “may be” is a sign of uncertainty, in the worst case interpreted as “there is something in it”. The 0.0001%-event has become a true and relevant option. Now, he is awaiting Newton’s apple to shoot up to the stratosphere, exploding there and finally destroying earth’s ozone shield. As a conclusion, scientists have to learn to reduce, to focus and to rate various options for relevance. People want clear answers, simple explanations and meaningful statements. Now, let’s talk about the “matter of terms”. Scientists and non-scientists are often using the same words but do speak different languages. Many scientific terms have a different meaning or an additional interpretation for average persons they have not for a scientist. The result is that both are speaking to each other but there is no true communication. Take the word “sex” as an example. If a scientist is using the word “sex” he usually is thinking about the gender of the organism he is working with – but most non-scientists at first are thinking about something completely different. Another good example would be the word “glauben” that in the German language is used for “to my opinion” as well as for “to believe”. So if biotech managers “glauben” that gene technology is safe, is it their opinion or is it their believe? But let us focus even more towards “genetic engineering” and “gene technology”. For me the German translation “Gentechnik” has no weight. In my understanding the word stands for a scientific method, a lab application. It is not good or bad, it just is. But for an average German citizen “Gentechnik” has an expanded content, it has a negative meaning, it is a bad word, it is used like talking about devil’s kiss. Now imagine a molecular biologist and a politician having a discussion about gene technology. They are talking together … but finally there is no communication. You can observe it on any program running on an European TV station. Where are all these communication and public relation agencies serving the Life Science industries? What have they done during the past years? Well, at least they have lost an important battle. They lost the battle for sovereignty over words. And I suppose that they lost because many of them did not really understand the things they were fighting for. If you want your public relations work being successful within the fields of Life Science and biotechnology it is much more important compared to any other branch of business that you have an in-depth-knowledge about the contents. Biotechnology and gene technology cannot be treated like others. You really have to understand the technologies you are trying to promote. You really have to know the key words and their true meaning as well as their interpretation by interest groups. And never forget that these words and expressions can have various meanings depending on who is using them! But where is the way out of the dilemma? Very simple: strike back! Use the words in their true meaning. Use them ‘normalized’. And do not use them only on podium discussions but in your daily live. Speak about biotechnology with your family. Speak about biotechnology with your friends. Speak about biotechnology with your colleagues and business partners. Speak about biotechnology with your children and with their teachers. Speak about biotechnology at your breakfast table and at your barber. Speak about biotechnology with your doctor and with his nurse. Speak about biotechnology as it would be the most normal thing in the world. One day it will be. Win back the sovereignty over words! Now! Revised version of the article “Let’s talk about Sex”, originally published in December 2002 by Inside-Lifescience, ISSN…
Medical microbiologists and hygiene experts are warning against the excessive use of antibiotics for years now. They observe more and more resistances which have been forced by the constant misuse of antibiotics. Now, a July 2002 article in the online issue of the journal New Scientist reported that vancomycin – one of the final weapons in the fight against infectious bacteria – lost his power. A strain of Staphylococcus bacteria that is insensitive to vancomycin-treatment was found by medical staff in a hospital in Michigan (USA). Furthermore, VRSA strains (vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) already turned up in Japan. Bacteria are distributing (that should not really be a surprise), and during their travels they are “talking” with each other (if you allow me to call information exchange a talk). Vancomycin-resistant enterococci, bacteria from the gut, are well known already since 15 years. Enterococcus is a low-grade opportunistic pathogen which is completely harmless unless a person has reduced immunity. But scientists already expected to find other species carrying the information for the resistance sooner or later as a result of “talks with colleagues”. Staphylococcus aureus now is much more of a problem with greater pathogenic potential. The bacteria are common inhabitants of human skin and nose. Under normal conditions the species is a harmless microfloral companion like many others living in and on our body. But when Staphylococcus aureus enters open wounds it is able to cause inflammations up to – sometimes fatal – blood poisoning. The finding of penicillin by Alexander Fleming in 1928 and the following development of a variety of antibiotics helped to fight these infections as well as a broad range of bacterial diseases that let people around the world suffer till the middle of the past century. The following age of the antibiotics had also been a period where the believe that there is a pill against everything dominated common thinking as well as public health programmes including medical education. But today common antibiotics do not work anymore with many ubiquitous germs – many of them already carrying multi-resistances. For example the methicillin-resistant Staphylococci, an extremely harmful variation who is resistant to all standard penicillin antibiotics. In these cases only glycopeptides like vancomycin have been the last bastion against often deadly infections. Vancomycin has always been known as the antibiotic of last resort. Another bastion that fell now. If we stay in this military view and language one has to realize that we had a lot of furious and quite successful tactical manoeuvres during the past decades, but the overriding strategy is going into the wrong direction. Latest findings of scientific disciplines like population biology and population genetics need to be much more included. And – as bacteria do not care about national borders – there still is a deep need to improve international standards for medical education. Progressive strategies for the usage of antibiotics must not be under control of national authorities anymore. The escalation of the bacteriological arms race has been caused by people who should really know it better: doctors. Doctors who are using the antibiotic tool not correctly. To my opinion latest issues of medical microbiology and population biology should be far more integrated in university courses and further education. Let me give you an example. When I had been in France last Christmas, I got a painful ear infection. I need to explain that I had had an operation some years earlier that left this ear without tympanic membrane, and so every infection is a reason to take care. But I was already used to it, and knew the standard procedures from my ‘doctor in charge’ at home in Germany, that always included a detailed diagnosis of the infecting germ. So, coming back to Christmas in France, I went to a local hospital (quite modern and fashionable, by the way) to see an otologist, an ear specialist. I was surprised! Everything was going very fast. It seemed that this entire diagnosis stuff was not really necessary. I finally left the hospital after 15 minutes with a prescription. Later in the hotel I had a closer view to the drugs I was honored with. I had three heavy-stuff antibiotics and cortisone in my hands. Someone seemed to think that I was really close to death. And that without any state-of-the-art diagnosis of the causing agent, if it was viral, bacterial or fungal type 1. Sorry for my open words, but to my opinion this had been an irresponsible conduct. Not irresponsible regarding the single patient (me in that case), but to a general health situation that finally affects every ‘single patient’ again sooner or later. My wife – who is French by the way (“o la la”) – later told me that this a normal behavior in France. Many doctors are giving antibiotics for everything, even a simple viral (sic!) cold. And this for sure is not a French problem. Meanwhile I heard similar reports about some German practitioners, who take the easiest way by prescribing pills without any clear diagnosis, too. And in the United States everybody can buy antibiotics on one’s own in a pharmacy without any prescription??? Hey folks, we are not talking about vitamin C or Aspirin! These are drugs that need to be used under strict control and with a certain strategy. These are drugs that are pillars of our health systems. And everybody knows that there is no other group of drugs that are under such a pressure by emerging resistances. I would not waste a thought about some stupid doctors who are not aware what they are doing. But I am deeply concerned about the basic faults in our health systems that lead to misuse along a wide front. Yes, I am really angry. Meanwhile I have become somehow an extremist targeting medics as well as public health systems … as regards the antibiotics misuse. I am sad about the current situation because if some people would have had just used their brains but their prescription pads we might not need to worry about it today. Just go to any university hospital and ask them for ‘hospital infections’. These people are in the front line. They know the problems we already have. And they have to pay for it. The Michigan patient infected by the vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus finally survived after treatment with an “antiquated” antibiotic called chloramphenicol, but – according to doctors – the VRSA’s susceptibility to this drug was fortunate. We need to change the direction. Now! 1 I have to note that in past cases it has been always bacterial or fungal, and I am not sure if there is any causative viral agent of the middle ear. Read more … Revised version of the article “Superbugs knockin’ on the door”, originally published in August 2002 by Inside-Lifescience, ISSN…
Let’s start with a joke. “What are three Germans doing that you have put into one room? – Founding an association!” In Germany we have associations for everything in the smallest village. Associations of hen breeders, associations of stamp collectors, associations of local singers, associations of hobby gardeners, associations of wine drinkers, associations of The Kelly Family concert visitors, and so on. Since late 2001 we additionally have the German Society for Proteome Research (DGPF), whose very first founding charter was wrote down on a beer mat (well, we are in Germany, aren’t we). The foundation of the DGPF by scientists and industry representatives was a reaction on latest market and application movements towards protein research. Germany already has had strong Proteomics (& protein) research when others were still chasing the holy grail Genomics. But – to my impression – it was never really well communicated. So, one major aim of the DGPF will be to improve the international knowledge about the high level of German Proteomics. But why are researchers and the industry more and more focussed on Proteomics? One of the major disadvantages of Genomics approaches is the missing connection between a gene and its cellular function. The fact that a gene has been sequenced does not give us the cellular function of the gene product. That makes genomic results so difficult to interpret. Even the sequence analysis with bioinformatics tools does not yield the full picture. Additional problems arise through the organisation of the genetic information as well as the fact that only a subset of genes is active in a specific cell at a specific stage. So, scientists are moving to the functional level, to the gene products, to the proteins. And they developed the new term, “Proteomics”, for the complete set of proteins (functions) of a cell in a specific stage, in analogy to “Genomics” that addresses the complete set of genes (information) of a cell. Similar to other attempts with a large-scale option in industrial applications (drug discovery e.g.), it will depend on the technology developing and supplying industry if Proteomics will get its chance. When I was doing the research for this article I had the impression that some companies just stuck the Proteomics label onto their existing products. This is neither a solution nor does it really fit the researchers needs. But where are the bottlenecks and what has to be done? There is a dramatic increase of complexity while switching from the genetic to the functional level. A gene is a gene is a gene. There is slight variation caused by introns and foreign elements as well as expression control. But our scientific thinking is dominated by the “one gene – one protein” paradigm, even since the knowledge about posttranscriptional modifications has shown that it is not just that simple. With proteins one has to view every single candidate in the context of multi-functionality and networking. In many cases one protein is not just one function. It is part of a high-complex cellular network of interacting and cascading activities. The function of most regulatory proteins for example depends on environment (regarding ‘cellular clock’ and location), posttranslational modifications and interacting partners. As a result one protein might have a couple of functions depending on where, when and with whom it is. This puts Proteomics to trouble. At first, there are still no powerful technologies for many aspects in large-scale protein research available. Friedrich Lottspeich, head of the protein analysis group at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biochemistry in Munich and DGPF-chairman, said that recent methods exhibit great potential but are not yet ready for the industrial job, in drug discovery for example. There are only few suitable solutions for automation and high-throughput. Early stage MALDI-TOF applications work pretty well, in Structural Proteomics e.g.. But problems with high-throughput sample preparation, low abundant and hydrophobic proteins are unsolved. In Functional Proteomics automated interaction-screens based on the 2-Hybrid, SPR (surface plasmon resonance) or TAP (tandem affinity purification) technologies – that are essential to discover the networking aspect of proteins – are at its infancy. Antibody-based biochips already show the direction. At second, Proteome research results in huge amounts of data. Corresponding to the higher complexity, Proteomics causes exponentially more data than Genomics does. But drug discovery (and scientific research in common) is not just collecting data, even if one might suspect some scientists to think so. No, the scientific progress depends on results derived by the analysis and interpretation of collected data. And this is getting more and more difficult with increasing complexity. Finally, the complexity of protein functionality has to be taken into account while moving forward. An attempt to this is the field of Integrated Proteomics that considers various views by the combination of data coming from different approaches and sources. But . this again increases not only the total amount of data to be analysed but also the level of complexity. According to Thomas Franz, head of the Proteomics core facility at EMBL Heidelberg, existing bioinformatics solutions are not able to quantitatively and qualitatively analyse the produced data. This opinion is shared by a couple of colleagues working in the field. Scientific teams are analysing the data manually again because this is more effective and still yields the most meaningful results. The conclusion is an answer to my question what has to be done. There is a deep need for at least a) large-scale protein research technologies, b) suitable bioinformatics solutions and c) Proteomics-optimized devices. I am curious about the future development of Proteomics. It might be overrun by other “-omics” in public attention. But I am convinced that Proteomics will contribute important findings to our understanding of how a cell works. And for sure it is and will be a major market for technology suppliers and bioinformatics companies. Originally published in April 2002 by Inside-Lifescience, ISSN…
Well, honestly, things are on the move these days. Scientists and publishers are discussing new ways of publishing scientific results. EMBO starts an initiative to set up a platform that will provide services relating to access and retrieval of digital information in the life sciences, ranging from bibliographic or factual data to published full text – E-BioSci. Even database publishers draw nearer academic institutions to promote their content products. Last week scientists and information providers met at the 8th annual meeting of the German Information and Communication Initiative of the Learned Societies entitled “Open Systems for the Communication in Science and Research”. The conference wanted to discuss the latest national developments as well as strategies on how to improve the scientific information workflow. The talks and presentations concentrated on three major points: the future of scientific publication, current developments in information infrastructures, and multimedia in academic education and training. Not more!? To my opinion every single topic would have been enough for an own conference. But the organizers aimed at giving an overview and … bringing people from different disciplines together. I am sure you know the problem. For some reason communication between the academic disciplines often does not really exist but on the paper. Focusing on improving the supply of the scientific community with specialist information, we observe a variety of ‘island-solutions’. Young scientists are used to free internet information sources but are still completely inexperienced with using ‘valuable’ databases. How could they … there is no awareness of information with costs. The problem is well known. And now we are coming back to the lack of communication. Many scientific groups are developing strategies in parallel, to provide scientific labs with database information e.g.. Many solutions never really had a chance because they are redundant. Many resources are used in parallel without looking for synergies and if there could be a common way. Let’s think capitalistic … or evolutionary: The best(?) system will survive! OK. This works on the international information markets where one can observe concentration movements towards Thomson, Elsevier and some other players. But do our academic structures really have the resources – as regards time and money – to waste it in a try-and-error development? Would it not be better to coordinate international – at least national – efforts? Should we not move on with a common focus and thereby free money for other things? The first step in developing a common strategy is a vision, something that can be set as one’s goal. No ‘destination’ – no strategy. When you build a road you already know where you start from, but you also need to know where to go. Unfortunately my conclusion after this conference is that there are no true visions. Again we are developing strategies without a direction and wasting scientific resources and money. What we really need is more communication. Not only communication between information providers and academic users. Also, communication between the disciplines, communication between the scientists. And this conference was not the solution but a very first step. The results have to prove their worth in real life. Revised version of the article “Scientific information- where are the visions?”, originally published in March 2002 by Inside-Lifescience, ISSN…
In 2003 I had the opportunity to talk to Prof. Dr. Gottfried Schatz, at that time President of the Swiss Science and Technology Council, at the Handelsblatt-conference “Trends in Biotechnology” in Vienna, where Gottfried Schatz had held a lecture about research barriers within Europe. Gottfried Schatz offensively criticized that the European systems of university education and research funding hinder the development of scientific excellence. In his view, money for research – by working after the principle of discriminate all-round distribution – was too broadly scattered instead of promoting purposefully. Permanent academic positions and the rigid hierarchy structures at European universities were also a thorn in his flesh. Dr. Schatz was an enthusiastic advocate for the introduction of a tenure track system at European universities, and expected it to generate higher flexibility in science and education as well as to give highly qualified scientists clearer future prospects and better chances. 8 years have passed by.Did things change?Did the scientific systems really develop? Editor’s Note This is the English translation of an interview originally done in German language. Dr. Gottfried Schatz is President of the Science Council of the Institut Curie (Paris), Scientific Councillor of the Institut Pasteur (Paris), and President of the Swiss Science and Technology Council. After receiving his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Graz in 1961, Gottfried Schatz joined the Biochemistry Department of the University of Vienna where he began his studies on the biogenesis of mitochondria and discovered mitochondrial DNA. From 1964 to 1966 he worked as a postdoctoral fellow with Efraim Racker at the Public Health Research Institute of the City of New York on the mechanism of oxidative phosphorylation. After a brief interlude back in Vienna, he emigrated to the USA in 1968 to join the staff of the Biochemistry Department at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. Six years later, he moved to the newly created Biozentrum of the University of Basel where he and his group elucidated the mechanism of protein transport into mitochondria. Gottfried Schatz is a member of many scientific academies, including the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, the Royal Swedish Society, and the Netherlands Academy of Sciences, and has been awarded the Louis Jeantet Prize, the Marcel Benoist Prize, the Gairdner Award, the Krebs Medal, the Warburg Medal, the E.B. Wilson Medal, and many other honors. He has served as Secretary General of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), as Councillor of The Protein Society, and as Chairman of many Advisory Boards. Originally published on February 27, 2003 by Inside-Lifescience, ISSN…
The fact that the 2001 Nobel Price in Medicine has been awarded to three Yeast researchers should not lead to the wrong conclusion that the Nobel committee appreciated the fight against alcoholism or overweight. In fact without the tasty products of Brewers or Bakers Yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) our lives would be much more healthy but – honestly – less nicer. Coming to the point, the award really recognizes the contributions of Leland Hartwell, Paul Nurse and Timothy Hunt to the understanding the control mechanisms of the cell cycle, the molecular cell division management system. I myself did research on cell cycle regulation in Yeast in the late ’90s. As a Yeast guy in an innovative scientific environment that deals with frogs, mice and human cell lines you were always seen as an eccentric – and somehow funny – specialist (and it has always been a challenge to explain that my experiments are not related to a Yeast contamination in the cell culture lab). Later I was glad to have the opportunity to cooperate and to discuss my results with Gustav Ammerer and Kim Nasmyth in Vienna, two other great Yeast geneticists. Brewers Yeast – for example – is a budding organism (that is why it is also called Budding Yeast). Daughter cells are formed by small buds growing at the Yeast cell surface. This closely resembles the division of mammalian cells resulting in two daughter cells, e.g.. The key issue for the cell cycle now is to synchronize DNA replication with cell growth and division. And vice versa, the DNA replication needs to be reliably inhibited in the case that there is no division. So, the cell cycle is a series of cell functions controlling the whole life span of one cell generation. It starts over and over again until cell aging or other mechanisms stop the propagation. If the cell cycle does not work correctly cells either stop division or have improperly copied chromosomes or propagate uncontrolled. In humans the latter is connected to cancer. Here the medical relevance of research with Yeasts like S. cerevisiae and Schizosaccharomyces pombe comes in. Yeasts as model organisms for the understanding of common functions in eukaryotic cells. Yeast cells as easy to cultivate mini labs offering research opportunities as regards fundamental cell activities that are too difficult to study in higher cells with their much more complex regulation networks. Well, if we have learned something about cell cycle regulation in Yeast during the past years then that it is even pretty complex in this very simple organism. Today we know a tight network of internal and external signals including the cell metabolism as well as the cytoskeleton. It looks like that there is not just a simple ‘clock’ but a whole system of communicating proteins with checkpoints and feedback loops. We can use these findings in Yeast to look for homologies and similarities in higher organisms. By comparing functionally known Yeast genes and proteins with the human genome and proteome we will be able to identify new research objectives as well as putative pharmaceutical targets. To my view this “Nobel Prize for Yeast” is an appreciation of the role of model organisms in modern biomedical science. Understanding them leads to a faster understanding of the molecular basics of cellular malfunctions in humans. As a Yeastman still carrying small buds in my heart I congratulate the Nobel committee on its decision. Originally published in November 2001 by Inside-Lifescience, ISSN…
Two weeks ago I participated in a strategy workshop organized by Arthur D. Little and the German Ministry for Education and Science (BMBF). As part of our talks we discussed the value of scientific information as well as the existing scientific information distribution and access structures. As two major problems we identified that scientists are not really aware of a variety of information resources they could access, and that publication and valuation processes will intensively change within the next years. To provide you with the corresponding background: the BMBF commissioned the management consultant Arthur D. Little and the ‘Gesellschaft für Innovationsforschung und Beratung’ to analyse the German WTI system (“wissenschaftlich-technische Information”) and to develop a strategy concept for the future of scientific and technical information. This study will be the basis of the future German federal government policy regarding specialist information. In a first step the consultants did a survey targeting 10.000 scientists working at universities or non-academic research institutions as well as 10.000 industry and service companies with an extensive use of information. In a second step the results and early recommendations are discussed by industry insiders and checked for their practicability. I myself was invited for one of this second level workshops that also included the directors of the three German special information centers, several representatives of university libraries, scientists, and others, overall a group of about 15 information specialists with a focus on scientific information. Giving you a very personal impression, to my opinion the information providers do not really know their client: the scientist working at the bench. During my time as ‘lab rat’ we did not really miss anything as regards information. We had a nice library, we had the internet, and the first internet databases for literature, sequences, etc. started these days. Additionally there has always been the possibility to ‘clone by phone’ or to get information via direct contacts in labs working at the same questions. Nobody told us about STN and other special information providers. And I think we would not have used it for two reasons: the costs (in the lab you have a regular budget for enzymes and pipette tips . but usually you have no true budget for information) and the missing knowledge regarding the retrieval languages (what student is educated in command languages like messenger, e.g.?). I am sure that this situation will change. I cannot tell you if this will happen within the next 5 years or within the next 15 years, but societies will learn that information itself has a value. Someone once even said that information is the gold of the 21st century. We already have a development within the western societies that people that have a privileged access to – for example – business information and are able to process it do have an advantage over their competitors. This is also valid for scientific information. But . the overall amount of scientific information is increasing logarithmically and the scientist needs more and more pre-selected information regarding his topics and questions. You cannot read all articles in all journals of your discipline AND do successful bench work. You only have 24 hours a day. And you do not really have the place for the growing stacks of publication copies on your desk (wouldn’t it fit your needs to have access to digitized copies?!). So far there is public structure that supports the bench scientist with these problems. So, we really have to think about improved information infrastructures for the scientific community. And we have to find a solution of the bivalent situation that on the one hand the public pays for science (and by this for the resulting scientific information), and on the other hand scientists have to pay for scientific information – respectively they or their libraries already do by their journal subscriptions. Perhaps we have to understand that not only the information but also information processing is worth to be paid, for example if you think about information pre-selection, journalistic ‘digestion’, services that help to be more focused, and publication providers. Revised version of the article “The value of information”, originally published in October 2001 by Inside-Lifescience, ISSN…
Journalists as well as politicians are desperately looking for lab results that nicely fit to a political ideology.
Traditionally an old years end is the time of reflections. No, I do not mean the bright glittering snow in some people winter holidays. I am talking about thoughts regarding the sense of life. Did I get the best out of the old year? Could I have done something better? What will be in the new year, what challenges and tasks are waiting for me? And what are my personal priorities in life? As a young PhD student – quite a few years ago – I read a Science article by Gregg Easterbrook about the social as well as ethical conflicts between science and religion. Surprisingly it did not pick out the inconsistency of both but their reconciliation as a central theme. During these days I have had many committed discussions as a scientist defending the evolutionary theory against creationists as well as defending my Christian faith against science believers. Yes, I am a Christian and a scientist (but not a “christian scientist”!). To my opinion there is no true incompatibility but just two sides of a single coin. And so I always found myself between the lines. Assumed there would really be incompatibility. Should it not be possible to have the sensibility to tolerate each others position? Should it not be possible to have the sensibility to accept that there are different levels of consciousness? Let us have a look to some of the battles fought in the US “bible belt” about what children should be taught in school, e.g.. Sorry for being honest but sometimes it seems to me like children from the kindergarden squabbling for their Lego. Who is going to tell them that they will have more fun and will be more successful when playing together? Telling you my point of view: science is giving the knowledge, faith – independent if Christian, Islamic, Hindu, Naturalistic, or whatever – is giving the sense. Both together create wisdom. In other words, science tells us how the world works, religion tells us for what the world works. One cannot without the other, or as Gregg Easterbrook used to say “they have linked destinies”. Originally published in January 2001 by Inside-Lifescience, ISSN…
Do you remember? Y2K had been announced as the great entry into the millennium of biotechnology! Did you get it? 2000 in biotechnology was planned as the year of the big conferences and meetings as well as the year of the phenomenal announcements. This should have been the grandiose prelude for an international campaign against the technique critics. But did anyone – besides scientists – really pay attention to all the efforts. Honestly: no. No, because this is how it should be _ or no, because we missed the chance to present our science to the people. If you picked the first “no”, there is nearly no reason to go on reading. But if you think that the scientific community missed a chance, then join my thoughts about how we could better the situation. Living in Central Europe we still face the situation that most non-scientists adore gene food and associate gene technology with Frankenstein. People will not buy daily products known to content genetically engineered compounds. We do have a really bad public opinion about gene technology. Is the reason for this situation really only ignorance and antagonism against all technological advancement? Or is it possible that the scientists themselves fail to promote their science? Who else should do it? What biotechnology and gene technology (who are used synonymously in this context) are missing is capital. This capital is coming from confidence. A confidence that results from the knowledge of the opportunities as well as from the hope for a better future. If the people do not rely on our biotechnology enterprise they will not invest any capital in it. That is what we can learn from a going public at the stock exchange. No confidence – no money, no money – no development. So, colleagues, let’s go public! Let’s use a language that everybody can understand when we talk about the science we love. Talk with the heart and not with the dictionary. Open your ears for the fears. Show the opportunities and advantages of biotechnology. Talk to the people and talk with the people. You are the ambassadors of our science! Originally published in November 2000 by Inside-Lifescience, ISSN…
Today, I am proud to share that my PhD thesis with the title “Cell-cycle-dependent gene regulation by Mcm1p-complexes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae” has been accepted, and my Ph.D. (Dr. rer. nat.) has been granted by the Leibniz University of Hannover, Germany. Between 1994 and today, I had the opportunity to do basic oncological research on the genetic regulation of the cell growth at the Institute for Molecular Biology at the Hannover Medical School. I was using yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) as model organism for eukaryotic cells, which on molecular level share many commonalities. My scientific research was specifically targeting a better understanding of the cell-cycle-dependent gene regulation by transcriptional regulatory ternary complexes. The latter play key roles in the control of eukaryotic cell growth … which is out of control in cancer cells. My work was funded by a scholarship for the DFG Graduate Student Course “Molecular Pathophysiology of the Cell”. And I would like to take the opportunity giving a big thank you to my supervisor Prof. Dr. Alfred Nordheim, to an army of amazing and supportive colleagues in Hannover as well as at the Vienna Biocenter, and – last not least – to my mother for her kind “sponsorship”. This journey has ended. And I am already curious about the next one to…
I successfully completed my master in biology (Dipl.-Biol.) with a specialization on microbiology, genetics and biochemistry, Within the scope of my master thesis, I had the amazing opportunity to actively contribute to the sequencing and analysis of the first full genome of an eukaryotic organism, Saccharomyces cerevisiae (baker’s or brewer’s yeast). Which is an EU-funded projects with labs from all over Europe working together. As a result, I had the honor getting a co-author of the scientific publication of the results (which is quite uncommon for master theses). READ MORE … Miosga et al. (1995), “Sequence analysis of a 33.1 kb fragment from the left arm of Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome X, including putative proteins with leucine zippers, a fungal ZN(II)2-Cys6 binuclear cluster domain and a putative alpha2-SCB-alpha2 binding site”, Yeast vol…