“The presentation is not as important as the conversation.” – Ismael Zamora, Molecular Discovery
Ismael Zamora’s Everyday is an enlightening discussion on the changes in the life sciences industry during the pandemic, especially while many of us learn to balance life while working from home. Balancing not only life, but the relationships we have in the workplace. Isma has a team of computer scientist that can now code from home, producing more code than they ever have. However, although productivity went up, he found that some of the normal conversations that we have in the office were missing – to where it created competitions that did not exist previously, as well as other seemingly small nuances that turned out to be bigger than originally thought. With the observation of these changes, he asked his team to plan coffee meetings where they just talk – and not necessarily just about work. It is really important to stay connected, even as we all work from home. Isma finds this conversation parallel to the CPSA events. A place where people can feel like they can just talk, to get to know each other, and to work together to solve complex challenges.
During this Everyday, Jinming Xing describes his personal experiences that drive his passion for microsampling. As a pharmacist, he was influenced by the understanding that some children are simply scared of needles – a 5 second shot could take an hours conversation. He was also personally influenced by the amount of blood that was drawn from his own sick son. Now, Jinming works closely with the early stages of clinical research related to sick children, focusing on microsampling. He puts all of his efforts, Everyday, into reducing the burden for paediatric clinical trial participants.
JJ Kim, Nottingham Children’s Hospital/University of Nottingham
“It’s really about what patients need, and (what) your colleagues need. And listening to them.” – JJ Kim, Nottingham Children’s Hospital/University of Nottingham
JJ Kim delivers a presentation on the development of CountOnMe, and the care taken while working with patients and at home micro sampling. He describes a survey and system of feedback that can be used to improve education and for increased engagement with patients. During this CPSA Everyday, he discusses that the best results come from actually listening to the patient, and not only the contributions from the 1% of the community that pushes out a test or result. Also, he finds that microsampling is not just a replacement for a hospital visit. He asks the questions: How can we use micro sampling to demarcate needs and to give patients more independence? And how do we truly understand a patient’s condition and need? This is what JJ and his team are evaluating, with continuous feedback from patients, and persistence to what is needed next.
