Medical Director/Strategist
The Bloc
Mentor
Malcolm Nason, PhD VP Medical Strategy Director, The Bloc
Company Overview
The bloc, a NYC-based, award-winning healthcare advertising agency that creates innovative work for consumers, patients and healthcare professionals, always needs savvy Medical Directors with healthcare advertising knowledge to work through its NYC office. With more than 20 years of experience in the healthcare advertising industry under its belt, the bloc produces work that is both strategically relevant and creatively compelling. We provide our global roster of clients with multichannel capabilities, including payer strategy and marketing, professional education, scientific services, strategic planning, and media services.
Externship Description
This externship is geared towards individuals who are interested in the communication of scientific and medical information in the role of a Medical Director in healthcare advertising. Successful promotional marketing relies on creating powerful and unforgettable communications that fulfill physician and patient informational needs. Medical and regulatory standards are rigorous, requiring that all communications are factual, in compliance with the FDA-approved indication, and balanced with the safety profile of the product.
A Medical Director serves as a scientific steward, often across multiple therapeutic areas, to create and develop high-quality scientific initiatives. Medical Directors are critically involved in the communication strategy formation process (called “brand planning”) for assigned accounts, and guide brand teams by enhancing the team’s clinical knowledge and understanding of the product and therapeutic area. Medical Directors are also critical for identifying medical opportunities that contribute to strategic and tactical development. Individuals with a passion for and understanding of both science and the strategies of communication are highly desirable, the best inspiring the creative team (made of writers and artists) while they transform dry and technical language into visually appealing and memorable communications.
Since the workflows in this industry develop at a rapid pace, often with short timelines and short notice, this externship is designed to help an extern develop 3 key skills that are necessary for success as a medical director in a communications role. Any or all of these skills will be used during the externship on ad hoc projects that arise from customer or internal business development needs or requests. Through mentored interactions with senior medical strategists, by the conclusion of the externship the applicant will be able to:
- Demonstrate the ability to distill medical and scientific information that tells the facts plus the “so what” at an audience-appropriate level.
- Transfer relevant knowledge that can be used to build the medical strategy for a product.
- Review content for accuracy and alignment with product strategy.
Objectives
- Develop familiarity with standard concepts and vocabulary used in medical strategy, including evaluating a set of brands to determine differentiation, developing a value proposition, and how to translate product value to various stakeholders and audiences.
- Learn how to execute trends analysis (public & science), and how the analyses might impact the brand, including competitive landscape analysis and clinical trials landscape analysis.
Qualifications
- Willingness to step outside of one’s area of direct scientific expertise
- Ability to transform complex concepts into understandable, audience-appropriate teaching materials, including materials that are static with no benefit of a voice over
- Interest in developing communications materials that excel not just in what is said, but in how it is said
- Ability to work as part of a multidisciplinary team, often with minimal oversight
- Knowledge of, or high interest in the psychology of communication and behavioral change
- Willingness to say “I don’t know”
- Able to attend a weekly Monday meeting that will set out the week’s opportunities and a Thursday meeting to review progress. This specific schedule can be altered, but the basic principle of a planning meeting and a results meeting should be expected.
- Team meetings and Mentor ‘touch base’ meetings may also be worthwhile to increase interaction time. Externs will not be expected to commit more than 10 hours per week.
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