By: Yang Chen
Medical communication plays an essential role in bridging the gap between healthcare professionals in different fields, such as pharmaceutical companies, research institutes, and medical societies. To explore the field of medical communication and fulfill my initial passion in this field, I have accepted a great opportunity to shadow at one of the leading medical communication companies—Ogilvy CommonHealth Worldwide. As I have been rotating in different departments of Ogilvy and shadowed different mentors, I have been nicknamed the “one day intern”.
April 4th was my first day as a “one day intern”. My mentor, Danielle, a senior medical director in the medical education department, welcomed me with a big bar of chocolate and talked me through my schedule for the: 1) Client #1 meeting: 10:00 am -11:00 am, 2) Client #2 meeting: 11:00 am -12:00 pm, 3) Internal team meeting: 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm, 4) Multiple teams meeting: 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm. When Danielle told me about this schedule, the first thing hit in my mind was: “What a tight schedule! And how very different this is from academia.”
During client meetings, we met with different clients from the same company involved in the same project. I was not surprised to see that there was a battle between clients who hold different opinions on the same project. On the one hand, as medical communication professionals, most of the time Danielle and other team members would patiently listen and take notes of our clients’ discussions; on the other hand, it was also our team’s role to carefully orient clients towards the major scope of the project when clients’ opinions got tied up.
With this tight schedule going on during that day, Danielle never forgot to grab me, the “one day intern”, from one meeting to another and always kindly introduced me to the teams in the meetings. This one day experience at Ogilvy let me understand what some of the essential aspects of a great team leader are in order to achieve great teamwork. As a leader in a team, without any doubt, setting up a clear goal and guiding team members in the right direction are absolutely essential. Considering and observing individuals of the team in order to arrange for the most comfortable environment or atmosphere for team members is another critical factor. I was amazed by the consideration from Danielle not only towards her team members but also to other teams. In this fast-paced working environment, a small amount of consideration for others goes a long way, adding extra energy and motivation to the team, and ultimately speeding up the process of work. This made me realize that consideration acts as a glue for great teamwork.
My “one day intern” life will keep going at Ogilvy, and I will share with you all my experience in this exciting field of medical communication. Until next time, I hope you enjoyed my post!