VPMA (Vice President of Medical Affairs) Jobs

I run into many physicians who are not familiar with the acronym VPMA (vice president of medical affairs).  Most people know things like CMO (chief medical officer) and now the CMIO (chief medical information officer) is becoming a highly visible and important role.

You'll find VPMA jobs in hospitals, in pharmaceutical companies, managed care organizations, and various other industry settings. Take a look at all the VPMA jobs that show up here. Most of these are related to hospitals and medical management, but did you see the others? (you'll also see some jobs listed as Vice President, Medical Director)

Job Post: Director Medical Affairs (Genzyme)

Director Medical Affairs 27468
Genzyme - Cambridge, MA

US Medical Director, Medical Affairs Alemtuzumab MS

In a matrix environment, the Medical Director for US Medical Affairs will perform a key role in the clinical and commercial development of Alemtuzumab in MS, through strategic alignment and execution of activities related to investigator and expert outreach, investigator sponsored trials, company sponsored non-registration trials, publication planning, CME, grants, sponsorships.

Read more about this job here.

View other non-clinical jobs on the NonClinicalJobs Job Board.

Futures in Life Science Program - Clinical Development and Medical Affairs

Futures in Life Science Program - Clinical Development and Medical Affairs

May 17th, 2011
Cambridge, MA

Propel Careers, MassBio, and the MassBioEd have joined together to organize a series of networking and panel events focused on raising awareness of career paths that exist in life sciences for individuals with advanced degrees. This Futures in Life Science program will bring together experts across a wide range of disciplines and functional areas within the life science industry, who will detail their roles and will provide a rich context for the audience to gain a clear understanding of the skills, aptitudes, competencies, and personalities that thrive in their particular functions.

Attendance for this program is open to current graduate students, post doctoral fellows, and medical residents who are interested in careers in the life sciences industry. Space is limited to 100 individuals.

8th Annual Forum on Dissemination of Scientific Information

8th Annual Forum on Dissemination of Scientific Information
Optimize Compliant Medical Communication through Strategic Internal and Field-Based Initiatives
May 17 - 18, 2011
Philadelphia , PA

The scientific exchange that takes place between industry professionals and healthcare providers is crucial in ensuring that they have the scientific and clinical data necessary to learn about and use a drug in a safe and effective manner. Whether the stakeholders learn through an exchange with sales, MSLs, KOLs or read a publication, bio/pharmaceutical and medical device companies must ensure they leverage all available channels and techniques.

Top Trends:

• Surge of specialty products in the marketplace have required field-based personnel to have deeper involvement in their therapeutic areas
• Sales force numbers are declining, lowering the number of opportunities to get essential scientific product information to key HCPs
• Need to better work with and collaborate with new stakeholders in managed care organizations
• Increased government focus in regard to what information is getting disseminated and how it is reaching its audience

Medical Affairs Executive Forum

Medical Affairs Executive Forum
April 14-15
Basking Ridge, NJ

High-Level Strategies for Managing and Executing Practice Issues and Challenges

Featured Presentations Addressing:

• Medical Affairs in Today’s Environment
• Demonstrating Medical Affairs Value
• REMS Programs
• Aligning Medical Affairs and Marketing
• The Current and Future Role of Registries
• Effectively Communicating Safety Risk Information
• Future Role of MSD/MSLs
• Publication Planning Update for Medical Affairs
• Medical Device Issues and Challenges

Non-clinical jobs in cardiovascular medicine #ACC11

I'm currently in New Orleans attending the ACC.11 & i2 Summit 2011 and my registation bag contained a "CardioCareer & CME Guide." Is fee for service dead? What is the future of private practice cardiology? Is it time to transition into industry?

The CardioCareer Guide has a job listing near the front where a major pharmaceutical company is advertising for a "medical affairs director" in the cardiovascular therapeutic area. The requirement states:

This position will oversee the strategic and tactical implementation of the commercial Medial Research team in the Cardiovascular area. Qualified candidates must have an MD; advanced training in internal medicine/cardiology is highly desired. 

There's no doubt that we will continue to see job openings in the cardiovascular drug industry. After all, heart disease continues to be a leading cause of death in this country and there is tremendous morbidity associated with a host of cardiovascular conditions.

It's important to remember that you don't need to be a cardiologist to work in the cardiovascular area. You'll have a competitive advantage if you area a cardiologist, but many of these positions are not exclusively for cardiologists. After all, we have to recognize that certain industry positions won't compensate at the same level that a cardiologist may make, so they may fill these positions with non-cardiologists.

Job openings in Medical Affairs

If you're looking for a non-clinical job, make sure to type "medical affairs" into your search box. You'll also find a number of different medical affairs jobs on the NonClinicalJobs.com Job Board.

Don't get discouraged if you don't think you qualify for some of the jobs listed under "medical affairs."  As long as you're willing to spend the time to go through the list on a regular basis, you're going to find something. The other day, I was looking on the Job Board and I found positions ranging from medical affairs internships to VP of Medical Affairs.

There are many jobs out there. You need to know how to search effectively and find the ones that may be the right fit for you.

Health Economics and Outcomes Research Congress

CBI's Premier Health Economics and Outcomes Research Congress

Improve Regulatory Preparedness and Commercial Strategy through Enhanced Integration of HEOR in the Drug Development Process

June 13 - 14, 2011
Philadelphia , PA

Pharmacoeconomics is an area of ever increasing importance. With the changing tide of Health Care Reform yielding heightened aspirations for affordable care and improved outcomes, there is greater burden on industry to establish proof for the value and efficacy of new products.

Jobs for physician executives

Where can you find jobs for physician executives who want to focus on medical management? I'm talking about positions like:

• Chief Medical Officer or CMO
• Chief Medical Information Officer or CMIO
• Vice President Medical Affairs or VPMA
• Executive Vice President or EVP

The American College of Physician Executives (ACPE) is a great resource for these types of jobs and you can find several physician executive jobs posted on LinkedIn.

Make sure to join our LinkedIn Group

Regeneron is hiring (career fair)

Regeneron is hiring and they're having a career fair in New Jersey. Here are the details:

Regeneron Career Open House
Sheraton Mahwah
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
2pm to 7pm

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals is actively hiring in the following functional areas:

• Clinical Sciences
• Biostatistics
• Clinical Data Management
• Pharmacovigilance
• Clinical Trial Management
• Clinical Operations
• Regulatory Affairs
• Medical Affairs
• Medical Writing
• Program Management

Candidates should have experience in the following therapeutic areas: Ophthalmology, Oncology, Inflammation, Translational Medicine, and Pain.  Interview for open positions for Regeneron Pharmaceuticals’ Clinical Division.

BioSpace.com is pleased to present the Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Career Fair. Regeneron's Clinical Division will be conducting private, one-on-one interviews to fill multiple open positions. This is not a general Career Fair. This is a chance to meet with Hiring Managers and Department Directors for private, one-on-one interviews.  For this event Regeneron is ONLY looking for candidates with experience in the functional areas listed above.

Please join us at the Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Career Fair and learn about the opportunities now available at Regeneron.  At Regeneron, we are dedicated to doing great science. We take pride in overcoming challenges and searching for new and better ways to do things. We develop products that improve the quality of people's lives. But our culture isn't just about work. We enjoy what we do and the people we work with. At Regeneron we make time for fun.

Click here for more details and to register for this career fair on the Biospace website.

Finding a non-clinical physician job

What's the best way to find non-clinical physician jobs? If you're transitioning out of clinical medicine, then you may not know where to begin. For seasoned physician executive veterans who know have been out of clinical medicine for several years, the search can still be difficult in today's economic environment. Where do you begin?

• Search engines: Physicians often type "non-clinical physician jobs" into Internet search engines like Google and Yahoo. Are they finding what they need?
• Recruiters: What about executive recruiters (also known as headhunters, executive search consultants, etc.)? How many do you know? I currently have a growing list of them and I maintain that list regularly.
• Job boards: Here, you may get overwhelmed by the types of jobs that are listed on Monster, Career Builder, Indeed, Hot Jobs, etc. Do you know what to look for when you're searching job boards? Are you able to filter your results?
  
• Social networking: If you have an extensive social network, then you can reach out and see if anyone may know of any potential leads. The power of social media such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter may help you tremendously.
• Job fairs: Not a bad place to start if you have an open mind and if you're willing to be a sales rep, a medical science liaison (MSL) or some other type of field agent.
• Company websites: Here, you may have some luck if you're looking at large corporations. Even smaller companies often list a "Careers" section on their website. Be prepared to fill out a bunch of online applications.
  
• Newspapers: I don't know that you'll find much here these days.
• Medical journals: You may find some great clinical opportunities, but you'll see few (if any) non-clinical physician job listings.
  

So, how do you plan to look for your next non-clinical physician job? I hope you plan to use a combination of the approaches listed above.

Physician careers in pharmaceutical medicine

I had a pleasant chat today with a physician who has been working in the pharmaceutical industry for several years. It was interesting to hear how he transitioned from the clinical world of academia to the pharmaceutical world.

You'll find all sorts of physicians who have built a career in pharmaceutical medicine. Some are in their thirties and skipped residency. Others transitioned into pharma while they were in their fifties. How do these people do it? You don't need an MBA to work in a pharmaceutical company. You also don't need to have a long list of publications. These things may help, but they are certainly not essential.

How many physicians do you know who currently work for a pharmaceutical company? What do they do? Are they involved in marketing? Clinical research? Health outcomes? Drug safety monitoring? Medical education? Public health? Pharmacoeconomics? Drug development? Regulatory affairs? Quality control? Medical affairs? Professional education and development? Medical writing? Managed markets? Managed care?

As a physician, there are so many possible career paths within the pharmaceutical industry. If you wish to learn more about some of these possible physician careers in pharmaceutical medicine, I encourage you to subscribe to my blog posts and visit this site frequently. The best way to learn is to hear some first-hand experiences from people who currently work in these areas.

Jobs on LinkedIn: Medical Affairs

There are several jobs on LinkedIn in the category of "Medical Affairs." Let me give you an example of what you might find:

Job description:

Vice President, Medical Affairs with a focus on Phase IV & Epidemiological Studies. The position is responsible for providing strategic vision and leadership to the Phase IV & Epidemiology team of Medical & Scientific Affairs and will manage epidemiologists and physicians engaged in clinical research.

Job requirements:

• A Doctor of Medicine degree with training in preventive medicine, internal medicine, or related specialty, with postgraduate training (MPH or PhD) or equivalent experience in epidemiology.
• Minimum five years industry experience required with all phases of clinical trials design and conduct.
• In-depth understanding and experience in post marketing clinical research and epidemiological methods, and methods of analysis of large healthcare databases.

If you're not using LinkedIn to look for jobs, you may be missing some incredible non-clinical career opportunities.