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Sharon Leighton Consultancy July& August 2013
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How are you all doing? Here in the UK, summer is
turning to autumn but we are rewarded with delicious blackberries so any walk takes twice as long as I stop to pick "just one more" and stunning sunsets (and yes this is the view from where I live). The end of summer signals to me a change to a different rhythm - we enter the "crazy busy" phase.
 conference is coming up in Dublin on 8-9th October. I'm running the session on Prove Your Value and I'm delighted to have Christi Marsh from UCB in the US running a workshop on Branding. Many of my friends and clients (past and present) will be there so we'll take time to chat, have fun and share interesting things we have come across. As many of you know, I have many interests but the 2 that are closest to my life and work at the moment are turning data visualisation (turning data into information & intelligence) and mindfulness. Two diametrically opposite themes but I like to think they are connected by creativity and innovation. A recent Data Visualisation workshop I attended helped me shape what data visualisation is, how to design great visuals and the underlying process. I'd love to apply these principles to our Standard Response Document model and see where that takes us. Following a successful Mindfulness taster day in May this year, Sue Weston & I are repeating the Mindfulness for Busy Managers event at Watford, just on the outskirts of London. We also have a forthcoming article on the topic in the PIPA journal, Pipeline. We cover how you can apply mindfulness principles in the workplace to help deal with stress, anxiety and the ambiguities of corporate life from a place of equanimity. If you want to learn a different skill that can help shift your behaviours positively, I can recommend it!  And later this year I am launching an e-book in collaboration with 3 experts in Medical Information or Pharmacovigilance - watch this space for more news.... See you in Dublin! |
Mindfulness for Busy Managers Workshop, 15th November
Mindfulness is a hot topic these days. Dr Michael Mosley, who seems to influence the next science trend (think High Intensity Training, The fasting diet (aka 5:2 diet)), is talking about how it changed his life - his personality and attitudes - this week on BBC's Horizon series.
Sue Weston & I will be running our 2nd course on Friday 15th November, Watford Quaker House (just inside M25). Mindfulness helps with anxiety, insomnia and depression but I think it also has an positive impact on our effectiveness at work. As one delegate put it;
(I valued) the opportunity for 'time out' to gain an introduction to Mindfulness - it is so much more 'real' for me in this format than just reading a book
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Always compelling, interesting and provocative, Alex Butler's 2013 TedMed talk. Includes IBM Watson. Take aways: 1 Build new relationships, 2) Focus on health not just illness 3) embrace the new data economy
Alex Butler is a guru of pharma and healthcare digital marketing. He was responsible for the first UK twitter account in pharmaceuticals and the world's first pharma Facebook disease community, which led to him to win the inaugural Global Social Media Pioneer award in Philadelphia, USA, in October 2010.
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As digital initiatives start to come through, what is your medinfo function doing? MI apps? mobile enable website for MI content? This is up for discussion at the DIA EU MI conference in October.
The way digital technology has reached into every part of our lives to provide new and exciting ways to learn, communicate, share and carry out any number of traditional activities puts us, to my mind, firmly in a post-digital age. Now that digital is ubiquitous, the rise to prominence of its latest strand - mobile - simply offers a new lens through which to look at how we, as marketers, deliver experiences, content and services to customers, whether they are physicians, carers or patients.
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Twitter = :) Facebook = :( for conversations about healthcare via KevinMD
When Twitter initially launched I was largely skeptical on how it could be utilized in medicine. Initially I thought Facebook was a better option due to the ability to use more than 140 characters. Over time though, it has become clear the medical conversations are happening on Twitter, not Facebook.
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ABPI Clinical Trial disclosure kit launched. Very nice design and useful materials. *admiring face*
This toolkit provides good practice guidelines, disclosure checklists and a template standard operating procedure for pharmaceutical companies. These materials will be updated regularly in line with changes to international regulatory requirements.
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If you thought the Mars Rover Curiosity tweeting was bizarre, try a texting pill. All in the name of medication compliance
As a species, the human race is messy. We can be inconsistent, disorganised, mendacious, unpredictable and frequently bad at making the right decisions about what's really in our best interests.
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Inaccurate, confusing and inconsistent - Patient Information Leaflets used in the NHS
The NHS's multifarious patient information leaflets are inaccurate, inconsistent, and confusing, finds Margaret McCartney, and effort is duplicated because each trust commissions its own, often from the private sector
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Atul Gawande (Dr Checklist to me) on how to change behaviour - be a friend. The key is acceptance. Atul Gawande is famous for his book on checklists in medicine to reduce errors and improve standards.
Why do some innovations spread so swiftly and others so slowly? Consider the very different trajectories of surgical anesthesia and antiseptics, both of which were discovered in the nineteenth century. The first public demonstration of anesthesia was in 1846.
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From pessimist to optimist - impossible transition? How Mindfulness Meditation helps
Many of us categorise ourselves as either optimist or pessimist, but what can science tell us about how we got that way and can we change, asks Michael Mosley.
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Don't think mindfulness is relevant to your working life? Here's why you should reconsider. If Wired are covering this, its going mainstream
Chade-Meng Tan is perched on a chair, his lanky body folded into a half-lotus position. "Close your eyes," he says. His voice is a hypnotic baritone, slow and rhythmic, seductive and gentle. "Allow your attention to rest on your breath: The in-breath, the out-breath, and the spaces in between."
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Did you know I have a Facebook page?
It's the easiest way for me to update people to great links, interesting articles or blogs, compelling news and the occasional fun stuff.
Take a look!
Or check out LinkedIn and Twitter (@SharonLeighton)....
 
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 Who am I?
After leaving corporate life 7 years ago, I set up my own Medical Affairs consultancy and training business, believing that there wasn't much demand for either service. Luckily, I proved myself wrong and now have a long client list from many large and small pharmaceutical companies. I'm passionate about my business, Medical Information, social media, information to patients and all things geek.
I help busy managers succeed in their goals by
- managing projects
- training their staff on MI practice and leadership
- mentoring managers new to Medical Information or Medical Affairs
- helping them restructure their business
And now we build tools to monitor your customer's perceptions of your service. You name it, I can probably do it.
Contact Information
phone +44 7545 972727 (plus FaceTime and iMessage)
email sharon@sharonleighton.co.uk
Blog www.sharonleighton.co.uk/news
Twitter SharonLeighton
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