A neutral forum to enhance world health

The vision of the DIA is to be the universally respected forum for quality information exchange, leading to better medicines that enhance the world’s health. A good vision statement summarizes what the net result would look like if the organization fulfilled its mission to perfection. Our vision is bold and clear; it states our desires as an organization and highlights the impact that the DIA aspires to have on the world.

By attaining this vision, the DIA will be assisting in the positive development of the pharmaceutical industry by helping current and future leaders to develop professionally, as well as serving as the liaison for collaboration that helps bring more drugs to market that enhance the well-being of people all over the world.

A respected position

We remain a neutral forum within the industry by consistently providing impartial discussion forums led by respected industry professionals. DIA does not take a stance on the issues or try to provide all of the answers, but rather provides a setting where people can share information and voice their opinions. Each DIA event is an equal opportunity forum – DIA selects respected industry experts who volunteer their time, rather than simply the ‘highest bidders’, to serve as speakers and panelists. Furthermore, when making our selection, we recruit credible speakers with varying perspectives on the topics being addressed.

DIA’s Board of Directors and staff remain proactively vigilant about maintaining neutrality by implementing several speaker policies to protect the integrity of each session or event. We do not allow any type of promotion from the podium. To ensure this, we monitor and follow-up with speakers to ensure they are following the guidelines we have set forth.

Furthermore, our events are open to all industry professionals who would like to attend – not just DIA members. In a time when information sharing is so important, industry professionals know that they can trust DIA events to provide legitimate forums where they can collaborate with their colleagues. Our neutral setting really is a big draw for all parties involved.

Also contributing to DIA’s respected position is the fact that the association is member-driven and led by a volunteer-based Board of Directors. Volunteer members serve in a variety of capacities, such as program chairs, speakers, content experts, and faculty members for the various DIA events.

The DIA also maintains its respected position by the diverse offerings we provide, e.g. through our domestic and international meetings, training courses and workshops. In addition to DIA’s regular meeting offerings, the organization’s webinars (online seminars) are developed to address the latest information on hot industry topics. These webinars are accessible from anywhere in the world and offer up-to-date information on all facets of the industry. Improving communication on topics critical to the development of life-altering drugs is as important now as ever, and we feel that information sharing can only lead to more effective medicines and faster ways to get them to people in need.

Developing the future’s leaders

The call for training is bigger today than ever before. The DIA is answering this call by helping its members to strengthen their personal and professional performance with core and special interest area curricula specific to the pharmaceutical and related healthcare industries. To accommodate its internationally dispersed membership, the DIA offers instructor-led learning, online eLearning, and in-company training programs.

We understand, as do the readers of NGP, that the industry must concentrate more on fostering the development of future leaders. There is a growing need to educate and mentor entry-level personnel in all areas of drug development. By continuing to offer industry curricula tailored to varying levels of professional growth, we can help train and educate the future leaders and innovators of drug development.

There is also a greater demand on having up-to-date information on clinical trial operations, for example, site identification, patient recruitment, monitoring of sites, GCP compliance, etc. There is more awareness than ever before that this area of clinical development can have a major impact on the length of time it takes to develop a drug.

Looking forward

In the future, we at the DIA plan to continue to meet, and indeed exceed, the standards of our mission statement by remaining focused and prioritizing our initiatives and activities. Instead of trying to do it all, we can better serve our constituencies by concentrating on a certain set of priorities, which will evolve to meet their needs.

We will maintain focus on the four areas in our mission below and in implementing new ways and approaches on annual basis.

Our mission

DIA is a nonprofit, multidisciplinary, neutral forum for sharing information that optimizes the process of drug development and lifecycle management by providing:

• Global and regional forums for the exchange of information, education and training.
• Extensive multidisciplinary networking opportunities.
• Rewarding volunteer leadership experiences.
• High-quality professional development opportunities.

In addition, since the success of the DIA is largely due to the involvement of our volunteers, we’ve decided to ensure that they have a satisfying and rewarding experience. One of our major initiative for this past year and will continue to be for the upcoming year is the implementation of our volunteer pathway. We want to continue encouraging people who are passionate about our vision and mission to get involved.

One way they can get involved is by participating in one of the many Special Interest Area Communities (SIACs) that DIA offers. The SIACs provide a medium where professionals with common interests in the field can interact with each other. We are currently working with the SIACs to provide them with online tools that will facilitate better communications between the SIAC leaders and members, as well as between members themselves. The online intranet site includes tools for document sharing and management, online polls and task reminders. It is currently being piloted and we will decide in early 2006 if we’ll move forward with a full-scale implementation.

The online intranet site for SIACs is one component of another major initiative, the redesign of our online presence. DIA has worked throughout 2005 to develop our website into a new, user-centric www.diahome.org website. This redesign will allow visitors to more easily access information, conduct more robust searches, and have a more content-individualized experience. Automation of transactions that were previously done manually will also increase the quality of service that DIA provides to our constituents.

Additionally, DIA will continue to offer opportunities for student involvement in the EuroMeeting and Annual Meeting. Students already participate in poster competitions and we are looking to expand the special educational sessions and the number of academic sites that are involved. Feedback will be solicited from the students to determine if student chapters can be formed.

Finally, since it is our goal to enhance world health, we feel it is important to continue to reach out to drug development professionals throughout the world. For example, on 29-30 September, we held our first-ever multitrack workshop in Japan. This meeting was a huge success and is a good barometer of DIA’s worldwide involvement and impact. There are great opportunities to increase impactful offerings in Europe given the regulatory environment and the expansion and development of the European Union. There is also a need to serve ‘newly emerging’ countries in drug development such as India, China and Latin America and we are working with dedicated volunteers in all these areas to meet regional needs.