The Role of the SPBT

Brian Fagen is Executive Director of The Society of Pharmaceutical and Biotech Trainers with 30 years of experience in various positions inside and outside of the pharmaceutical industry. He talks to NGP about the role of the SPBT.

NGP. What and how do The Society of Pharmaceutical and Biotech Trainers contribute to pharma and biotech companies?
BF. SPBT is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing information and resources to the training community in the pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device and diagnostic industries. We do this by providing resources such as our publication, Focus magazine, our website spbt.com, seminars, benchmark studies on training practices and conferences. We help to develop and teach various techniques to trainers to enable them to pass on medical and scientific information with the ultimate goal of improving treatment of all patients.

NGP. Why is training and development so important in the pharma industry? Are there any particular challenges facing the industry at the moment?
BF. Training, learning, development and education are critical in all industries. One of the major challenges facing all involved with the delivery of healthcare is cost and reimbursement.

Training needs to support the business objectives of their organizations and play a stronger role in preparing and educating healthcare providers as to the benefits and proper use of various as well as understanding the concerns of providers and patients.

NGP. How important are leadership and management in the healthcare industry?
BF. Leadership and management are critical to the success of any organization. The capacity of any organization to perform well is dependant upon the efforts of people and the leadership and management of people is obviously critical to that success.

NGP. What are your opinions on the future for training and development in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries? Are you optimistic?
BF. The delivery of healthcare is of major importance in any society and training and development in the pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device and diagnostic industries will continue to be an important component of that delivery.