Sivakumar Ramakrishnan, Government Director at Vita World Sciences, brings a novel perspective to the intersection of statistical programming, AI, and healthcare innovation. On this interview, he delves into the evolution of his profession, management ideas, and the transformative position of synthetic intelligence within the life sciences sector. Ramakrishnan shares how his workforce navigates the steadiness between trade requirements and customised options, and the crucial abilities future leaders should domesticate in an ever-evolving panorama. Learn on to find his insights on accelerating the supply of life-changing therapeutics.
What impressed you to pursue a profession on the intersection of statistical programming and innovation, and the way has your imaginative and prescient developed?
From my early days in SAS programming, I shortly realized that statistical programming is greater than only a technical self-discipline. Its capacity to rework uncooked knowledge into actionable insights, drive crucial choices in healthcare, and finally enhance affected person outcomes really impressed me.
Over time, my imaginative and prescient expanded from a purely technical focus to a broader perspective encompassing management, technique, and influence. I got here to see statistical programming as a crucial bridge connecting science, know-how, and sensible outcomes – one which calls for seamless collaboration and a dedication to innovation all through the drug growth lifecycle. This evolution naturally led me to focus on three key pillars: nurturing high-performing, various groups; embracing rising applied sciences to reinforce effectivity; and holding patient-centered objectives on the coronary heart of each initiative.
Finally, my objective has been to assist form the long run the place healthcare is extra exact, environment friendly, and accessible. By combining sturdy technical experience with an empathetic, forward-thinking strategy, I attempt to make an enduring influence on the healthcare trade and the lives it touches. With developments in synthetic intelligence and machine studying, the long run is vibrant for accelerating the supply of transformative therapeutics to those that want them most.
As a pacesetter of a world workforce, what ideas information your strategy to fostering innovation and delivering impactful options?
As a pacesetter of a world workforce, I anchor my strategy in a transparent imaginative and prescient and inclusive collaboration. By aligning our revolutionary efforts with organizational targets, buyer wants, and broader international well being objectives, we sort out real-world challenges with measurable influence. At VGS, I attempt to domesticate a tradition the place every particular person feels valued, understands their position, and is empowered to contribute distinctive concepts.
Recognizing that change is fixed, adaptability and steady studying are very important. I encourage and encourage my workforce to undertake rising applied sciences, experiment freely in a trust-based atmosphere, and study from each successes and failures. Over the previous 4 years, I’ve constructed groups from the bottom up, instilling a way of possession that sparks creativity and uncovers transformative options.
I firmly imagine that mentorship and development drive the supply of revolutionary outcomes. By fostering curiosity, providing skilled growth alternatives, and nurturing expertise, we preserve a motivated and high-performing workforce. These ideas type the muse of my management strategy, enabling us to persistently push boundaries and ship lasting, significant outcomes.
How do you see the position of AI and automation reworking statistical programming within the life sciences, and what challenges accompany this shift?
Automation in statistical programming has an extended historical past, leveraging conventional high-level programming languages and software program. At VGS, we now have regularly enhanced code maintainability, reusability, and different finest practices by these automated approaches.
Now, synthetic intelligence (AI) is creating a big influence, providing each hope and novel prospects. Most within the trade agree that AI is right here to remain and can simplify our work and drive effectivity. Nevertheless, we view it as a complementary device slightly than a alternative. Our focus is on “Augmented AI”, the place people and AI collaborate seamlessly to attain transformational influence and effectivity, with AI designed to reinforce, not change, human intelligence.
Furthermore, the extremely regulated nature of the pharmaceutical trade necessitates warning when counting on AI. Issues resembling “bias”, “hallucination”,” traceability”, “Privacy”, and “ethical considerations” stay crucial. As we combine AI, vigilance is crucial to make sure its use is each accountable and compliant, putting the proper steadiness between innovation and accountability.
What methods do you use to steadiness trade requirements with custom-made options for various stakeholders?
Custom-made options needn’t stray from trade requirements. Our stakeholders vary from massive pharmaceutical corporations to medium-sized biotech corporations and small startups – every with distinct necessities. From a sourcing perspective, we tailor our strategy to suit these various wants. Some stakeholders might solely want help in a selected biometric space, whereas others may require an end-to-end resolution. Moreover, pressing useful resource calls for can come up, and we handle these promptly by our intensive recruitment community and inner pipeline.
We additionally provide technical options that adhere to regulatory tips whereas permitting for personalization within the intermediate processes and help supplied. As an illustration, we are able to develop customized programming for scientific and statistical purposes to ship specialised experiences providing deeper insights. These experiences function a precious complement to the usual regulatory requirement, guaranteeing stakeholders profit from each compliance and suppleness. Finally, we strike a steadiness between standardization and customization, guaranteeing we obtain one of the best of each worlds: effectivity with out compromising on particular wants.
How has your involvement with the Forbes Know-how Council and the AI Frontier Community influenced your work at Vita World Sciences?
By my membership at these esteemed communities, I’ve benefited from a broad community of trade innovators and thought leaders who share transformative concepts throughout a number of know-how domains. This publicity has helped me leverage trade traits and incorporate forward-thinking methods into Vita World Sciences’ operations. As an illustration, articles, discussions, and collaborations inside these teams have knowledgeable my strategy to adopting new processes and instruments. Moreover, these connections have created alternatives for mutually helpful partnerships with stakeholders, permitting us to combine rising options into our biometrics workflows and leverage finest practices in know-how adoption and alter administration.
Who’re a number of the people who’ve considerably influenced your profession and your management type?
I’ve had the privilege of studying from numerous individuals all through my journey. My philosophy is to behave as a “mirror,” absorbing classes from everybody I encounter and embracing the optimistic qualities they provide. Nevertheless, one key affect in my present position is my boss, Tim Southwick – the President and Founding father of VGS. Our weekly interactions have revealed his unwavering composure, whatever the state of affairs. This stoic demeanor is one thing I attempt to emulate. He additionally shares invaluable insights, resembling an early piece of knowledge: “We are only as good as our last deliverable.” This resonates with me deeply and is a precept I usually reiterate to my workforce at VGS. It retains us grounded, prevents complacency, and motivates us to persistently ship the very best stage of service to our shoppers and sufferers.
What steps do you are taking to make sure that innovation aligns with the overarching objective of accelerating the supply of transformative therapeutics?
I make use of a structured strategy guided by strategic alignment, collaboration, and flexibility. It begins with a transparent roadmap centered on enhancing effectivity, shortening timelines, and bettering affected person outcomes. By involving key stakeholders- starting from biostatistics and knowledge administration to statistical programming and regulatory groups – we guarantee improvements handle real-world challenges and mix seamlessly into present workflows.
Interdisciplinary groups additional enrich this course of by providing various views, leading to complete end-to-end options. Recurrently assessing rising applied sciences, methodologies, and instruments helps determine high-impact alternatives that may speed up growth whereas sustaining compliance and scalability.
To make sure consistency and reliability, I promote well-defined SOPs, sturdy high quality checks, and governance frameworks. We monitor metrics – resembling timelines, price effectivity, and deliverable success charges – and fine-tune our methods primarily based on measurable outcomes. A tradition of adaptability and steady enchancment is fostered by prototyping, piloting new applied sciences, and incorporating classes realized the place it is smart.
Clear communication across the imaginative and prescient and function of every innovation initiative underscores its contribution to delivering transformative therapeutics. On the identical time, investments in upskilling and inspiring curiosity preserve groups aggressive and forward-thinking. By integrating these components, each initiative stays aligned with organizational objectives and helps ship life-changing therapies to our stakeholders and sufferers in want.
In your opinion, what are probably the most crucial abilities future leaders in statistical programming and analytics ought to domesticate?
Future leaders in statistical programming and analytics want a mixture of technical experience, area information, strategic considering, and interpersonal abilities to reach the evolving healthcare panorama. They have to keep forward of rising applied sciences and methodologies, stay proficient in a number of programming languages, and excel at knowledge visualization and storytelling to successfully talk insights.
Nevertheless, instruments and technical prowess are solely a method to an finish. True management requires the flexibility to craft a transparent imaginative and prescient, determine alternatives, and align initiatives with these alternatives. Adaptability, workforce constructing, collaboration, and steady studying are additionally very important. By embracing these qualities, leaders can evolve with the sector and leverage know-how to attain strategic objectives.
How do you envision the position of statistical programming evolving inside the broader context of worldwide well being and precision drugs?
Statistical programming has skilled exceptional development in collaboration and information sharing lately. That is largely because of the rise of open-source technologies- significantly R and Python- in scientific programming, in addition to the speedy growth of latest statistical methodologies and machine studying libraries. Moreover, international information-sharing initiatives have fostered sooner innovation and broader entry to crucial data. As these traits proceed, statistical programming will play an more and more pivotal position in advancing international well being and precision drugs.
What motivates you personally to push the boundaries of recent drugs by your work?
At VGS, we’re pushed by a profound sense of function and the understanding that our efforts instantly contribute to bettering lives on a world scale. The life sciences trade carries the immense duty of tackling a few of humanity’s most pressing well being challenges, and being a part of this mission conjures up each me and your entire workforce at VGS daily.
On the core of my motivation is the assumption that behind each dataset and evaluation is a affected person hoping for higher outcomes. Every topic quantity represents a person with a novel life story and a journey towards therapeutic. This attitude fuels my dedication to leveraging statistical programming and innovation to speed up the event of life-saving therapies. It’s this data that pushes me and my workforce to interrupt boundaries and pursue transformative options that make an actual distinction in individuals’s lives.
All through my time at VGS, I’ve had the privilege of main statistical programming efforts for a variety of impactful therapies, which have achieved regulatory approval, and a number of other different therapies fast-tracked for FDA overview, amongst many others. Reflecting on the outcomes of our work – therapies that rework and save lives – fills me with a profound sense of gratification that’s unmatched by every other endeavor.
