Working with Industry

Dr. Makris is from Greece, and he did his initial training there. He then continued his training in vascular medicine in London, and has been working there ever since. Over the past year, he has been working for Bayer Pharmaceuticals in vascular therapeutics as director, and global clinical lead. He has a hybrid work environment where he works virtually for Bayer, and travels frequently, but still maintains a clinical position at his practice one day a week. He wanted to do this because he enjoys practicing IR and wanted to maintain his clinical and technical skills.

Next, we discuss how he decided to get into industry, particularly pharmaceuticals. He never envisioned he would join industry while training. A decade ago, there was a bad reputation about physicians who left medicine to join industry. People often remarked these physicians were soulless or had joined the dark side. Now, there is much less criticism, and there are growing numbers of physicians choosing to partner with industry. Dr. Makris was working as an attending when he started getting more exposed to industry at conferences. He started to imagine a role in medical device innovation, and with a background in research, he knew he had expertise that would be useful to industry as a physician scientist. Somewhat surprisingly, an opportunity came up with Bayer in pharmaceuticals. It was a global role, and involved clinical and research development of vascular medications, which was appealing to him as an IR with a PhD in vascular medicine and someone passionate about global outreach. He also sensed he was ready for a new challenge in his career, so he accepted the role.

He recommends being very honest with yourself about your abilities and your limitations when starting out in a new role in industry. Additionally, you should be open to learning new roles, and be flexible with time and travel. Dr. Makris says that the best way to maintain a clinical role is to have a frank conversation with your practice and explain what you can offer them and how to work out a deal that benefits both parties. Most practices will be willing to keep you on part time. If they are not, there are numerous opportunities to stay in medicine, whether through locums or reaching out to other practices that need help. Dr. Makris ends by saying that as a physician, there are many ways to have career satisfaction and work-life balance, while still contributing to healthcare and helping patients. He sees his new role as an opportunity to contribute to the bigger picture, which is advancing healthcare and medical standards.