Employee Perspective: Meet David

Being at the forefront of advanced therapies is not just about research. For David, who is a Senior Medical Science Liaison at Roche, it’s about the drive of innovation; of being instrumental in building a legacy where scientific discovery will help patients for years come.

“When you see a scan of a lung cancer disappearing, and speak to doctors about their patients doing well on therapies and getting back to their normal lives, that feeling is second to none. It’s not only a motivator to continue contributing to improving cancer care, but it gives you a real purpose. Putting in place solutions that can impact hundreds, if not thousands of people – that’s a great reason to get out of bed in the morning.

At Roche, I act as a conduit between clinicians that access our medicines and the knowledge about our medicines that inform best practice and future care. The scope of what I can do is very broad and there’s a lot of variety, including working on regional and global projects.

I see the development of personalised healthcare as the next revolution in changing how we use large datasets to answer clinically important scientific questions. In diseases such as cancer, this means clinicians are able to have a detailed look at the patient’s tumour genome, identifying gene alterations before giving patients an appropriate targeted therapy, as well as utilising big data and new research and development to help improve patient outcomes now and for tomorrow.

At Roche I get to enjoy more than just the science - it’s about building collaborations with doctors and researchers and working amongst a highly experienced and motivated team. The depth of expertise and the opportunity to learn from people around me is incredible, and I’m constantly impressed at how well we all work together.

Where can the innovations at Roche go? I think, a long way. There are so many opportunities for medical advances across so many areas. The legacy I hope to leave will be one that exists beyond these four walls – patients getting the treatments and improvements in health and quality of life is what we are all working towards. As we move forward, if Roche can be on the forefront of scientific discoveries like genomic testing, and be truly innovative in our real-world data collection, then we can really advance healthcare and take the next leap in revolutionising patient care. That’s what it’s all about.