Sivakumar Ramakrishnan, Government Director at Vita International 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 rules, and the transformative function of synthetic intelligence within the life sciences sector. Ramakrishnan shares how his group navigates the stability between trade requirements and customised options, and the important 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 rapidly realized that statistical programming is greater than only a technical self-discipline. Its capacity to rework uncooked knowledge into actionable insights, drive important choices in healthcare, and in the end 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 affect. I got here to see statistical programming as a important bridge connecting science, expertise, 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 boost effectivity; and retaining patient-centered targets on the coronary heart of each initiative.
In the end, my purpose has been to assist form the longer term the place healthcare is extra exact, environment friendly, and accessible. By combining sturdy technical experience with an empathetic, forward-thinking strategy, I try to make a long-lasting affect on the healthcare trade and the lives it touches. With developments in synthetic intelligence and machine studying, the longer term is vivid for accelerating the supply of transformative therapeutics to those that want them most.
As a frontrunner of a worldwide group, what rules information your strategy to fostering innovation and delivering impactful options?
As a frontrunner of a worldwide group, I anchor my strategy in a transparent imaginative and prescient and inclusive collaboration. By aligning our modern efforts with organizational goals, buyer wants, and broader international well being targets, we deal with real-world challenges with measurable affect. At VGS, I try to domesticate a tradition the place every particular person feels valued, understands their function, and is empowered to contribute distinctive concepts.
Recognizing that change is fixed, adaptability and steady studying are important. I encourage and encourage my group to undertake rising applied sciences, experiment freely in a trust-based surroundings, and be taught 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 progress drive the supply of modern outcomes. By fostering curiosity, providing skilled growth alternatives, and nurturing expertise, we preserve a motivated and high-performing workforce. These rules kind the muse of my management strategy, enabling us to constantly push boundaries and ship lasting, significant outcomes.
How do you see the function of AI and automation reworking statistical programming within the life sciences, and what challenges accompany this shift?
Automation in statistical programming has a protracted historical past, leveraging conventional high-level programming languages and software program. At VGS, we’ve regularly enhanced code maintainability, reusability, and different finest practices via these automated approaches.
Now, synthetic intelligence (AI) is creating a major affect, 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. Nonetheless, we view it as a complementary instrument reasonably than a alternative. Our focus is on “Augmented AI”, the place people and AI collaborate seamlessly to attain transformational affect and effectivity, with AI designed to boost, not substitute, human intelligence.
Furthermore, the extremely regulated nature of the pharmaceutical trade necessitates warning when counting on AI. Considerations comparable to “bias”, “hallucination”,” traceability”, “Privacy”, and “ethical considerations” stay important. As we combine AI, vigilance is important to make sure its use is each accountable and compliant, placing the fitting stability between innovation and accountability.
What methods do you utilize to stability trade requirements with custom-made options for various stakeholders?
Personalized options needn’t stray from trade requirements. Our stakeholders vary from giant pharmaceutical firms to medium-sized biotech companies and small startups – every with distinct necessities. From a sourcing perspective, we tailor our strategy to suit these diversified wants. Some stakeholders might solely want assist in a selected biometric space, whereas others would possibly require an end-to-end resolution. Moreover, pressing useful resource calls for can come up, and we deal with these promptly via our in depth recruitment community and inner pipeline.
We additionally supply technical options that adhere to regulatory pointers whereas permitting for personalization within the intermediate processes and assist offered. As an illustration, we will develop customized programming for medical and statistical purposes to ship specialised experiences providing deeper insights. These experiences function a worthwhile complement to the usual regulatory requirement, guaranteeing stakeholders profit from each compliance and suppleness. In the end, we strike a stability between standardization and customization, guaranteeing we obtain the most effective of each worlds: effectivity with out compromising on particular wants.
How has your involvement with the Forbes Expertise Council and the AI Frontier Community influenced your work at Vita International 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 expertise domains. This publicity has helped me leverage trade traits and incorporate forward-thinking methods into Vita International 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 expertise adoption and alter administration.
Who’re among the people who’ve considerably influenced your profession and your management model?
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. Nonetheless, one key affect in my present function 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 try to emulate. He additionally shares invaluable insights, comparable to an early piece of knowledge: “We are only as good as our last deliverable.” This resonates with me deeply and is a precept I typically reiterate to my group at VGS. It retains us grounded, prevents complacency, and motivates us to constantly ship the very best stage of service to our purchasers and sufferers.
What steps do you’re taking to make sure that innovation aligns with the overarching purpose 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 targeted 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 deal with real-world challenges and mix seamlessly into current workflows.
Interdisciplinary groups additional enrich this course of by providing various views, leading to complete end-to-end options. Repeatedly 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 observe metrics – comparable to timelines, value effectivity, and deliverable success charges – and fine-tune our methods based mostly on measurable outcomes. A tradition of adaptability and steady enchancment is fostered via prototyping, piloting new applied sciences, and incorporating classes discovered the place it is sensible.
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 maintain groups aggressive and forward-thinking. By integrating these components, each initiative stays aligned with organizational targets and helps ship life-changing therapies to our stakeholders and sufferers in want.
In your opinion, what are probably the most important 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 pondering, and interpersonal abilities to achieve 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.
Nonetheless, 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, group constructing, collaboration, and steady studying are additionally important. By embracing these qualities, leaders can evolve with the sector and leverage expertise to attain strategic targets.
How do you envision the function of statistical programming evolving throughout the broader context of worldwide well being and precision drugs?
Statistical programming has skilled exceptional progress in collaboration and information sharing in recent times. That is largely as a result of rise of open-source technologies- significantly R and Python- in medical 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 important data. As these traits proceed, statistical programming will play an more and more pivotal function in advancing international well being and precision drugs.
What motivates you personally to push the boundaries of contemporary drugs via your work?
At VGS, we’re pushed by a profound sense of function and the understanding that our efforts straight contribute to bettering lives on a worldwide scale. The life sciences trade carries the immense accountability of tackling a few of humanity’s most pressing well being challenges, and being a part of this mission evokes each me and your entire group 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 angle fuels my dedication to leveraging statistical programming and innovation to speed up the event of life-saving therapies. It’s this information that pushes me and my group 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 several other different therapies fast-tracked for FDA evaluate, amongst many others. Reflecting on the outcomes of our work – therapies that remodel and save lives – fills me with a profound sense of gratification that’s unmatched by every other endeavor.
