A Legacy of Innovation: The Max Noureddine Exit Interview, Part Two

January 7, 2011 · Leave a comment

Prateek Peres-da-Silva, an intern at Thought Leader Select and student at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, recently sat down with Dr. Maher “Max” Noureddine, Thought Leader Select’s departing chief scientific officer, to discuss his achievements at the company, as well as his vision for the non-profit he is launching to improve the professional lives of health care providers. Peres-da-Silva is a junior at UNC, double-majoring in business and biochemistry.

Prateek Peres-da-Silva: In part one of the interview, we talked about your work for Thought Leader Select. For the rest of our conversation, I’d like to hear your take on the future. What are your plans for the new year?

Max Noureddine: I stepped down from my position with Thought Leader Select to focus completely on establishing and running a new non-profit entity, which I have named The Institute for Advanced Career Development (IACD).

Prateek Peres-da-Silva:  In some of our previous conversations, you have mentioned that there will be several mentoring programs, aimed at educating healthcare and legal professionals, set up under the institute’s umbrella.  Can you tell us more about these programs?

Max Noureddine: One of the immediate objectives of the IACD is to provide healthcare professionals and scientific researchers with training and mentorship on how to shape their careers to become effective leaders in their areas of specialty. The sustained, ... read more »

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Thought Leader Select’s Noureddine Launches Non-Profit Aimed at Career Development for Medical Professionals

December 23, 2010 · Leave a comment

Press Release Out Today from the Offices of Thought Leader Select

December 23, 2010 (CHAPEL HILL, NC)—Dr. Maher “Max” Noureddine, a noted Parkinson’s disease researcher and chief scientific officer at North Carolina-based research firm Thought Leader Select, is leaving the company to launch the Institute for Advanced Career Development (IACD) on January 3, 2011.

The institute will offer an array of programs for medical professionals seeking to advance their academic careers in their respective medical fields.  Programs on offer will include a physician-centric curriculum called MedMentors, courses for nurses called RNMentors, and courses for pharmacists and veterinarians called PharMentors and VetMentors, respectively.

In addition to the programs centered on leadership in allied health professions, Dr. Noureddine will lead development courses for legal professionals interested in understanding the science of DNA-based evidence.  Dr. Noureddine is trained in human molecular genetics with years of laboratory research experience at top institutions such as UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke Medical Center, and The National Institutes of Health.

“I am excited to take all of my scientific training and combine it with my experience in working directly with leading academic medical specialists from across the globe,” stated Noureddine. “While I am sad to be leaving Thought Leader Select, I am doing so with the company’s complete endorsement—they really believe in what I’m doing to advance scientific careers for better healthcare delivery. ... read more »

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The Thought Leaders Driving Thought Leader Select: A Blog Series—Rhonda Napier

September 8, 2010 · 4 comments

Rhonda Napier joined Thought Leader Select as a research manager in the spring of 2010, after serving the company for two years as a researcher. A graduate of West Virginia University (bachelor’s degree in exercise physiology) and Marshall University (master’s degree in adult fitness and cardiac rehabilitation), Rhonda worked in research and clinical practice as an exercise physiologist for 13 years.

During her time at the Ohio State University College of Nursing, Napier led National Institutes of Health-funded research on the effects of exercise on hypertensive women. More recently, her work at the Gillings School for Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill focused on quality and access to healthcare.

The Thought Leader Select Blog
sat down with Rhonda to discuss her skills and experiences, as well as her contribution to the work of Thought Leader Select.

TLS Blog: Good afternoon, Rhonda. Why did you join Thought Leader Select?

Rhonda Napier:
I had the good fortune of meeting the company’s leadership team through my husband, Chris, after he became acquainted with them. That was back in 2008, and they had an opportunity for me to come into the company as a researcher. The idea of exclusively doing research for me was odd, because I had been a clinician for so many years—but I became ... read more »

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Ethics of Gene Therapy to Dominate Healthcare Landscape for Years to Come

June 3, 2010 · 1 comment

Industry Insights from Paul Meade, M. Sc, MPH

During my recent studies for an ethics certificate, I encountered several ethical issues that stimulated my thinking about the future of healthcare.

I would like to address an ethical issue that I feel will dominate the healthcare landscape for the next several decades, in the area of genetics.

With the completion of the Human Genome Project and the mapping of mankind’s blueprint of life, we are beginning to gain a greater understanding of what makes us human. One logical extension of this “knowledge of life” is the ability to control or manipulate life itself. Gene therapy will give us the ability to not only modify our genetic predisposition to diseases, but also to enhance lifestyle abilities. No one would argue the ability to change one base-pair and eliminate Huntington’s disease from an unborn child, but how far is one willing to go to be taller, more athletic, have a gift of music, or become a genius. Who will decide what genetic alterations are acceptable to a society? And who will qualify to have such manipulations—only those that can afford to pay?

The ability to manipulate our genome is the ability to control human evolution itself. No more will we need to rely on random chance and Darwinian principles, such as natural selection–we will be able ... read more »

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The Thought Leaders Driving Thought Leader Select: A Blog Series–Paul Meade

June 2, 2010 · Leave a comment

Paul Meade, a 25-year veteran of the pharmaceutical industry, founded Thought Leader Select in 2006. Throughout his career, Paul served in several leadership positions in sales, marketing, and strategic planning, culminating in his role of director of worldwide commercial development for predictive medicine at GlaxoSmithKline.

After leaving GSK, Paul launched two companies, Clear Point Health, in 2005, and Thought Leader Select, in 2006. Paul’s work with these two companies entails marketing planning, consulting for research and development and clinical operations, as well as his breakthrough work with medical expert collaborations for the pharmaceutical industry.

The Thought Leader Select Blog sat down with Paul to discuss his industry experience and his professional contribution to Thought Leader Select.

TLS Blog:  Good afternoon, Paul.  Why did you start Thought Leader Select?

Paul Meade:  About a year before starting the company, I had begun consulting with the health industry with my partner, Lisa Smith, through our company, Clear Point Health.  We were taking on a number of projects, working with medical affairs teams, marketing teams, and research and development groups within the industry.

One of our large clients came to me and told me that, even though they’d been working with thought leaders for over ten years, they realized how little they really knew about them.  When they sat down to consolidate all of their knowledge about their medical ... read more »

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Post-Reform Jitters: Opportunities for Positive Change in the Healthcare Industry

May 19, 2010 · 1 comment

Industry Insights from Paul Meade,  M. Sc, MPH

With all the players in the healthcare field scrambling to understand just how the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is going to impact their livelihood, it is no wonder everyone has “Post-Reform Jitters.” A new report has just been published by PricewaterhouseCoopers Health Research Institute titled, “Health Reform: Prospering in a Post-Reform World,” which suggests that everyone is going to have to work together nicely and all get along.  This is, undoubtedly, an interesting concept, since the healthcare industry has spent the last hundred years fragmenting and segmenting care delivery. In fact, health care in the United States has become a system of silos and fiefdoms with so many intermediary players all attempting to “carve out” their respective niches and take their fair share of the profits that healthcare costs have become the proverbial runaway train. So why are we so worried?

We can sum up the impact of this new healthcare reform in two words: accountability and transparency. To effectively integrate healthcare back into a manageable, efficient system, the players are certainly going to have to get along and play nicely, as suggested by the PWC report. But more importantly, those who play in the healthcare game are going to have to be more accountable to those receiving the ... read more »

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The Thought Leaders Driving Thought Leader Select: A Blog Series–Clarissa Noureddine

May 18, 2010 · Leave a comment

Clarissa Noureddine joined Thought Leader Select in 2007, after spending the previous four years as a practicing veterinarian.  A graduate of the University of Florida, Clarissa earned a master’s degree in molecular biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, followed by a doctor of veterinary medicine degree from North Carolina State University. In her role as senior research manager, Clarissa provides key insider perspectives on treatment, use of pharmacological agents, and the collaboration of doctors with the pharmaceutical industry to deliver thorough, accurate, and understandable key opinion leader identification and profiling research.

The Thought Leader Select Blog recently sat down to catch up with Clarissa Noureddine and learn about her background and how she makes her professional contribution to the work of Thought Leader Select.

TLS Blog:  Good afternoon, Clarissa.  Tell us why you joined Thought Leader Select.

Clarissa Noureddine:  In 2006, I left veterinary practice to become a stay-at-home mom, as well as to pursue a much-needed change of scenery, professionally–one that would present new challenges on an ongoing basis.  I immediately started doing research for Thought Leader Select and joined full-time as a research manager in March of 2007. In a very short period of time, I really came to love what I do—delivering key research on physicians to help drive better quality medications and higher standards of ... read more »

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Thought Leader Select’s Meade Receives Master of Public Health Degree, Certificate in Ethics

May 11, 2010 · Leave a comment

May 11, 2010 (CHAPEL HILL, NC)  Paul Meade, founder and president of Thought Leader Select, a North Carolina firm dedicated to key opinion leader (KOL) development solutions for the biopharmaceutical industry, received a master of public health degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on May 8, 2010.

The Gillings School of Global Public Health at UNC awarded Meade, a 25-year veteran of the pharmaceutical industry, with a master of public health degree and a certificate in public health ethics in the Public Health Leadership Program.  Meade’s research report, “How Volunteer Community Organizations Can Assist State Public Health Departments During Pandemic Influenza,” explored specific possibilities for the Civil Air Patrol, a volunteer non-profit national organization and an auxiliary of the United States Air Force, to assist state public health officials during widespread outbreaks of influenza.

The master of public health degree is Meade’s second master’s degree. He earned a master of science in biomedical science from the University of Guelph (Canada) in 1977, following his bachelor of science degree in biology and chemistry from Acadia University (Canada) in 1971.

During his 25-year career in the pharmaceutical industry, Meade served in a variety of leadership positions at Merck and GlaxoSmithKline. During his ten years at Merck, Meade worked his way from a sales representative position to director of marketing planning for ... read more »

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