Critical Path Institute is dedicated to advancing careers in the medical development and regulatory science industries. We are happy to share the story of Postdoc Fellow, Quantitative Medicine, Ruby Abrams, who has enjoyed the professional development opportunities provided by C-Path.
As a graduate of an applied math program, I did not have the background necessary to succeed in the drug development field. But since I’ve joined C-Path, I’ve gotten mentorship in professional development, research direction, and expanded my skillset. I’ve learned about the many areas of drug development, how C-Path provides a precompetitive collaborative space for better communication between contributing bodies (academia, regulators, and industry) and how I can contribute to the development of drug development tools.
Literature reviews, diverse expert opinion, as well as attendance of open, collaborative discussions have shown me the opportunities that Digital Health Technologies provide, and the multitude of evidence needed as proof of technical validation. These experiences have taught me important lessons such as how to empower the voice of the patient, identifying feasible intended use cases, finding the appropriate DHT, standardizing collected data and applying feature extraction in an interpretable manner. I have had hands on experience in development of DHTs and attended conferences to present this work. I learned about state-of-the-art modeling techniques and networked with other professionals. I also had the opportunity to communicate directly with regulatory representatives to present my work and receive feedback. This also improved my public speaking skills to ensure a broader range of audiences can understand and appreciate my work.
My training has made me an independent and contributing researcher. I enjoy the environment, given freedom to be innovative in my work, and am encouraged to expand and grow my knowledge and skills. It is gratifying to see the impact my career has had, and will continue to have, in the community.
About Critical Path Institute
Critical Path Institute (C-Path) is an independent, nonprofit established in 2005 as a public-private partnership, in response to the FDA’s Critical Path Initiative. C-Path’s mission is to lead collaborations that advance better treatments for people worldwide. Globally recognized as a pioneer in accelerating drug development, C-Path has established numerous international consortia, programs and initiatives that currently include more than 1,600 scientists and representatives from government and regulatory agencies, academia, patient organizations, disease foundations and pharmaceutical and biotech companies. With dedicated team members located throughout the world, C-Path’s global headquarters is located in Tucson, Arizona and C-Path’s Europe subsidiary is headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands. For more information, visit c-path.org.
