Vigilance Unplugged

Barbara Dawson

Barbara Dawson’s career began by accident — a data‑entry role in the 1990s — and became a three‑decade journey of solving messy problems, building safety teams from the ground up, and steering global pharma through inspections, mergers and reinvention. In this episode she tells the turning points that shaped her: the thrill of finding patterns, the satisfaction of creating order out of chaos, and the lessons learned across Astra, Merck, Roche and small biotechs alike. Looking forward, Barbara paints a vivid, practical vision of the future: smarter data, AI as an ally, and a single, human‑centric front door to reporting that could free safety teams to do science instead of paperwork. Listen for candid stories, hard‑won advice on risk and careers, and a contagious enthusiasm for reimagining how life sciences will keep patients safe.

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Chris Isaac

When a fresh graduate who thought marketing was his destiny answers a call to pick up clinical trial faxes, he could not have guessed he was at the start of a remarkable journey. In this episode, Chris Isaacs—Novartis’ Region Europe Patient Safety Manager and President of PIPER—takes us from the hum of the fax machine to the complex, people-driven world of pharmacovigilance. Chris tells a story of stubborn curiosity and grit: juggling weekend shifts, a full-time job and an Open University life sciences degree, building a CRO department from scratch, and navigating the twists that led him back to Novartis. Along the way he learns that career progress is part persistence, part seizing the right challenge, and entirely about making work fun and meaningful. We follow Chris into professional leadership and volunteerism with PIPER, where practical guidance meets community— and into his bold view of the future: automation, AI-driven signal detection, and a shift from personalized to predictive medicine. His reflections on generational change, workplace expectations, and the human side of safety create a vivid through-line that will resonate with anyone shaping a career in life sciences. Tune in to hear an honest, lively conversation about failure and reinvention, the power of experiences over neat career plans, and what it might mean when medicine begins to anticipate illness before it appears.

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James Whitehead

How does a chance summer job reviewing literature turn into a career shaping how medicines and devices keep people safe? In this episode, James Whitehead narrates a winding, human story—from a psychology graduate’s first contract to pivotal years processing cases at GSK, consulting across the industry, and building AstraZeneca’s device and digital safety team. James guides listeners through the small moments that mattered—mentors who opened doors, the messy lessons of consulting in Tuscany, and the hard-won choices of leading a safety system at a growing biotech. Along the way he wrestles with a central question: if you could start with a blank sheet of paper, how would you redesign patient safety for a world of AI, connected devices and diverse health systems? Warm, candid and forward-looking, this conversation mixes practical stories with visionary thinking about people, process and technology. Tune in to hear the lessons, the regrets, and the call to build patient safety systems that put patients and practitioners first.

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Alan White

In this episode of Vigilance Unplugged, Alan White tells a story of chance, courage and calculated pivots: a business-student from Liverpool who lands in the Czech Republic, stumbles into translation work, and discovers a regulatory niche that becomes the spark for Arriello. Through vivid scenes—knocking on doors with printed CVs, awkward early sales pitches in a pizzeria, and the crunch of global financial shock—Alan traces the twists that turned frustration into a founding moment. As the narrative unfolds, we follow the hard lessons of growth: why sticking to what you do well matters, how culture and leadership shape careers, and how technology and AI are changing the rules of pharmacovigilance. Alan’s candid reflections—on bosses who made him cry, interns thrown in at the deep end, and the difficult choices that create resilience—weave together personal stakes with industry-wide shifts. Tune in to hear a human story about building a business in a regulated world: the setbacks, the strategy pivots, and the long view on where life sciences are headed—and what he would tell his younger self about taking risks, learning fast, and staying curious.

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Stephanie Martin

She began as a child inspired by a kindly pediatrician and ended up reshaping how companies keep patients safe. In this episode Stephanie Martin traces a winding path through biochemistry studies in France, a life-changing move to the UK, and formative roles at GSK, a CRO, Sanofi and Eli Lilly — each stop sharpening her instincts for quality and risk. As an auditor Stephanie learned to balance detail and perspective, to turn deviations into opportunities, and to teach teams that audits are a partnership, not a police visit. She shares the moment she chose independence, founding SMPV Limited, and how that leap let her scale the impact of her values: smarter systems, simpler processes, and clearer focus on patient safety. Along the way she confronts the challenges of a changing PV landscape — AI, localization, and the temptation to move fast without asking why — and invites listeners to pause, think critically, and redesign pharmacovigilance with patients at the center.

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Adam Sherlock

On this episode of Vigilance Unplugged, Adam Sherlock an accidental life sciences leader walks us through a four-decade career shaped by curiosity, serendipity and strategic risk. From a failed fast-jet dream to clinical microbiology, from building RegTracker to leading multiple buy-and-build ventures, Adam reveals the pivotal moments, the tough calls, and the intuition that guided him through growth, exits and transformation. We dig into the evolving landscape of pharmacovigilance and life sciences: how blending technology and services unlocks new efficiencies, why AI and digitalization are rewriting service delivery, and what private equity-driven consolidation means for innovation. Along the way, Adam shares his pragmatic leadership playbook for the first 90 days, the trade-offs between CEO and non-executive roles, and a striking vision of a future shaped by wearable health data and personalized care. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, an investor, or a curious listener, this conversation offers lessons on following curiosity, making bold career moves, and leading teams through change — all while keeping people and culture at the center of decision-making.

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Rena Pandit

In this episode of Vigilance Unplugged, Rena Pandit recounts how a chance move to the UK turned a hospital pharmacist into a global pharmacovigilance leader. Through vivid scenes, late-night case processing, building teams from scratch, and learning in EMA corridors—she reveals the unexpected turns that shaped a career dedicated to patient safety. Rena traces the industry’s arc from paper and fax to paperless systems, vendor partnerships, and the looming promise of AI and predictive safety. Along the way she shares hard-earned insights on inspection readiness, vendor trust, and the fragile foundations of ICSR work, inviting listeners into the tension between legal duty and meaningful impact. Practical, candid, and human, this conversation closes with a call to invest in yourself: take risks, learn the fundamentals, and lead with curiosity as the future of life sciences reshapes how we protect patients. Tune in to hear the stories behind the science.

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David Kolosic

Join Indy as he sits down with David Kolosic, whose unexpected detour, from a small Slovenian town and a failed pharmacy exam to quality assurance, regulatory work, and eventually a pivotal role at Veeva, reveals how chance, curiosity and grit can remake a career. Through candid stories of internships, risky moves to Barcelona, and the excitement of building Veeva Safety, David uncovers the human choices behind technical change. Hear how data, platform thinking and a bold AI roadmap are reshaping pharmacovigilance, why standardizing information matters more than hype, and how one company’s values turned customers into fans. This episode blends personal resilience with clear-eyed predictions for the next five years in life sciences. Tune in for practical advice for early-career listeners, about networking, soft skills and leading by influence, and for anyone curious about where technology, regulation and patient safety intersect.

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Eric Sandor

In this episode of Vigilance Unplugged, Eric Sandor takes us from the code-filled days of COBOL to the cutting edge of enterprise AI, narrating a career that bends technology, regulation and deep personal experience into a single mission: better, more precise patient care. You’ll follow his early work on groundbreaking pharmacovigilance systems, the global projects that shaped his view of safety and the bold leap from Accenture into entrepreneurship. Eric’s story is vivid and human a founder wrestling with the promise and the practicality of automation, a man who left corporate life only to confront heartbreaking personal loss and an innovator who built PVAI ahead of its time. The episode peels back the curtain on failure and reinvention, exposing the messy engineering, the tenacity and the lessons that come from trying to change an industry from the inside out. By the end you’ll see his vision for a standardized tech stack, integrated multimodal data, and the rise of precision medicine, a future where pharma becomes a trusted, data-driven guide for individual patients. This is a conversation about discovery, risk and the human stakes of technological change; listen for practical insights and a hopeful, urgent case for reimagining how we turn data into care.

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Pav Rishiraj

It’s morning, there’s coffee and a curious postgraduate steps into a lunch-and-learn that will change everything. Pav Rishiraj remembers the moment he fell into pharmacovigilance a world of filing cabinets, meticulous case work and fast deadlines and the small risks that became the building blocks of a remarkable career. Follow Pav from manual PSURs and late-night dossiers to leadership roles at global firms, through Brexit uncertainty and the leap into representing industry at the ABPI. Along the way he learns hard lessons about trust, mentorship and the discipline behind consistent performance and how impostor syndrome can turn into a quiet, steady courage. Hear how Pav stitches technical mastery to human skills; communication, purpose and curiosity and why he believes the future of safety depends on pharmacogenomics, real-world data, and leaders who know when to zoom in and when to zoom out. This episode is a candid, fast-paced narrative about learning, risk and the small choices that shape a life in life sciences.

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Trailer

It’s back — the same conversations you loved, with a new name. Vigilance Unplugged explores the real stories behind careers in safety and risk management — and asks what’s next for the world of vigilance and life sciences. 8nvkeXRXCUaOLbO3l1rf