Spotlight : Henry Haringsma
Henry Haringsma is a big-pharma veteran, former bench scientist and, now, entrepreneur and founder of an expanding medical communications agency, Topline Bio. Today, Henry sits down with us to talk about the communications gap in medicine and how his organization helps bridge it.
Henry – you talk a lot about bridging the gap between academia and community. Could you define some terms here?
Of course. Academics love, live and breathe all of the latest scientific data. Often, they’re even playing roles in the research itself. Your average community HCP, on the other hand, fills a different need in the world. They treat all different kinds of disease, specifically cancers, and at a high volume. They’re often far too busy actually treating swarms of people to, honestly, keep up with all of the latest data.
Okay, so how do we fix that?
Well, education is everything. What we try to do is bridge that gap between the academic experts and your average community treater. And because there are just not enough hours in the day for these community HCP’s to stay completely updated on all of these treatment landscapes, we take a really compact approach to their education.
Compact how?
For one, we do these roundtable sessions, which we call PeerTalk. They’re these dinners where we fill the room with community physicians ready to learn, and invite one or two really influential academics to lead conversations on the latest data. It’s a very nerdy few hours, but it’s amazing. The energy, the enthusiasm, is electric. People get really invested in the dialogue, which often becomes friendly debate, about their real world treatment experiences.
That’s incredible.
It really is. When you pack a room with physicians that treat a high volume of patients with a particular disease, and create a space for them to discuss, debate and learn with and from academic experts, it’s remarkable how they begin to express, and pivot, their thought patterns.
What does Topline mean to you, looking back on your life?
One of the things that I’m most proud of with Topline Bio is that we fill a real knowledge gap out there. The pace of innovation is so rapid that it’s just not possible for folks to stay up to date on everything if they’re treating everything. And so, one of the things that I find most rewarding is when you can actually see someone digest data that is being presented in real time, and you can see the light bulb go on in their head, and you can tell that that information is going to be a game-changer in terms of how they manage their patients going forward. It’s actually pretty inspiring. Not to be too dramatic, but that moment actually changes peoples lives. Both the treaters and the patients they see.
You’re no stranger to the industry. How has your career prepared you for your role today?
I’ve worked in a variety of roles in the pharmaceutical industry throughout my career. I was a bench scientist for nearly a decade. I did market planning, forecasting and competitive intelligence, and market research. I’ve had a variety of marketing roles, and I supported a Chief Medical Officer as his chief of staff at a budding biotech.
Now, reflecting on my career, Topline Bio is scratching the itch that I’ve had for a very long time. I always thought that these things could be done better, not just for me, but for the physicians. And that’s what our format welcomes. We extract the unvarnished opinions of these oncologists which is the foundation of advancement in treatment. That’s the beginning of progress.
If your younger self saw you now, what would he think?
I think if the version of myself from twenty years ago gazed into the crystal ball and saw me now, he’d be proud, because he built something from nothing. Something that is improving the way that folks do their jobs and helping them understand how to better support their patients and helping our pharma clients understand how they can better support the physicians that they serve on a daily basis.
As a kid who grew up in a corn field, it’s both incredible and difficult to step back and really appreciate what I’ve helped build here.
