On Wednesday 21st April 2021 the BHBIA ran the first full Rising Stars Connect Group event, 19 members of this newly established group attended the meeting.

The meeting commenced with Paul O’Nions, BHBIA Chair, welcoming the attendees on behalf of the Board.  Paul took the opportunity to restate the Board’s desire to support people new to our discipline which is the driver behind setting this group up.

Alex Brown and Ben Walker, who are leading the group, then went on to further explain how the group had come about and the objectives it will be focusing on which are

• Looking at the career pathways and specialisms that can be followed in the healthcare business intelligence area
• Development of peripheral skills important to the BI professional e.g. business focussed skills
• Delivering an opportunity for networking so that the group can get to know their peers in our sector

To meet these objectives the group aims to involve BHBIA members who can share their experience of working in our industry.

On this occasion Rachel Dixon, from Novartis, joined the meeting to tell the group about her current role in a major pharmaceutical company and how her perspective on projects differs now compared to that when she worked on similar projects in a research agency setting.

Rachel gave a highly informative presentation about her current role and then participated in Q&A session with the group.  The BHBIA are very grateful to Rachel for giving her time and for sharing her insights.

After Rachel’s presentation the group split into smaller networking sessions where delegates could discuss our guest speaker’s presentation.  These sessions were also used to identify topics which future Rising Stars Connect Group meetings can focus on.

Feedback on the meeting was positive and we will soon be setting a date for the next meeting of this group.

The Rising Stars Connect Group is aimed at those in the BHBIA membership who have between 1 and 5 years of experience in the healthcare business intelligence sector.  If you are at this stage in your career and would like to be kept informed about Rising Stars Connect Group activities please contact us to join the Rising Starts Connect Group mailing list by emailing engage.bhbia@outlook.com

We also have a dedicated Rising Stars Connect Group page on LinkedIn which is open to BHBIA members only.  Please feel free to visit this group and request to join.