Vigilance Unplugged

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...

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...

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 sm...

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...

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 det...

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 gro...

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...

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...

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 a...

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 g...

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