Fireside Chat with Chantelle Robinson
We talk to Chantelle, Multilex Solution Lead here at FDB, about her role and the complex data that sits within Multilex.
What are your responsibilities?
I lead the development and delivery of content and editorial for our Multilex CDS customers, making sure that it is within resource budget, schedule and delivered to the required standard. I am responsible for clinical content decision making and directly manage a fantastic team of Clinical Researchers and Clinical Pharmacists. In my team, we have nine Pharmacists and eight Clinical Researchers, and the main focus of our jobs is to ensure that the content is what our customers need and is in line with our Multilex strategy.
I lead the development and delivery of content and editorial for our Multilex CDS customers, making sure that it is within resource budget, schedule and delivered to the required standard. I am responsible for clinical content decision making and directly manage a fantastic team of Clinical Researchers and Clinical Pharmacists. In my team, we have nine Pharmacists and eight Clinical Researchers, and the main focus of our jobs is to ensure that the content is what our customers need and is in line with our Multilex strategy.
Tell us about your background
I have been with FDB for nearly 15 years – and started back in March 2005! I joined as a Clinical Researcher, having graduated from Plymouth University with a degree in Human Biosciences. In 2008, I became team leader, then in 2016 I became Multilex Solution Lead. During my time here I have become very familiar with Multilex and developed a deep knowledge of the clinical decision support and the internal authoring system. I am really happy with my career progression – when I started I never would have thought that I could have become a Solution Lead – but it just shows that it’s possible, and you don’t have to be a pharmacist to step into this role. I never expected to be in this role or to progress my career in this way, but I just love it and I’m so glad to be working at FDB!
I have been with FDB for nearly 15 years – and started back in March 2005! I joined as a Clinical Researcher, having graduated from Plymouth University with a degree in Human Biosciences. In 2008, I became team leader, then in 2016 I became Multilex Solution Lead. During my time here I have become very familiar with Multilex and developed a deep knowledge of the clinical decision support and the internal authoring system. I am really happy with my career progression – when I started I never would have thought that I could have become a Solution Lead – but it just shows that it’s possible, and you don’t have to be a pharmacist to step into this role. I never expected to be in this role or to progress my career in this way, but I just love it and I’m so glad to be working at FDB!
Tell me about the team
As the Multilex content is really comprehensive, and includes drug-drug interactions, dosing support, drug-disease contraindications, drug doubling etc, it’s quite incredible that a team of 17 people can create and maintain all of this! We have subject matter experts and smaller discrete teams. For example, interactions authoring is quite a complex area, and we have a dedicated team to author this information. We also have a dedicated Dose team. Whilst the whole team will get involved in dose authoring, our dedicated Dose team provides oversight and guidance on the more complex areas of dose authoring as well as training other team members, to ensure the quality and consistency of the data. We also have leads for customer queries, so when we get a content query, we have specific team members who manage this. We also have a lead in the team who manages the end of month data cut – who works closely with our Software team to ensure data integrity and to ensure we meet our contractual deliverable to our customers.
As the Multilex content is really comprehensive, and includes drug-drug interactions, dosing support, drug-disease contraindications, drug doubling etc, it’s quite incredible that a team of 17 people can create and maintain all of this! We have subject matter experts and smaller discrete teams. For example, interactions authoring is quite a complex area, and we have a dedicated team to author this information. We also have a dedicated Dose team. Whilst the whole team will get involved in dose authoring, our dedicated Dose team provides oversight and guidance on the more complex areas of dose authoring as well as training other team members, to ensure the quality and consistency of the data. We also have leads for customer queries, so when we get a content query, we have specific team members who manage this. We also have a lead in the team who manages the end of month data cut – who works closely with our Software team to ensure data integrity and to ensure we meet our contractual deliverable to our customers.
We are authoring more and more in terms of the complexity of data, since we have moved into secondary care, for example. This move has brought in additional expertise, when it comes to clinical pharmacy, and we have pharmacists from different backgrounds, from both community pharmacy and hospital pharmacy. Very different roles, but both bringing something really important. We are really reliant on these pharmacists for specialist areas. For example, we have a hospital pharmacist who has specialist experience in oncology drugs, and others who are experts in cardiovascular drugs. When someone new joins the team, they will bring something special from their clinical background, which really helps with the quality. I’m so proud of the team!
Tell me about the data within Multilex
We pride ourselves on the quality of our work, and we have 107 editorial policies and 75 work instructions to maintain the Multilex content. The documentation is imperative in ensuring that our data is accurately and consistently authored. We also have an Editorial Board which considers exceptions or changes to current editorial policy. Core membership of the Editorial Board function includes Pharmacists, subject matter experts and a Clinical Safety Officer.
We pride ourselves on the quality of our work, and we have 107 editorial policies and 75 work instructions to maintain the Multilex content. The documentation is imperative in ensuring that our data is accurately and consistently authored. We also have an Editorial Board which considers exceptions or changes to current editorial policy. Core membership of the Editorial Board function includes Pharmacists, subject matter experts and a Clinical Safety Officer.
As we have a huge number of policies and we are constantly updating and reviewing them, the review process is very thorough. We have ISO accreditation, which is an ongoing process and we are regularly visited by our external auditor. Recently, Multilex content was externally audited and we passed – we are delighted with this!
A lot of our team stay for quite a long time - one of our experts has been here for 25 years! Several others have been in the team for 10 - 15 years, so we have a very experienced team. Multilex is a complex solution, but people seem to stay as the job is so rewarding.
Tell me how you and the team have been working differently in order to meet customer requirements during the current COVID-19 pandemic?
The team have adjusted really well to working remotely. Quite a few members of the team were already used to working from home one a day week, but it’s quite a change for everyone to be working from home full time. We have expedited the review of some of our existing processes. We have utilised existing tools to improve workflows and maintain audit trails, so we are now working completely paperless. We work very collaboratively as a team, so using Microsoft Teams has been very useful in keeping us all connected. The transition has been so successful that we have continued to meet our customer requirements with no impact on productivity.
Why do you like working here?
I get this feedback often from my team – that one of the reasons they love working on Multilex is that it is touching the lives of thousands of patients and is having this massively positive patient safety impact. It’s this widespread impact that is the reason I joined the company, as I felt I was going to be carrying out a valuable role. The reason that I have stayed is because of the amazing possibilities to progress. The solution has changed dramatically, and I’m constantly challenged!
I get this feedback often from my team – that one of the reasons they love working on Multilex is that it is touching the lives of thousands of patients and is having this massively positive patient safety impact. It’s this widespread impact that is the reason I joined the company, as I felt I was going to be carrying out a valuable role. The reason that I have stayed is because of the amazing possibilities to progress. The solution has changed dramatically, and I’m constantly challenged!
I’ve seen a lot of changes in the company, but the company values and the people I work with and what we stand for as a business – that’s what I love about FDB! Everyone is very invested. I work with a fantastic team and I feel so proud that they support me in my role.
