Learner Profile
Pietro Vercesi
Employer
Medpace
HMX Course
Clinical Drug Development, Drug Discovery and Development
As a lead clinical research associate for Medpace in Italy, Pietro Vercesi conducts on-site visits for clinical trials and manages tasks that require global coordination. While he had prior experience in clinical trials from a pharmaceutical company’s perspective, Pietro needed to broaden his understanding and enhance his expertise in clinical trials. Hear how HMX courses are helping him bridge the gap.
What were you hoping to get out of the HMX courses you took?
Prior to joining HMX, I enrolled in a course from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health via Harvard Online about the quality and safety of health care systems worldwide. After that experience, I was looking for something more closely related to my job duties. In my work, I interact with health care professionals a lot during my daily tasks. Understanding how patients feel and how they interact with physicians during clinical trials is not something that I usually get to see, so the HMX courses provide a necessary perspective on it.
How did your experience with medical topics affect your course experiences?
I have a Master’s in Medical Biotechnology and Molecular Medicine from the University of Milan. So, although I am not a physician per se, I had a lot of exposure to clinical and therapeutic topics during my academic background. And, of course, this is just building up the more I’m involved with clinical trials. During the HMX courses, I was familiar with all the medical terminology and understood why we were studying specific diseases. The clinical background also helped me a lot in following the discussions.
I wouldn’t say it was necessary [to have a background in medicine]. I could have just stopped and gone over the material again to understand and broaden my knowledge of the medical topics being discussed. It wasn’t necessary, but it helped.
What did you find most useful or interesting about the experiences – specific course features or topics that stand out?
The main thing I appreciated about the courses was their high-level approach. During the courses, you are exposed to an umbrella of topics that convey a much bigger learning experience, ensuring key elements are covered and well understood.
What was also extremely helpful was the Q&A section. You can pose a question if you have any, but you can also see what other people are asking, which gives you a perspective on the most relevant topics in that lesson. It also gives you a chance to ask yourself how you would respond if someone asked you those questions, so it also serves as a self-assessment tool to see if you interpreted that topic correctly.
What was the challenge level of the courses like for you?
While I didn’t find the courses themselves to be overly challenging, dedicating resources mentally and physically to two courses effectively was difficult at times. I would still very much recommend them, but I would suggest other professionals highly involved in business travel take one course at a time… If you are a student or in the early stage of your career, two or three courses at the same time could be manageable.
What would you tell colleagues or others about HMX courses?
I for sure will recommend the course! Just even for the self-assessment of how much you understand about your job. I think that the course would be suitable for anybody, but if I had to recommend it to anybody specifically, I would recommend it to people who are actively working in the clinical trials environment.