My article in BioSpectrum Career Guide Kapil Khandelwal QuoteUnquote with KK www.kapilkhandelwal.com

1. BioSpectrum l 2010 l biospectrumindia.com l A CyberMedia Publication26
Alternative
health
sciences
career
opportunity
As the world ages and population around
the world grows, new innovations in
health sciences that converge health
science informatics, genomics and
personalized healthcare, diagnostics
and telemedicine (ICT) to address large
under-served populations are needed
2
000s decade has been the
IT boom. However as the
world ages and population
around the world grows
and globalises and newer innovations
in health sciences that converge on
health science informatics, genomics
and personalised healthcare, diagnos-
tics and telemedicine (ICT) to ad-
dress large underserved populations,
this decade in India is going to be for
the health sciences, unless the indus-
try leaders, education and supporting
research institutions and the govern-
ment do not act together to address
the supply side issues on bridging the
talent gap.
The Big Picture
India’s huge (young and student)
population, disease burden and In-
dian genome similarity to ~65% of
world’s population that has 90-95%
Indian genotype similars is a huge
blessing in disguise. I did not believe
this “Big Indian Health Sciences Op-
portunity” until a few years ago when
I was working on the Personalised
Healthcare and Pharmacogenomics
Market Sizing with Harvard Part-
ners HealthCare Center for Genetics
and Genomics (HPCGG) and then
actually in an Indian drug discovery
outsourcing company heading their
healthcare and life sciences business.
The chart below outlines India’s share
in the world for health sciences talent.
As per World Economic Forums’
current year’s report, India ranks 4th
in terms of the number of scientists
and engineers available. But it slips to
25th when ranked by quality of scien-
tific research. It further slips to 35th
when ranked by innovation capacity.
I am sure the Indian job mar-
ket situation would have been simi-
lar in the 1990s when we would have
tracked the statistics for Information
Technology Outsourcing industry,
prior to the 2000s boom.
Source: WHO Statistical Infor-

2. A CyberMedia Publication | biospectrumindia.com | 2010 | BioSpectrum 27
mation Systems 2008, World Eco-
nomic Forum, Disease burden is from
WHO 2002 DALY estimates, World
Bank and Infinitrix Analysis
Alternative Health Sciences
Career Opportunity
The new age health sciences is a multi-
year multi-million dollar activity that
involve thousands of people from
many scientific, clinical, functional
and management disciplines to focus
on discovering new biological targets,
creating new therapeutics (chemicals,
proteins, or vaccines) or medical and
delivery devices to move forward into
clinical testing and finally marketing
and delivering to the final consumers.
In such large and complex organisa-
tions there are many different career
options for people with medical, den-
tal, pharmacy, naturopathy & yogic
sciences, nursing along with chemis-
try, biology, biotech and bio medical.
Health sciences innovation outsourc-
ing to India is no longer limited to
basic sciences and offers long-term
careers in various disciplines and sub
disciplines as outlined in the diagram
below. Furthermore, cross-functional
experience with core scientific inno-
vation and management or functional
are becoming an increasingly valuable
in the industry. With personalised
healthcare there will be increasing
opportunity for people with multiple
degrees: information technology with
biology, statistics or mathematics with
bioinformatics, pharmacology with
genomics, and so on.
Many supporting areas such as
patent filing, business planning and
strategy, project management, opera-
tions management, publishing, media,
communications and promotional
activities, management consulting,
competitive research, regulatory sup-
port, and business development (set-
ting up alliances with biotechnology
partners) are also expected to emerge
as the health sciences industry in India
matures. These functions are all criti-
cal to health sciences innovation are
intellectually stimulating, and give a
great opportunity to stay within inno-
vation and contribute to India’s world
competitiveness as measured by the
World Economic Forum.
Attributes for Success -
Alternative Careers in Health
Sciences
While recruiting candidates for al-
ternative careers in health sciences, I
have experienced that freshers as well
as laterals with scientific and man-
agement experience do not bring an
understanding of the boarder appre-
ciation of health sciences across their
silos. The reality is that the careers in
the future are going to be heading into
a complex, collaborative environment
where understanding and appreciation
of not only science, innovation and
cross-functional attributes would be
the attributes for success. Here are a
few pointers.
Develop strong multi-
disciplinary, cross functional
approach
A career in health sciences spans over
30-years and the innovation and tech-
nology cycles are now shortening fast-
er than before.To stay competent, ap-
preciation and experience of different
disciplines and functions are valuable.
Develop soft skills
Apart from a university and academic
track record, paper publications, alter-
native careers require good communi-
cation, team, and leadership skills.
Strong understanding of the
industry to network within
and outside
Knowledge of the dynamics of the
health sciences industry, including
competitive and market trends, politi-
cal/economic background and regula-
tory issues, helps in reaching out and
making more contacts.The more con-
tacts you make, the greater the chance
of hitting upon a newer opportunities
in health sciences organisations that
provide you with a different alterna-
tive.
Acquire a career coach or
mentor
As career spans are getting shorter, it
make sense to seek a career coach or
mentor who understands your aspira-
tions, strengths and weaknesses and
helps you build and navigate your ca-
reer in these new areas that are emerg-
ing.
Global experience
Multi cultural and multinational ex-
perience helps leverage in building
alternative career in health sciences.
Innovation perspective
This attribute enables you to think out
of box and build ability to facilitate a
culture of continuous change and take
risks.
There is no way to guarantee the
shape of how your career will pan
out in the next 20-30 years of your
working life. However statistics, ge-
nomics, demographics, epidemiology
all signal the promise of various ca-
reer alternatives in India to mitigate
some of the risks! n
KaKada
kApil
khAnDelwAl
Director, EquNev
Capital Pvt Ltd