Introducing Labops_Sam & Saul: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.
Saul Marquez:
Hey everybody.! Saul Marquez with the Outcomes Rocket. Thank you so much for joining us again. I am so excited to be with you all today, I have an amazing guest but also future host for the podcast, Dr. Samantha Black. She is the co-host of the Outcomes Rocket LabOps Leadership Podcast, which we’re going to be launching here very soon. She’s actually the Head of Content at Elemental Machines. They’re a Cambridge-based LabOps intelligence pioneer that elevates lab managers to become strategic voices in their organizations. This space is growing massively as we look to materialize drugs and how quickly we go from bench to the actual market, so the work that they’re doing is super important and meaningful to our space. Prior to Elemental Machines, Samantha was Editor in Chief of a life science news website and previously worked as a program manager at the National Postdoctoral Association. She received her Ph.D. in nutrition from NC State University, and she’s going to be doing this podcast, it’s going to be fantastic. So today, I’m going to introduce you to Sam and tell you a little bit more about the podcast. So, Sam, so great to have you here today.
Samantha Black:
Thank you, Saul. I’m so excited to be here, it’s going to be amazing!
Saul Marquez:
I agree! It’s going to be fantastic. The work that you’ve done, I’ve always admired the way that you do things, Sam. But is there anything in the intro that maybe I didn’t mention that you want to share with the listeners?
Samantha Black:
Just that we’re excited to be here and hosting this podcast. We’re going to be partnering with LabOps Unite, which is an industry group full of lab managers and LabOps professionals, so we’re super excited to have them come on as co-hosts of this podcast, and together with our different guests every week, we’re really going to dig into the challenges and opportunities that these individuals have in their professional development, but also, like you said, in just accelerating science and innovation. So I’m so excited to be here.
Saul Marquez:
Yeah, you know, it’s going to be a great, great discussions, and so tell us a little bit more about the podcast. What should folks come to expect about the podcast? Who are you going to invite? What are you going to talk about?
Samantha Black:
Yeah. So like I said, we’re going to have a co-host from the LabOps Unit leadership team, so there’s about seven people on their leadership team, and we’re going to have a rotating kind of queue of folks who are going to come on with me and act as hosts. Each week or for each episode, we’re going to have a VP or higher-level executive at a pharmaceutical and biotech company to join us. So we’re really looking forward to getting their perspectives on why LabOps is so important and what they think is so exciting about the field. So it’s an evolving field, it’s very, actually, technology-driven, and so there’s a lot of innovation, you know? Look at our computers and phones and all the technology now, it’s changing daily. And so we just really want to shed a light on the LabOps community and the innovation that they’re driving and really show how important and critical those folks are to any biotech or pharma or life science company.
Saul Marquez:
Yeah, I love that, Sam, and, you know, one of the things that I’ve enjoyed learning is what exactly is LabOps and why should we care. So I think this is a great opportunity to baseline with the listeners, what is it, and why should they care about it?
Samantha Black:
Yeah, absolutely. It’s really exciting because nobody has taken the time to really define it yet. It’s, like I said, emerging industry kind of field, it’s kind of formed out of need, and there’s actually a lot of fine-tuning going on right now. And so we’re excited to be a part of that conversation somewhere between the intersection of like lab management but also operations management and IT. So it’s like this big kind of responsibility, and it’s forming right in front of our eyes. So like I said, Elemental Machines is so excited to be a part of this conversation and just really get out there in the industry and get a pulse on what everybody else is thinking.
Saul Marquez:
Yeah, you know, Sam and we’re seeing that across a lot of of the different verticals of healthcare is this movement of analog to digital, this movement of going from islands of devices to now integrated, smart, EMR-connected, system-integrated devices in IT, and Elemental Machines, the sponsor of this program, you guys focus on elevating that game. Can you highlight a little bit about what you guys do?
Samantha Black:
Yeah, absolutely. We’re right at the center of that, and so maybe not from the healthcare perspective as much, but definitely in the R&D space, like we’re all over it. We really are focused on empowering labs and executives and everybody involved in the process with that data-driven tools to accelerate science. So what that means is we’re collecting every piece of data in the lab that we can, and we’re connecting it on the cloud, and we’re providing analytics on that data so that you can get even more out of your data. And so it’s kind of the next evolution. And so we’re really trying to connect the entire lab. And it’s exciting because you don’t even know what we’re going to get out of it. Like you don’t know what the next step of analytics that we’re going to uncover, and we’re going to predict things before they even happen, we’re going to help companies save money, it’s really an exciting time to be in the field right now.
Saul Marquez:
Yeah, I would agree. And so, what folks, what this means for all of us as we tune in to to the LabOps Leadership podcast, is that whether you’re in pharma, med device, or even if you’re a provider organization that has an accelerator or you’re investing in technologies that can make a difference, there’s a way to get better results with less money. There’s a way to get better results more efficiently. And that’s going to be the focus of what we do here. So I’m super excited because this podcast is all about the fundamentals that lead to more innovation. And so what’s a reason that you think people should never miss an episode, Sam?
Samantha Black:
Yeah, I just think it’s going to be really enlightening, especially for the audience who’s focused on healthcare. I think we wouldn’t have any healthcare without research and development, and so I think understanding how things get to the actual healthcare system and how they’re produced and discovered, I think that that understanding is not something that people always get in the healthcare field. And so I think that people are just going to want to tune in every episode to learn something new and to just stay up to date. Like I said, innovation is happening at the fastest rate ever, and so we’re going to always be talking about something cool.
Saul Marquez:
That’s awesome, and if you guys aren’t in the R&D space or in that LabOps space, this is a great way to grow your career. I mean, get into it, this is a great opportunity. Sam, I’m excited about this. This is the last time you’re here as a guest, but, because moving forward, you and your co-host from the LabOps Unite team is going to be, you guys are going to be the host here. So I’m privileged to welcome you guys to the Outcomes Rocket family. Any closing thoughts for us as we wrap up and open with your new episode next time they hear you?
Samantha Black:
No, I just want to take the time to say thank you again, Saul. We’re so excited to be here, part of Outcomes Rocket, and we’re just really excited to dig in and get started.
Saul Marquez:
Love it, welcome aboard. And, folks, excited to have you listen to Sam and her team moving forward. Thank you, Sam.
Samantha Black:
Thanks, Saul.
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