Q: When you talk to young people who are coming into the field, what’s the best advice you can give them?
A: I guess the best practical advice I can give them is the same as was given to me more than 40 years ago by my professor at the University of Salford in the UK: “master how to think for yourself.” This is a most important life skill to acquire if you want to get on as a professional scientist or engineer. It’s not good enough just to be able to read knowledge and parrot it out; you’ve got to be able to understand the basic principles that underlie the data you have and apply them to solve the problem at hand.
One of the first things I will be saying to the students in Hawaii is that the material of the course I am teaching isn’t to be learned by rote memory. Instead, learning the underlying principles is the key to mastering the subject. In fact, I never liked examinations that place over-reliance on rote memory although I appreciate that there are certain basic things you have to learn that way.
In summary, I have observed that people who are successful in science and technology generally first understand the fundamental principles and then go on to apply them in an effective manner.
Q: What do you think are the most important of those principles for a young person who is going to learn about inhalation product development?
A: Become proficient in the understanding of the aerosol physics which is related to the forces that affect particle movement and deposition. The field of powder technology is another area which will provide a great deal of background information if you are working especially with DPIs.
Also, don’t restrict your reading to within the inhalation area; look at related disciplines, in particular environmental protection and occupational hygiene because the science of concern to this community essentially relates to the same organ that we’re worried about. There’s a lot of good work that has been done in connection with aerosol sampling from the environment that’s related to that that can be applied directly into the inhalation area.
Many people seem to believe that they are keeping fully up-to-date with the science underlying inhaled aerosol drug delivery because they look at archival journals of direct relevance, such as the Journal of Aerosol Medicine and Pulmonary Delivery. However, perhaps because of time-pressure, they are often not looking at the more general literature relating to aerosols, such as the Journal of Aerosol Science or Aerosol Science and Technology.
More importantly, how many involved with inhaler development and testing are examining the clinical literature beyond clinical trials, asking questions such as: “Well, how are these things actually being used by patients?” and: “What problems prevent effective inhaler use?”
It is important to recognize that some of this knowledge goes far beyond the understanding of inhaler design and function derived from physics and engineering principles. Instead, it’s analogous to fuzzy logic in that there are intermediate states between the absolutes of correct and incorrect use.
Aspects that are hard to quantify come into play, such as the psychology of the patient when faced with a friendly or unfriendly encounter with a product, particularly at first use. These subjective experiences can have profound effects on compliance and long-term adherence to a prescribed regimen involving inhaled medication. At the core of this new way of thinking should be the question, “How patient-friendly is the product I am making or testing?”
