Role of the Quality Professional in the 21st Century

Bethesda, MD
Ask a Question
Duration: 2 days
Time: 8:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Perhaps it’s a cliché to say that it is a rapidly changing world. The role of the quality professional in the pharmaceutical industry is changing, or at least it should be changing. The publication of ICH Q10, Pharmaceutical Quality System, in 2009, emphasizes the responsibility of senior management for the quality system. ICH Q10 is one of the most important documents published in recent years for our industry; it is a big step in modernizing our thinking about quality. Along with ICH Q8, Pharmaceutical Development, ICH Q9, Quality Risk Management, ICH Q11, Development and Manufacture of Drug Substances, and the FDA’s Process Validation Guidance (2011), ICH Q10 has revolutionized our thinking about quality, or brought our thinking about quality up to date. ICH Q10 emphasizes the role of top management and the responsibility of senior management for the ownership of the quality system including: its development, implementation, control and improvement. This is, in contrast to the past, emphasis on the quality unit’s responsibility for the quality system . The quality unit still has very important and challenging but different responsibilities.

Today the quality professional makes his or her contribution to the success of the enterprise by improving processes, by promoting quality and by providing a high level of expertise in the use of important quality tools. This requires new learning for many quality professionals. The new, more proactive role, should be more rewarding for the quality professional.

In this course, we will contrast the traditional role of the quality unit with what the modern role of the quality professional should be. We will briefly describe the role of senior management and production management as it relates to the responsibilities of the quality unit. The main emphasis of the course is to provide the participants with an opportunity to learn, mainly through exercises in small groups, some of the recommended new skills. We will discuss process design, evaluation and management, risk and root cause analysis, quality costs and quality metrics, promotion of quality, strategic quality planning, design of a user-friendly documentation system, change management and other skills as time permits.

Who Should Attend

Quality professionals in the pharmaceutical, medical device and related industries, in either a plant environment or in research, will benefit from this course.

Prerequisites

The prior reading of ICH Q10, ICH Q9, ISO 9000 is useful. An open mind, desire to contribute and learn are essential.

More information coming soon.

Day 1

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

  • Define a new, more proactive role that makes you more valuable to your organization
  • Utilize skills learned in the course that enable you to fulfill this new role

PLEASE READ  PDA is not affiliated or contracted with any outside hotel contracting company. If someone other than PDA or the PDA chosen hotel contacts you suggesting that they represent any PDA event, they do not. It is PDA's recommendation that you book your hotel directly through the official PDA chosen hotel that is listed on our web site.

PDA Training and Research Institute

4350 East-West Highway
Bethesda, MD ,

Robert G. Kieffer, PhD
Dr. Kieffer is a recognized authority on quality management and on quality system design, with over 40 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries. He combines broad-based business, scientific and technical knowledge with skill as a teacher, facilitator and problem-solver. He has worked in over 50 countries.

Dr. Kieffer is a past president of the PDA, and has worked for Sterling Winthrop Inc. for 19 years. Since 1994, he has been president of his own consulting business. He has numerous publications and presentations to his credit.