Victoria Sherriff-Scott
Senior Vice President, Medical Communications
Klick Health
Redefining Medical Editors
Victoria Sherriff-Scott’s idea of the perfect day at work is hearing someone rave about her medical editors. Over the past almost six years, Victoria has grown her team of six medical editors by more than 800%—redefining what an editor does and how an editorial team works in the process.
Under her leadership, Klick’s Editorial team evolved from performing traditional editorial review and proofing services to become a 52-person multi-service Medical Communications powerhouse. She also went about building this team in a unique way. Recognizing the shortage of medical editors with the combination of agency, regulatory affairs, and publishing experience—as well as deep scientific background and digital know-how—Victoria began hiring postdoctoral academics who weren’t interested in pursuing bench work. As she explains, “I learned very early on that it’s easier to teach someone with a PhD in Neuroscience about marketing and communications, than it is to teach someone with marketing experience about the deep science.”
Over the years, Victoria and her team have introduced a number of innovative programs in order to advance the team’s skill sets, foster team morale and retention, as well as add value both internally and to Klick’s client relationships. For instance, MRL Lovefest helps build successful relationships with clients’ MRL teams—resulting in more efficient submission workflow and huge time and cost savings. Victoria also established Science Sessions, a lunch and learn series that aims to up company-wide employees’ understanding of the pathophysiology of specific conditions, and how they are diagnosed and treated. The sessions are working their way through all of the therapeutic areas in the Klick portfolio, ultimately helping the delivery teams at Klick relate better to patients.
While the list of initiatives goes on, Victoria’s real value is better told by one of her mentees.
“I know without a doubt that I would not be the leader I am today without her,” says one team member. “Her guidance and support has taught me to trust and believe in myself, and, in terms of being an effective leader, I don’t think there’s anything more valuable a mentor can offer.”
