Blast! Academy’s cutting-edge approach to Clinical Research education is making waves globally. From personalized mentoring programs, influenced by visionary Dante Alducin, to tailoring programs for diverse regions, the academy boasts a 90% success rate in student placements. The Blastocitos community plays a pivotal role, fostering a sense of collaboration and enthusiasm. The upcoming online platform aims to democratize clinical research knowledge. Their engaging online presence, including podcasts and live streams, aligns with their goal of making complex topics entertaining and accessible. Unique shows like “Ruido Blast!” tackle industry challenges head-on, promoting open discussions. The ¡POP! Section adds a dynamic twist by connecting clinical research to popular culture. Dante Alducin’s Instagram humanizes Blast! Academy, reinforcing its philosophy of an ego-free, enthusiastic approach. Aspiring marketers receive valuable advice: know your audience intimately, adopt a holistic business perspective, and nurture curiosity for innovation.
Empowering Pharmaceutical Professionals
We started the interview by asking, “Tell us about Blast! Academy’s approach to helping pharmaceutical professionals secures jobs in Clinical Research, especially those without prior experience. How do personalized mentoring programs play a role?”
Dante Alducin replied, “Personalized programs are the key factor for our students for two main reasons:
- We take enough time to talk with them and assess their personal situation in order to give them tailor-made advice.
- Our programs are designed to encourage our students to think by themselves through wide practice about real-life hiring simulations, which makes them more confident at the time they face a hiring process.
- As a result, our students’ success rate is more than 90%.”
Dante Alducin’s Visionary Impact
The Worlds Times: Congratulations on Dante Alducin’s Top 100 Visionaries in Education Award! How has Dante’s innovation influenced the educational strategies at Blast! Academy
Dante Alducin replied, “We had to start from scratch, since all education regarding our field is old fashioned: a lot of academic points of view, but zero practice regarding the real world.
So, I decided we must focus in real-life challenges with a modern and didactic approach. We created a teaching method named “Clinical Design Learning”, where we use the principles of the “Design Thinking” method to encourage to our students to think by themselves and apply clinical research concepts directly into the real world with logic and wisdom.”
Global Reach, Local Impact
The Worlds Times: Blast! Academy has students across different countries. How do you tailor programs to address the specific needs and challenges of diverse regions?
Dante Alducin replied, “Good question! First, Clinical Research is a highly homogeneous industry ruled by common regulations in the majority of the countries. So, what our students learn in LATAM is applicable in the U.S. and in Europe.
Second, we have local elements for each country; this means we have professionals who give us advice for specific situations in each country, regarding the immediate reality of our students.
Third, we tailor our programs to be international and applicable to a global reality.”
Community Synergy
The Worlds Times: The Blastocitos community is crucial. How is it engaged, and how does it enhance the learning experience for students globally?
Dante Alducin replied, “We know people learn better when they are in community; they feel challenged and encouraged by their fellow comrades through all the journey. In addition, we see the concept of community is not being used in any other training programs from our industry, since it seems “not serious”.
Thus, we started to work with anybody who was interested in learning more about clinical research, and we built this community where people share their interest in clinical research, no matter their country or ideology.
This community is eager to learn and it makes us provide better educative content every day; besides, they bring their friends, and their friends in turn attract more friends, and so on.
This is conveyed in one of our mottos: “No one can do it alone”. We help them and they help us to improve every day, and thanks to our community, our podcast is now the top Spanish clinical research podcast on YouTube. That’s awesome!”
Revolutionizing the Learning Experience
The Worlds Times: With the website update, what can prospective students expect? Any new features or improvements to enhance the user experience or provide additional resources
Dante Alducin replied, “We are about to release our most ambitious project so far, the first online platform dedicated to spread the idea of clinical research with the objective to provide useful information to all the people interested in this industry.
We are building this platform with the input from our students and people with many years of experience in this field.
Access will be free for everybody who will be interested in it.”
Digital Learning Dynamism
The Worlds Times: Blast! Academy has a strong online presence with a podcast, live streams, and specialized YouTube content. How do these platforms align with the academy’s goals and benefit students?
Dante Alducin replied, “We started with ancient stories, let me explain: We, human beings, learn through stories since the beginning of our times, by oral tradition. Educating people in a field as complex as clinical research is no exception, but we faced a cruel reality: most scientists are disastrous when it comes to explaining complex things in simple words.
With that in mind, we started educating trough the “infotainment” principle, which means people can learn and have fun at the same time; exactly like when we heard about stories from the past, when we were young.
Podcasts, Livestreams and “Pop culture” capsules in YouTube are an ecosystem designed to encourage our audience to get interested and learn more about clinical research in an enthusiastic way.
This may be seem as trivial but the core principle is not, since people in clinical research have an enormous responsibility in their hands and we just want to train people who have true interest in helping others and love their job, for the betterment of humanity.
At the beginning, that was a challenge, since stripping all those technical concepts from their solemnity (and many times boredom) was seen by the industry as not serious and childish. But with time, now we proved that we have encouraged many people to start their career in clinical research.”
Unmasking Industry Realities
The Worlds Times: Tell us about the Live stream program “Ruido Blast!”—topics covered and how they add value to the learning experience.
Dante Alducin replied, “That show is a lot of fun! (At least for me!), it is a space to talk about to many topics that nobody wants to talk about in the industry. You know: bad practices, burn out, wrong expectations…
When I was working in the industry, it frustrated me that nobody wants to talk about the elephant in the room. Now, I can do it with the show and I really like to put the real issues on the table that are bothering most the people. At this point it may seem a negative point of view but it is not, since I always provide advice about how to deal in a positive way with the issues most people face every day.
We often get comments about how our audience reflects on all the topics and how they discovered they are not alone in one or another situation. Our conclusion many times is to show the audience what may seem a negative scenario and how they can face it in positive way though actionable advices.”
Bridging Clinical Research and Pop Culture
The Worlds Times: The ¡POP! Section on Clinical Research is intriguing. How does it contribute to a dynamic learning environment, and what kind of content can viewers expect
Dante Alducin replied, “The Pop! Section is also really fun for us, is where we can let our imagination guide us. It is about showing our audience how their work is not isolated from the world, but it is a part of it, and how such a specialized job fits into popular movies, anime series, historical characters, and more.
This contributes to widen the vision of our audience, to be conscious about the importance of their job and dismantle the rigidness of this area. Most people love it, but there are few old-school guys who are critics to the content (I imagine them adjusting their monocles).
But at the end of the day, it is a good sign, since you are not indifferent to the people in the industry for good or for reprobation.”
Bridging Personal and Professional
The Worlds Times: Dante Alducin’s Instagram seems like an extension of Blast! Academy. How does he use it to connect with the audience and promote the goals of Blast! Academy
Dante Alducin replied, “Insta is a channel to have a closer relationship with the audience; it lacks the professional aura from LinkedIn. There I can show a more personal side of my life, could be as simple as let to know my community that I went for a coffee or cooking my breakfast, but it shows that Blast! Academy is not ruled by a typical generic academic chief or small business owner, but a guy like everybody else, who gets tired, frustrated, excited with small things, and so on.
That is also aligned with our philosophy: in Blast! Academy, academic egos are forbidden. We are enthusiasts who love teaching and showing the world what clinical research is.”
Navigating the Marketing Landscape
Lastly we asked, “What advice would you give to marketers who are just starting their careers and aspire to achieve success in the industry?”
“Marketing is just like learn photography, is easy to learn how to use the camera and the basic principles, but it may take you a lifetime to master it. In other words: Practice and constant correction are the most important things.
Start knowing your audience better than your girlfriend: What do they like? What do they want? What are their dreams, their frustrations, and their fears? How is their day-to-day experience?
You know, we have the habit to check upon many content creators that use digital marketing. The tools they use are the same we use, but they apply them in a very different way to their audience, and we know the way they work would not fit into ours and ours would not fit in to them. That means we know our audience and that comes from contestant correction in our attempts to talk to them.
Other capital advice is to have a holistic point of view of your business; digital marketing is just one pillar of many, in order to be successful: Learn about business, administration, etc.
And finally, be curious: Because as Plato says regarding the “Topos Uranus”, nobody can create something from nothing. You need to nourish your mind with curiosity in order to let your imagination bloom and then you will be able to connect the dots that are invisible for everyone else; that is the birthplace of innovation.” Dante Alducin concluded
Connect with Dante Alducin on Linkedin
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