In the latest episode of the Trends from the Trenches podcast, host Stan Gloss and Bryn Roberts, Ph.D., Global Head of Data & Analytics at Roche Information Solutions explore the why and the how behind AI. What used to be “happily left a bit in the background” is now main stage thanks to everyone’s new interest in ChatGPT. Roberts recommends applying pharma’s Target Product Profiles (TPPs) to AI products as well: understanding what a tool or model should do, who its users are, how it will be delivered, and what biases to watch out for. This approach will help us develop, train, tune, monitor, and manage the AI models that he expects will bring significantly more products and better products at a dramatically reduced cost.

Bryn Roberts, PhD, Global Head of Data & Analytics, Roche Information Solutions
Bryn gained his BSc and PhD in pharmacology from the University of Bristol, UK. Following post-doctoral work in neuropharmacology, he joined Organon as Senior Scientist in 1996. A number of roles followed with Zeneca and AstraZeneca before he joined Roche in Basel in 2006 to head up research informatics and data science. In his current role as Global Head of Data & Analytics within Roche Diagnostics, Bryn’s accountabilities include data strategy and engineering, data science, data governance, information, and digital solutions. Beyond Roche, Bryn is a Visiting Professor at the University of Bristol and a Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford, with interests in digital health, AI and machine learning, systems biology and scientific software development. He is an Associated Faculty member with the University of Frankfurt Big Data Lab and lectures in medical informatics at the University of Applied Sciences, NW Switzerland. He is a member of several advisory boards including the University of Oxford Dept of Statistics and SABS Centre for Doctoral Training, the Microsoft Research/University of Trento Center for Computational and Systems Biology, University of Edinburgh School of Informatics, RoX Health, and Z-Inspection. Bryn is a non-executive director on the board of Deepmatter.