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26 "I have been involved all the way from oldfashioned psychiatry to the present, and a great deal of progress has been made during that time" Sales rep Thorfinn Nygård drives 50,000 km per year on the roads in northernmost Norway.
Lundbeck Magazine 2009 27 A laptop and a vacuum flask Throughout his 14 years as a sales rep for Lundbeck Norway, he has been braving snowstorms and high water to reach doctors and give them the most recent knowledge on psychiatric disorders and the possibilities of treating them. In the village in Norway where Thorfinn Nygård grew up in the years after WWII, there was a special way of expressing that someone had been admitted to hospital with a psychiatric disorder. When someone had been led to hospital, it was understood that it might be some time before one saw the person again. Indeed, one might never see them again. Since then, the possibilities of treating these disorders have improved a great deal. And Thorfinn has contributed to people in all of northern Norway being able to obtain help if they become affected by a psychiatric disorder. Largest district Thorfinn travels 50,000 km a year in his 4WD, accompanied by a vacuum flask of hot coffee and music or reading on the CD player. And this does not include air travel and trips in hired cars. “I visit doctors in an area stretching from just south of Trondheim to Narvik in the north, a distance of nearly 1200 km. No other reps cover such a large area, and it is necessary to be well acquainted with both the district and ferry schedules to keep one’s appointments. Otherwise, one won’t be in the right place at the right time,” says Thorfinn, who over the year is in contact with approximately 1000 GPs as well as a number of specialists. He sees working with doctors as a form of collaboration. “I don’t have a single pill in my briefcase, only information. My most important sales tools are myself and my laptop. Every day is a challenge, because doctors are busy and it can be difficult to engage them in conversation. Many of my appointments take place during doctors’ lunch hour, so I take food along, and then the doctor has time to chat. I have known some of the doctors for decades, and that is an advantage. Personal acquaintance means a lot,” Thorfinn says. Major progress He has observed developments in psychiatry at close hand for more than 40 years, ever since he was employed as a carer at a psychiatric hospital in 1968. Thorfinn later became a nurse, leaving the public health system in 1988 for a job in the pharmaceutical industry at a Danish company then known as Dumex. He was headhunted by Lundbeck Norway in 1995. “I have been involved all the way from oldfashioned psychiatry to the present, and a great deal of progress has been made during that time. When the first neuroleptics were introduced in the 1950s, it emerged that very little was known about either the medications themselves or correct doses. The drugs were simply given to patients until their skin turned yellow. Then the organism was saturated and reduction could begin. The side effects were severe. The patients were exhausted, and the medication affected their cognitive abilities. Today, we fortunately have drugs with far fewer side effects,” Thorfinn states. Among the eldest He has long since celebrated his 60th birthday, and is thus one of the eldest Lundbeck sales reps. But Thorfinn is not finished with life on the steep and crooked roads. “For me, working with a company that has helped improve treatment of persons with psychiatric disorders has been very fulfilling. I have seen what it was like before – how few options were available. This is what drives me forward and keeps me going,” Thorfinn remarks. PHOTO: Simon ladefoged
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