Novartis had their "kick off"event on January 30, 2009 to recognize the achievement of the oncology department and to lay the foundation for future success in the new year. Their goal this coming year is "Winning for the Patient". One of their big FDA approvals was for adjuvant Gleevec. The half day meeting was for employees ranging from finance to clinical research, medical directors to legal and adminstration. Presentations were made through out the morning for the employees and part of the program was the "Patient Perspective". Barbara Dore’ and Sherri Janousky were invited to share their story as they had been participants in various adjuvant Gleevec trials.

The patient advocate department coordinated the segment and Barbara and Sherri were asked to take the stage and tell their stories. This was reported to be the "highlight" of the meeting. When employees get to actually see the benefit from their work in concrete human terms in person, it is a rewarding experience and makes the day to day emails worth while.