Instructor Q&A: Albert Rego, Ph.D.
Medical Product Development Instructor
Summer 2018
Q. Why did you decide to become
an instructor?
A. I have been with the program
since its inception several years ago.
I was impressed with the number
of medical product companies
located in Southern California
and I noted that there were
professionals in the field who had
little opportunity to learn about the
industry unless they attended very
expensive, commercial seminars
or had a mentor available to help
them along in their professional
development.
I consider myself to be very fortunate
in having at least two different
mentors in my career, and I wanted
to pay it forward by becoming
a mentor to as many people as I
could. There is no greater reward
than receiving a “thank you” from
someone who has gained expertise
through my teachings.
Q. What's unique about your
teaching style?
A. It is not easy to teach regulations,
quality systems, and related
subjects simply because by their
nature, they tend to be very dry
subjects in and of themselves. There
are two different techniques that I
employ in my teaching style:
I try to provide students with the
big picture on the course that I am
presenting, so that the complex
subject is simplified and easier
to understand. I am much more
interested in clarifying the overall
flow and relationship of dry
regulatory items that are not well
connected or flow very well as
a whole. This approach allows
students to get the “big picture”
and understand regulatory interactions
and the process flow at a
high level, with the confidence of
knowing where to go for details on
a particular subject item (regulation,
requirements, etc.).
I generally do not ask yes or no
questions. My questions are open-ended
questions in the “grey area”
with no real right or wrong answer.
This requires the student to think
about the pros and cons of a
discussion point. By virtue of this
process, I believe they learn more
because they had to think about
the question.
Q. What's your favorite lesson to
teach and why?
A. My favorite course to teach is
“Medical Product Quality Systems.”
The course starts out from a chronological
perspective with the development
and introduction of quality
systems both internationally and
domestically over several decades.
Once this is presented, there is a
need to show how all of these
systems are interrelated and how
they have finally evolved to the
current “state-of-the-art” quality
systems both domestically and
internationally.
The “aha moment” is when the one
lesson ties all of the pieces together
as one coherent picture of all of the
known quality systems as they exist
today. When this happens, I can
see the light bulbs starting to flash
on for the students as the picture
coalesces, and they realize that the
whole subject is not as complex as it
seemed a few lessons ago.
Q. What do you find most
rewarding about being an
instructor?
A. I think that the most rewarding
thing is when I meet a student in a
corporate or business setting several
quarters or years after having them
in one of my courses. When I see
them, they are so happy to see me,
and I am so happy to see them
as an old friend from the past. The
fact that they are applying the skills
that I taught them in their new or
advanced position from when I
remembered them in the past, tells
me that I have a positive impact on
these students, and these students
have a positive impact on the rest
of the world. This is the reward that
I cherish most.
The chance meeting of these
students happens so often that the
reward keeps coming back to me
over and over again. This continues
to reinforce the reward of positive
impact on students and the world,
and is so self-replenishing and never
ending.