For much of his career, Dr. Jan Buch served pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, Inc., during which time he experienced several extraordinary feats. Accepting the position of medical director in 1987, he attended to such tasks as writing protocol on prescription drugs related to heart disease, planning statistical analyses for medicine, administering medication and conducting research on hypertension and hypercholesterolemia. During his longstanding tenure at Pfizer, Dr. Buch was credited with a patent for Pfizer’s Caduet, a medication that treats high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol levels simultaneously. Following his appointment as medical director, he also served as the global team leader of cardiovascular metabolic endocrine obesity between 1992 and 2009, and from 2009 until his retirement in 2015, he was a consultant in cardiology.
Earlier in his career, Dr. Buch served in numerous medical-related roles in his native country of Denmark. Following his receipt of his medical degree from Copenhagen University in 1969 and coursework in anatomy at the University of Manchester, he commenced his career at Copenhagen University Hospital as a physician and cardiologist from 1969 to 1987. Congruent to these appointments, Dr. Buch also served the department of cardiology and aviation medicine at Rigshospitalet between 1969 and 1975. Following these tenures, he completed a two-year residency in medicine and surgery affiliated with the Danish Deaconess Community and, subsequently, returned to Rigshospitalet to serve their cardiology department and invasive laboratory between 1977 and 1983. Alongside these positions, Dr. Buch served Amtssygehuset in their medical and cardiology department, as well as a specialist in internal medicine and cardiology at Copenhagen University.
Throughout the course of his outstanding career, Dr. Buch is especially proud of his accomplishments in health care and his servitude to all his patients. He notes that he is humbled by his affinity for relating to his patients and making them feel at ease, and he considers his time spent in invasive cardiology among the highlights of his career. In the formative years of his life, he was inspired to enter medicine by his parents, who were both doctors in Denmark during World War II.
In conjunction with his medical appointments, Dr. Buch has been a worldwide instructor of medicine, as well as a lecturer in one of his main interest areas: ancient Japanese culture. Notably, he holds the largest private collection of Japanese woodblock print books in Scandinavia, having owned 2,000 volumes aging before 1868.
As a testament to his success and longevity in the field of medicine, Dr. Buch has received a number of accolades, such as numerous grants from the Danish Cardiology Society from 1969 to 1987. He also earned a Pfizer Achievement Award from the ASCOT Project in 2005. He attributes his success to his diligent work ethic, skills in cardiology and commitment to take tremendous chances for the betterment of his patients’ health.