Reflection retrospective

Derwent Information Ltd. Derwent Information Ltd., previously known as Derwent PubHcations Ltd., changed its name in the 1990s to reflect more accurately the fact that its products go far beyond traditional pubHcations. Derwent provides a wide spectmm of information products and services, many of them relating to patents. Derwent also produces important databases (qv) of nonpatent information from the pharmaceutical and agncultural chemical Hterature. These products and services encompass alerting tools for current awareness, systems for retrospective search and retneval, and means for document deHvery and archiving. 

This kind of retrospective analysis can be quite difficult to do. It is easy to clutter up one s reflections with all the justifications and rationalizations that one has built up around one s past. 

You might feel that this was the case with your achievement of your project purposes. You are now a person who knows that, working in an organization with other people, you can achieve what you intend. If this is as far as you want to take your learning, you may be justifled in not engaging in any retrospective reflection. 

The kind of retrospective reflection that Bond and his colleagues are referring to Is somewhat different to Schon s reflectlon-ln-actlon. There are similarities with the processes described in Box 5.3, but also important differences. Retrospective reflection is of necessity a much more deliberate process. In the absence of any particular surprise to trigger it, retrospective reflection depends on a systematic searching of experiences for signiflcant events to ponder. Boud and his colleagues describe reflection as... 

An outline of Boud and colleagues model of retrospective reflection is presented in Figure 9.1. The process of reflection iterates between experience and contemplation, resulting eventually in outcomes. These are as much to do with new behaviour as with knowledge or understanding. 

Batch yield reflects efficiency of the operation. Because yield figures are the sum of numerous interactions, they fail in most cases to provide specific information about process performance and therefore must be used with caution in retrospective validation. In any event, this information should be collected, as it can contribute to further refinement of the yield limits that appear in the batch record. 

The design of the validation testing and the composition of the protocol reflect the circumstances under which the study is conducted. For retrospective validation the test may be statistical analysis of batch release data, such as assay, pH, physical appearance, residual moisture, reconstitution time, and constituted solution appearance. This retrospective process validation would be intended to demonstrate that the product is of consistent quality. A critical review of the processing conditions in a retrospective validation may consist of a test comparing actual processing conditions during lyophilization with ideal parameters. This not only shows adherence to the defined processing conditions, but also demonstrates process reproducibility. 

This article reveals the reflections of the author on the chemical evolution of moxifloxacin. During the course of Bayer s quinolone research project that resulted in the development of moxifloxacin, numerous compounds were synthesized, and attempts were made to modify almost every quinolone substituent in a variety of ways in order to meet the goals described herein. Some of these efforts were successful, while others were not. This chapter does not attempt to describe this project in its entirety. Instead, for the sake of brevity and simplicity, many areas of this complex and difficult project have been excluded or substantially simplified in order to focus on those areas of the Bayer project which, in retrospect, were most important to the development of moxifloxacin. 

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