Something I've been sitting on for a while.

Sidebar with Sanket started as a simple idea: give HEOR students and early-career professionals the thing nobody gave me — direct access to someone who's actually doing the job.

It's working. The questions are sharp. The conversations are real. But I've been running it like a benevolent dictatorship — I set the agenda, I pick the topics, I decide what's worth talking about.

That has to change.

The Council is exactly what it sounds like: a group of students and early-career professionals who co-govern Sidebar with Sanket.

You drive the topics. You shape the content. You bring new ideas — including what tools we build next.

This isn't an advisory board that gives feedback into a void. Council members have a real seat at the table. When the community votes with their questions, you're the ones who turn those signals into sessions, articles, and resources.

This is Sidebar, democratized.

→ Submit and prioritize session topics for Sidebar monthly office hours
→ Flag gaps in the content pipeline — what's missing, what's overdone
→ Co-design ideas for tools that actually serve HEOR learners
→ Represent the community's perspective on what early-career HEOR looks like globally
→ Help shape The Brief — this newsletter — from the reader's seat, not mine

Time commitment: 1–2 hours per month. One monthly meeting (virtual). A little offline prep. That's it.

Terms are 12 months, rolling cohorts.

If you're currently enrolled in a graduate program — MS, PhD, PharmD, MPH, MBA, MD — with interest in HEOR, market access, RWE, modeling, or patient outcomes, you're eligible.

There is no geographic restriction. If you're reading this from Austin, Barcelona, Toronto, Bangalore, or Nairobi — apply.

We're not looking for the most polished applicant. We're looking for the most engaged one. The person who has opinions about what the community needs. The person who would have been on the council even if there wasn't a council — just informally, in DMs and Zoom chats.

If that's you, this is your formalization.

The application has three parts:

1. Basic demographics — who you are, where you are, what you're studying
2. Your HEOR focus area — where your technical interests live
3. A 2-minute video — unlisted YouTube, Loom, or Google Drive. Tell us why you want to join and what you'd bring. Don't over-produce it. A phone camera and a clear answer beats a ring light and a rehearsed script every time.

Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. We'll be in touch within 2–3 weeks.

→ Apply here — Student Council Application

I've said this before: the human community layer is what makes Sidebar defensible. AI can answer HEOR questions. It can't replicate the tacit knowledge that comes from people who are living the career in real time, across programs, across countries, across institutional cultures.

The Council is how we codify that knowledge. For the students, by the students.

Come build this with me.

— Sanket

Sidebar with Sanket is free monthly HEOR office hours. Register here. The Brief is the written companion. Forward to a classmate who should be reading this.

P.S. Hit reply with the question you've never been able to ask anywhere else. I read every one.