Embracing Technology and Future of Clinical Trial
In light of your experience, what are the trends and challenges you’ve witnessed happening with respect to Clinical Trial Management?
FREMONT, CA: Resources are a challenge in regard to Clinical Trial Management. That is at all levels, CRO, Sponsor, Vendors, and Sites. Some statisticsmentioned at conferences state that clinical sites are operating at 60 percent resource capacity. I have firsthand seen struggles in finding the right fit for Clinical Research Associates (CRAs) as well as resource constraints at numerous laboratory vendors.
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What are some of the points of discussion that take place in your leadership panel to mitigate these challenges?
One thing I am particularly proud of is our focus on bringing in individuals who are new to the industry or in junior roles. This applies to in-house Functional Service Provider (FSP) roles, as well as to my CRO staff and sites. I have observed that hiring people with limited or no industry experience does not compromise quality. In fact, finding individuals with strong work ethic and a willingness to learn is what matters most; the rest can be taught. In the past, there was often an emphasis on hiring CRAs with 10+ years of experience. However, we recently trained someone with no prior CRA experience, and they excelled, even outperforming our "experienced" CRAs in certain areas.
For years, the industry has discussed the importance of involving more sites in research and including research-naïve sites in studies. However, internally within many companies, there is always a reluctance to find the "right" study to accommodate these research-naïve sites. It's time to move past that mindset. For the growth and longevity of our industry, we need to help educate and empower new people, whether they are CRAs, internal team members, PIs, or coordinators. Let's embrace an open-minded approach and remember that we all started somewhere.
Additionally, one of the key focuses for my team and me in 2023 is prioritizing our clinical trial sites. While I have made significant efforts to be a true partner to our vendors, I have realized that I haven't always extended the same level of partnership to our sites in recent years. Yet, without our clinical sites, we cannot achieve success. These sites operate with limited resources, so it is essential that we reassess how we partner with them and provide the support they deserve. My top challenge this year is to develop the best approach to being a true partner to clinical research sites and enhancing the site pool by working with and training sites that have limited research experience.
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