Articles By Dan Schell, Chief Editor
DAN SCHELL ARTICLES
7 Steps To Manage Local HCPs In A Decentralized Trial
Here’s a template you can use for a multi-step process to create a centralized system to verify the credentials, licenses, and professional standing of all local healthcare professionals (HCPs) participating in a DCT.
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Local HCPs in DCTs: Big Benefits, Bigger Burdens?
Local HCPs in DCTs provide benefits like improved patient accessibility, retention, and diversity, but create significant oversight burdens for investigators and sponsors, requiring extensive documentation, training protocols, and communication systems to maintain compliance.
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The Evolution Of A Clinical Research Coordinator
Briana White is a CRC with Superior Clinical Research, a small clinical research site in Smithfield NC. She talks about how she got into the clinical industry and what she struggles with in her job (spoiler alert: it involves tech).
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Being Financially Prudent As A Site Isn't a Bad Thing
Most sites are composed of three silos of people who rarely cross communicate -- especially about issues that could affect finances. But if your job is to take care of patients. should you be concerned about the same things as your finance-related colleagues? Dr. Daniel Fox says, at the very least, you should be communicating some key events/milestones.
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Did The SOS Conference Suffer From A Sophomore Slump?
You’d be making a big mistake if you felt the Save Our Sites conference was too small to attend or exhibit at. You also may be misinformed if you’ve been told this show is simply a forum for small sites to complain about being treated unfairly. After attending for the first two years, I’d say this is one to keep on your radar. Here’s why.
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Takeda's Diversity Strategy Pays Off For Phase 3 Trial
LaShell Robinson, head of global feasibility and trial equity at Takeda explains how the company’s Phase 3 trial for a psoriasis drug ended enrollment well before it’s goal and achieved some impressive diversity metrics.
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What ClinOps Wants To Know About AI
Registrants for our recent Clinical Leader Live, “AI In Action: Transforming Clinical Trials,” were asked what they wanted to learn after watching the webinar. We thought it would be interesting to look at the five general themes to the types of questions they were asking.
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The Scoop On SCOPE
Chief Editor Dan Schell summarizes some of his favorite quotes and learnings from the 2025 SCOPE Summit. Spoiler alert … Not everything is about AI these days.
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Site Networks Find Strength In Numbers With AMRC
Jim Kremidas, executive director of the newly launched Association of Multisite Research Corporations (AMRC), talks about the genesis and future of this association, which launched with 14 multisite clinical research corporations (MCRCs) members.
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We're Looking At Patient Recruitment All Wrong
Leanne Woehlke, a 30-year veteran of the clinical research industry, says our standard patient recruitment efforts are lacking one key element — a focus on the patient’s needs.
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Should You Choose An FSP Model? It Depends…
Small biotechs are often drawn to an FSP model because they believe it’s a less expensive option as compared to an FSO. But that’s not always the case, says Réne Stephens of Danforth Advisors, who gives some examples of what to consider before making your choice of outsourcing solution.
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Should We Be Scared Of PE Firms Investing In Sites?
It seems lately there's been a lot of vilification of private equity (PE) firms that are purchasing site networks. I'm sure this sentiment has increased during the past few years, but is it justified?
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Let's Fix The Tax Burden On Clinical Trial Participants
We all know that patient retention is lowered once a participant realizes the tax implications of being in a clinical trial. But taxes should be the last thing they have to worry about, so why can’t we get some changes made?
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Were There Any Surprises In Clinical Trials In 2024?
Is it any surprise that when I asked a group of clinical trial industry experts to summarize some of the things that stood out to them in 2024, that AI would be mentioned more than once? Probably not. Resistance to DCTs, increasing regulatory scrutiny, and a slowdown in CRO M&As also made their lists — but I’m guessing none of that surprises you, either.
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2024: Familiar Problems & Encouraging Progress
For part 1 of my 2024 recap, I asked various industry experts what stood out to them this year regarding the clinical trials industry. They mentioned significant challenges related to site capacity, enrollment, workforce changes, and trial complexity, but they also seemed encouraged with some of the efforts and emerging solutions that will address these issues.
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Can Better Data Management Save Clinical Trials?
In this summary of our 10/31/24 Clinical Leader Live, we talk about the current ICH M11 guideline, which focuses on a clinical electronic harmonized protocol, as well as the need for data standardization and the benefits of the resulting automation. Our panelists include Jessica Jolly, a data science expert with 25 years of experience, and Hassan Kahlid, senior engineer, machine learning and data science at AstraZeneca.
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PI Insights From A Heart Failure Trial: Part 2
This is part 2 of Dan Schell’s interview with Jennifer Cowger, MD, the co-principal investigator of the Abbott TEAM-HF clinical trial. Here, she elaborates more on some of her tasks specific to this heart failure trial.
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PI Insights From A Heart Failure Trial: Part 1
Jennifer Cowger, MD, the co-principal investigator of the Abbott TEAM-HF clinical trial, talks about her role as a PI including trial design and meetings with the FDA.
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Not A Bad First Year
Dan Schell, chief Editor or Clinical Leader, summarizes his first year in this role and highlights some of his key takeaways and lists some of the people who have helped him better understand the clinical trials ecosystem.
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We Are All Project Managers, But We Need Help
Jess Thompson is a champion of project managers. Not only is she working to validate their role in the clinical trial ecosystem, she wants to spread the word that we all perform PM-types of duties. Also, if we could get better as an industry at incorporating some of those basic tenants of project management, perhaps we could see more drugs succeed — and quicker.
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Plodding Toward Better Data Integration & SSO
Laura Hilty, a principal at HealthX Ventures, talks about the need to better integrate data platforms and improve/enable single sign-on (SSO) solutions so sites can lessen their administrative burden.
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A New Barometer For Clinical Outsourcing Performance
Interested in how some of the top publicly traded clinical development outsourcing companies are doing in the market? Andrew Schafer may be able to help with his Schafer Clinical Development Index (SCDI).
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Want To Improve Study Startup? Get More Efficient
John McAdory, VP of ClinOPs at CG Oncology, recognizes that today’s clinical trial designs tend to be very complex, which complicates study startup. He says the key to improving this challenge is to find small ways to be more efficient throughout the process.
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AI Can't Help Bad ClinOps/Health Equity Data
Brian Johnson, Ph.D., VP, R&D Technology at Takeda discusses the huge opportunity of connecting disparate ClinOps data and leveraging generative AI to reduce costs and labor during the clinical process.
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Key Takeaways From Clinical Trial Diversity Discussion
During the Clinical Leader Live, The Diversity Mandate: Effective Strategies in Clinical Trials”, we discussed everything from the guidance, to diversity action plans, to the need for better data on race, ethnicity, and identity. In this article, we also share 25 questions audience members had regarding this hot topic.
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We Need More Clinical Trial Awareness … Oh, And CRCs
Christina Brennan, SVP for the clinical research program at Northwell Health, talks about how increasing the awareness of clinical trials can lead to better patient-centricity and why we need to start positioning clinical research as a career.
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Not What I Expected From A Vendor Conference
Dan Schell recounts some of his key takeaways after attending the Veeva R&D Quality Summit in Boston in September 2024. Some of the topics discussed include DCTs, eCOA, and the need to simplify tech integration at sites.
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FDA Under Pressure To Respond To China-Related Clinical Trials Questions
The FDA has until October 1, 2024 to respond to a number of questions regarding concerns about clinical trials being conducted in The People's Republic of China. How will their answers affect trials going forward and the sponsors that were conducting those China-based trials?
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Are You Afraid Of Adopting New Outsourcing Models?
Pricing strategies for outsourcing clinical services have evolved over the years, yet many sponsors are reluctant to change from their status quo. That may change, though, as CROs begin to add technology and site networks to their offerings.
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Why We Need Technology Consolidation In Clinical Trials
As more and more trial designs incorporate technologies that generate an immense amount of data, data managers struggle to continuously interconnect disparate systems and standardize data. All of this fuels the need for technology consolidation.
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Dan Schell
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Dan Schell is Chief Editor of Clinical Leader where he writes about topics related to clinical trial operations. Previously, he served as the Editorial Director of Life Science Leader magazine, another Life Science Connect community, for 14 years. In this role, he worked with the publication’s internal and external writers and editors on choosing the best topics for articles as well as refining all content to meet Life Science Leader’s high editorial standards. Prior to his work with Life Science Leader, he worked as an editor and copy editor for the publication’s parent company, VertMarkets (now called Life Science Connect). He joined the company in 2000 after 10 years of working for Encompass Health (previously Healthsouth) in marketing and business development and four years at an advertising agency.
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