What My Experience In A COVID-19 Vaccine Trial Taught Me About The Need For Greater Patient Centricity

By Kelly McKee, Vice President of Patient Registries and Recruitment, Medidata

I’ve spent my career in clinical research. I champion the benefits of participation to anyone who will listen, and many who won’t. But until last year, I had never participated in a randomized, double-blind trial. It’s not that I didn’t look for opportunities. As a healthy individual with many priorities (work, kids, etc.), it just never seemed like the right fit or the right time.

In 2020, everything changed. I’m an extrovert by nature and being quarantined was hard. Not as hard as losing a loved one to COVID-19, or being hospitalized myself, but it was hard feeling trapped, not seeing friends and family, and feeling hopeless. When I learned there were several vaccines in development for COVID-19, I immediately wanted to be a participant in a study. I knew it was finally my time—the right time—to get involved.