I’m the Millennial That Is Running Your Clinical Trial

This webinar will provide insight into the millennials that are already running your trials. We will discuss demographic trends and present examples, case studies and recommendations on leveraging private social networking technology to maintain oversight. Failing to provide effective oversight can result in gaps in communication that undermine your data and reduce confidence in your trial processes. The speakers will share their first-hand experience of running clinical trials that leverage secure social tools and how they will improve your clinical management and oversight.

The generation known as Millennials have become stereotyped as having short attention spans, demanding attitudes towards work and mistrust of institutions. They are also highly independent, digital natives that are optimistic about the future and use technology to connect with like minds rather than by joining organizations of like-minded people. As an example, more than 50% of this generation considers itself politically independent. In the United States, less than 27% are registered as democrats, however over 66% voted democratic in the 2008 US general election and 60% in the 2012 US general election. A similar trend recently unfolded in the 2015 British general election. Clearly, membership of an institution doesn’t reflect behavior or beliefs out in the real world. In the workforce, millennials already represent 35% of the western civilian workforce, outnumbering baby-boomers and generation-x which are both tied at 31%. In the next five years, they will grow to almost 50% of the general workforce.

In the clinical research domain, we talk a lot about using social media to recruit and retain subjects into our clinical trials but if you are a clinical trial manager or head of clinical operations at a sponsor or CRO, take a moment to recognize that approximately 70% of active study coordinators, research nurses and clinical research associates are members of the millennial generation. Given this fact – almost three quarters of all clinical trial activity today is being carried out by millennials we shouldn’t be surprised to find communication breakdowns when using spreadsheets, printed documents, emails and teleconferences as our primary channels of disseminating information. Add to this the constant and ongoing challenge of communicating across time, distance, language and cultural barriers the additional burden of this demographic chasm makes effective oversight an almost impossible objective.

With this backdrop, the industry is implementing risk based monitoring and other oversight initiatives that further reduce opportunities for face to face communication onsite at the clinic. This in turn, is increasing the criticality of effective communication and tools that meet the information management and oversight needs of all the participants in the clinical enterprise.

The webinar will characterize the millennials in clinical research and show through example how to adapt your approach to sharing information, reference materials and official correspondence. Doing this while maintaining a higher degree of regulatory control over your documentation distribution practices and gain insight into how that information is handled and used at the clinical site. Trying to meet these increasingly difficult oversight requirements without creating a chaotic web of disconnected information silos or administrative overhead for one or all of the parties involved in any particular issue is what myClin set out to accomplish over seven years ago and with the introduction of the latest version of the myClin private social network in 2014 a simple, easy to use and cost effective tool is now available to support your clinical trial oversight requirements.

Speakers

James Denmark, Founder and CEO, myClin Clinical Research

James is the founder and CEO of myClin. Prior to myClin, he spent 20 years in the technology and clinical services industry working in the global central lab, CRO, IVRS and centralized ECG fields as a technologist, operational head and general manager. Born and educated in England, Jim has lived and worked in Central Europe, North America, and India. He has held positions with Shell Oil, Meyer International, Scicor, Covance, Nexigent and Reliance Industries and is currently splits his time between the myClin offices in Philadelphia and San Francisco. When he isn’t disrupting the clinical trial process, Jim likes to brew English ales at the Redcoat Brewery and sailing the San Francisco bay.

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John Silowsky, Clinical Operations, Nektar Therapeutics

John is Director of Clinical Operations at Nektar Therapeutics where he is responsible for operational execution of Nektar’s diverse clinical development pipeline. He has over 15 years’ experience working in clinical development in cardiology, oncology, HIV/AIDS, infectious disease, metabolic disorders, and rare diseases. John was trained as a nurse at the University of Detroit Mercy and spent 10 years working in adult intensive care, HIV community care, and as a study coordinator. In the rare moments when he’s not bringing new and innovative approaches to clinical study conduct, John enjoys traveling, cooking, and everything his home town of San Francisco has to offer.

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