While the “do more with less” mantra probably dates back to some well-meaning prehistoric manager from the dawn of organized labor, its modern prevalence in clinical research settings can seem particularly galling in the face of serious fiscal uncertainties and ongoing workforce supply and readiness challenges when patients’ lives and wellbeing are on the line.
So, what are clinical trial team members to do when the word comes down from above that everyone just needs to be more productive with fewer resources for the foreseeable future?
With lowering standards for quality and safety obviously being out of the question, the trio of industry experts behind the upcoming two-part ACRP Webinar series on “Doing More with Less” say that strategic investments and due diligence in the areas of technology implementation and staffing and funding initiatives can stabilize—and even revitalize—wobbling study sites.
Presenting insights on these issues will be:
- Christina Brennan, MD, MBA, CCRC, FACRP, Chair of the ACRP Board of Trustees and Senior Vice President for Clinical Research at Northwell Health;
- Elisa Cascade, MBA, FACRP, Immediate Past Chair of the ACRP Board of Trustees and Chief Growth Officer and Head of Americas for TrialScreen; and
- Catherine Gregor, MBA, CCRP, CCRC, Chief Clinical Trial Officer at Florence Healthcare.
“In a ‘do more with less’ environment, site leaders need to ask themselves if they have performed a robust enough technology inventory lately to make sure that they are paying for ‘must haves,’ minimizing overlap, maximizing benefit, and optimizing interoperability for efficiencies,” says Cascade. “As for top concerns related to research funding, they should examine trends in their sources of support to see if they truly have an optimal mix of industry vs. other funding. And, if not, they need to strategize about what they can do to position their site favorably to increase industry exposure.”
Sites should also consider how to better leverage outsourcing partnerships to de-risk and/or decrease expenditures (e.g., patient recruitment, unbilled invoiceables), Cascade notes.
“Academic medical centers are facing an uncertain funding environment both in magnitude of grants year-over-year and in the indirect cost rate they will be allowed to pass through,” adds Gregor. “On the other side, many of the private sites and site networks are also being challenged by flat to declining trends in industry-sponsored study volume, especially in the vaccine area, given recent changes in federal leadership and policy. The net/net is that all sites—academic and private—need to figure out how to make changes in their own operating environment to ‘do more with less.’”
Part one of the webinar series, “Doing More with Less: Maximizing the Value of Your Clinical Research Technology Investments,” arrives on Wednesday, November 12, with Brennan serving as moderator. Part two, “Doing More with Less: Alternative Funding and Resourcing Strategies for Future Success,” follows on Wednesday, November 19, with Cascade in the moderator chair.
Edited by Gary Cramer
