Clinical Researcher—August 2026 (Volume 40, Issue 4)
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER’S MESSAGE
David Vulcano, MSW, MBA, CIP, RAC, FACRP, CEO of the Association of Clinical Research Professionals
The title for this message, inspired by Marvel Comic’s multi-billion-dollar Avengers movie franchise, is my call to action. Like the superhero members of The Avengers, we each bring different capabilities, funds of knowledge, and experiences to the table…and yes, we can occasionally drive each other crazy. We can be successful individually in our own right, but when the stakes are high enough, we assemble. And the stakes are high enough. Everyone in the world, including ourselves, is just a few quirky cells from needing the very treatments we are working on…and delivering them is increasingly challenging, resource-intensive, and time-consuming, largely because we have not yet assembled.
Bestselling leadership author John Maxwell’s observed that we don’t rise to the level of our dreams; we rise to the level of our teams. Clinical research certainly has no shortage of dreams: cures, prevention, longer lives, and better quality of life among them. Yet every one of those aspirations depends on teams that extend well beyond our own organizations.
Many of us entered this profession because we wanted to help advance treatments that change lives. Yet somewhere along the way, our efforts became entrenched with focusing on optimizing individual pieces of the system instead of improving the system itself. We often celebrate efficiencies in one part of the system while unintentionally creating burdens in another. We also often solve localized problems that create broadened ones.
The workforce entering our profession today grew up watching the Avengers movies but also collaborating across digital platforms, sharing information in real time, and challenging assumptions that previous generations accepted as inevitable. They are less interested in protecting organizational boundaries and more interested in solving problems. That’s not a threat to your organization. It’s an opportunity for your success. Similarly, the patient waiting for a new therapy doesn’t care whether any given challenge exclusively belongs to or is the fault of a site, sponsor, contract research organization, or solution provider. They care that we get through it and achieve the goal as fast as we can.
This leads us to that simple thought experiment: if humanity were establishing its first clinical research infrastructure on Mars, would we design it exactly how we operate it today? Or would we build around collaboration, efficiency, transparency, and the participant experience from the start?
So, Clinical Research Avengers, assemble! Don’t just think outside the box…let’s stop seeing the box altogether. Let’s continue to challenge old assumptions, build new partnerships, and recognize that progress happens fastest when we start asking how we can solve problems together.
As Avengers co-creator Stan Lee was fond of saying: “Excelsior!” (i.e., Latin for “Ever upward”)
[You can learn more about ACRP’s new CEO by visiting his recent post on the Association’s LinkedIn site.]
