Building Strong Partnerships: Parexel's Commitment to Research Sites

Karen McIntyre, Vice President of Site Alliances at Parexel, shares the impact and initiatives that contributed to their earning of the coveted SCRS Eagle Award in 2023. Hear valuable advice for industry organizations aspiring to build successful relationships with sites through the power of communication, trust, and shared goals. Karen also sheds light on Parexel's strategies to continually enhance and expand its site-focused efforts. 

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Jimmy Bechtel 0:01

Welcome and thank you for joining the Society for Clinical Research Sites for SCRS Talks. I'm Jimmy Bechtel, the Vice President of Site Engagement. SCRS Talks allows our partners and those that we work closely with to take a few minutes to address issues of industry concern, share exciting achievements and to learn more about our growing community. Today, we have Karen McIntyre, the Vice President of Site Alliances with Parexel here to help us celebrate Parexel's recent recipiency of the 2023 SCRS Eagle Award as the CRO of choice. Karen, thanks for being with us and another congratulations to Parexel for winning this year's Eagle Award. We'd love to learn a little bit more about you and maybe a little bit more about Parexel.

Karen McIntyre 0:45

Sure, and thank you for having me, Jimmy. It's a privilege to be here. It's also a privileged position that I am in as Global Head of Site Alliances. I get to work with sites and Parexel teams every single day. Parexel is one of the world's largest clinical research organizations. And provides a full range of phase one to four clinical development services. The most important thing for me in Parexel with 40 years of industry experience, the corporate directive to all of the 21, 000 colleagues I work with is to work with heart. That makes a difference because every trial does make a difference and I honestly feel so fortunate to work for a company where the culture is always patients first.

Jimmy Bechtel 1:35

Excellent. And it shows Karen given Parexels again, recipiency of this year's Eagle Award. But let's start off by talking about what does that mean for Parexel and how does it really reflect the organization's commitment to clinical research excellence and the work that you do on behalf of patients and on behalf of sites.

Karen McIntyre 1:56

Wow, Jimmy, it means everything. It means everything because the award is the voice of the sites. And by being awarded the Eagle Award, sites are telling us that they trust in our culture, they trust in our partnership. We're always trying to learn from our sites. to understand what their challenges are and to react as best as we can to help address or remove obstacles. It isn't easy. The work we do in our industry is very complex. It gets more complex year over year. But the consistent message from our leadership is clear, that we simply cannot do our job without strong partnerships and collaborations with sites. We know sites are the experts in clinical trial delivery, and so listening to what they're telling us and reacting appropriately, I think, is the key to our success this year.

Jimmy Bechtel 2:52

That's a great sentiment, Karen and as I guess simple as it might sound, we in the industry know that it's not always easy and it's not always straightforward because not everyone does it. Otherwise, everybody would be an Eagle Award recipient and everyone would be getting perfect scores on that Eagle Award survey. So you're doing something right at Parexel and it's great to hear and great to celebrate what you're doing there. And again this award celebrates those partnerships between industry and sites. So how has Parexel worked to develop those strong relationships and maybe part of that being sharing some of those site focused initiatives that Parexel has implemented to enable that enhanced collaboration between sites and CROs.

Karen McIntyre 3:41

Yeah, I mean, 21, 000 people in Parexel and every single Parexel employee in one way or another supports our relationship with sites. We do have a number of site focused listening initiatives, such as our Parexel Site Pulse, Site Alliance Regional Forums, our Nurse Advisory Boards, and also, really importantly, our Global Impact Partners sponsorship with SCRS. They're all really valuable, but what we know for sure is that the site landscape has changed considerably. Increased protocol complexity, the exponential increase in technology, increase in data volume, all of that has resulted in unprecedented strain and financial and resourcing challenges at site. We do have multiple initiatives underway. And these are making an impact in these problematic areas where we can, what we need to and continue to do is to brainstorm with sites on potential solutions. We recently commissioned an independent survey through Tufts University because we wanted to learn more in depth information and to be sure we truly understood the site's perspective. Mainly the site's perspective on the biggest pain points, what are their ideas and what would be most helpful for them. We believe that if we can understand the underlying drivers and causes, then we can implement actionable practices and solutions that will optimize the quality and effectiveness of off site CRO relationships. Some of the solutions, as I mentioned earlier, will be easier to implement than others. Others will take more time, but what we are is committed to making a difference.

Jimmy Bechtel 5:38

Thanks, Karen. Thanks for expanding on some of those programs a little bit. What I like about Parexel's approach to those programs, is the fact that they are multifaceted. It's not just one program that you've put all your eggs in, and it's not just one road, one aspect, one path of executing a clinical trial that Parexel has focused on. It's different angles. It's solving different problems from different perspectives that I think really is one of those things that sets Parexel apart. Being an organization that's recognized, there's enough problems, enough challenges that the sites face. That there's enough work for us to do to fix those in a multifaceted way. Some things obviously, I think, have more impact than others. So recognizing what things we should tackle first, I think, has been another strong point of Parexel's work with the sites. So Karen, what advice then would you give to maybe other organizations that are aspiring to build strong and successful partnerships with the sites? We know that there's a lot of other global impact partners out there, and we are all as a community focused on building better relationships with the site community and therefore with patients. So again, what would you tell some of those other organizations out there who are looking for ways to enhance their their relationship with sites?

Karen McIntyre 7:04

Yeah, 100%. There's lots of great things going on out there, Jimmy. But my advice, the one piece of advice I would give is listen very carefully to what sites are telling you. Make sure every employee in your organisation understands their responsibility to provide sites with the best in class service. Sites do have choices and it's our job to make it as easy as possible, to make it as challenge free or as burdensome free as possible for sites to be able to deliver our clinical trials.

Jimmy Bechtel 7:45

Another great point, Karen, and I think it's important. The listening is, is critical and I know that Parexel also, I would add that Parexel also focuses heavily on the do part, right? After we listen, we implement, we take action on as an organization, which I think is really important as well.

Karen McIntyre 8:04

Yeah, 100%. That is so important. We must deliver on our initiatives to improve our services. to our sites. We simply have a lot of work to do, and I don't believe that we envisage a time where the job is done. There's always going to be room for improvement. The site landscape will continue to evolve, and we must always be able to pivot to the needs of our sites, to be true partners, and always providing what we believe is a best in class service. Or striving towards that best in class service.

Jimmy Bechtel 8:41

That's great, Karen. And yes, there is a lot of work to do evidenced in the fact that you have a full time job leading a group that is specifically focused on site relationships. So there is a lot of work, but it's an investment that Parexel and other companies have obviously taken to meet that need within the industry. So how does Parexel then envision its future of site partnerships? What's next? And what would you like to continue to focus on or, or maybe improve on in the near and present future?

Karen McIntyre 9:14

Really, Jimmy. The answer to that is that we need sites to be reaffirming that what we're doing is the right thing to do. So we've talked about challenges. We've talked about financial stability for sites and better improvement in payment terms and payment times, and there's a lot of work being done there, making sure that we understand the effects of technical of tech congestion. So we talk in the industry about these things a lot, like the burden of training, like the burden of tech. What we have to really understand is the so what? What is the impact that that has on insights? How does it reduce the amount of site, of patient facing time that sites have. So we have to keep working on holistically all of those problems. But to your point, what is the biggest pain point for sites? What are the most important and underlying drivers and causes? And then work to fix them first. But that can only happen while we have sites with site representatives at a seat at our table.

Jimmy Bechtel 10:23

Well, I think that's a great sentiment to end our conversation on karen, thank you again for being here with us today and sharing some of the insights as to why Parexel rose to the challenge and is this year's recipient of the Eagle Award And again another congratulations to you and the rest of the team at Parexel on winning that award this year.

Karen McIntyre 10:47

Thank you, Jimmy. It was certainly the 2023 highlight.

Jimmy Bechtel 10:52

For all the listeners on the line, make sure that you register for upcoming summits being held throughout the year by visiting the summit page on our website, myscrs. org. While you're on that same website, be sure to check out other SCRS publications and resources built for the community. We appreciate your participation in listening to today's program and look forward to having you join us for more great content coming out soon. Thanks again for listening.