Meet SCRS Global Impact Partner: EmVenio Research

This episode features Thad Wolfram, President of EmVenio Research. As EmVenio joins the SCRS Global Impact Program (GIP), Thad shines light on EmVenio’s dedication to providing clinical trial access for underrepresented and underserved communities. The episode further touches on the importance of diversity, community, and how localized data can help expand a clinical trial's international footprint.

Transcript

Jimmy Bechtel: 0:00

Greetings and thank you for being part of the Society for Clinical Research Sites on SCRS Talks. I'm your host, Jimmy Bechtel, the Vice President of Site Engagement with the Society. Get ready to dive into pressing clinical research industry topics, celebrate noteworthy achievements, and create a deeper connection within the research community. This is the space to amplify voices and perspectives that shape the landscape of clinical research. Today, we have Thad Wolfram, the president of EmVenio Research, here to talk with us today about their recent joining of the SCRS Global Impact Partnership Program. Thad, it's great to have you with us today, and it's Extra great to have EmVenio Research as part of the GIP program. I'd love to start off learning a little bit about you and a little bit of background on EmVenio.

Thad Wolfram: 0:49

Great. Thanks so much, Jimmy. So, as mentioned, I'm Thad Wolfram. I'm the president at EmVenio Research. I have been working in the clinical trials industry for over 20 years now having held roles both directly with sponsors at Pfizer consulting in this space having worked in an executive role at PPD, and now working more on the site side with everything we're doing at EmVenio. The work we do today is really advancing site based efforts into a more hybrid model, so thinking through how we can address both underrepresented and underserved communities by providing access to clinical trials and reducing participant burdens by spanning really brick and mortar through mobile sites into the community along with allowing for mobile home visits to take place all in support of clinical trials.

Jimmy Bechtel: 1:37

Excellent. That's I think a very modern and noteworthy approach and something that's desperately needed for our industry. So I'm excited to learn a little bit more and to work with you guys on some of that work going forward. Again, we're tremendously excited to have EmVenio as part of the global impact partnership program. So, now that we've heard some background, can you talk a little bit more about the motivation and the why behind the joining of that global impact partnership program?

Thad Wolfram: 2:05

Absolutely. So, the industry is constantly advancing and SCRS is a really important organization that supports that advancement of clinical trials and of this industry and, at EmVenio, we really want to make sure that we have a voice in that advancement and are able to provide our inputs and our thinking around different side options for reaching diverse and underserved participants in the U. S. and across the world.

Jimmy Bechtel: 2:34

That's great. And I think the optionality there and bringing, you know, another way of executing our clinical trials is really key to moving the industry forward and some of what we're trying to do here. So again, really, really excited and thankful that you've understood the impact that this can have on the traditional research site. After all, that's what SCRS is all about. So. Bringing that together and bridging that gap and collaborating with the research site I know is part of moving what you guys are doing forward. Speaking of moving what you guys are doing forward, I know you describe your approach as cultivating a local ecosystem for clinical research through some of those examples that you mentioned. So I'd love for you to dive in a little bit deeper into what exactly that means and how that benefits everyone involved in the clinical research execution process. Thank you.

Thad Wolfram: 3:23

So as we think about, that local ecosystem what we're really focused on is how we expand our efforts outside of what is happening just at the site. So, that local ecosystem that we're fostering is really around how do we become a part of a community. How do we identify and deploy into communities where access to research may be difficult, or where certain populations may have barriers just themselves to taking part in research. We're really thinking about how can we go into those communities, anchor, initially, not even just as a site, but really anchor as a valuable partner in that community. Engage that community based on challenges they may be facing. One of the aspects that we look at are social determinants of health around any given community that we're entering into. So making sure that we understand local challenges from, availability of health care to availability of food and transportation. And, so thinking about. More comprehensively, how can we be a valuable partner in the community and then building from there through community engagement and community events to help create awareness around research and and the opportunity that it that it provides and so really by laying that groundwork is how we engage and reach people. Those patient populations and the benefit of that is is really to all parties. It's, it's a benefit to those patients because it can provide them access to novel therapies, vaccines, et cetera, that that they wouldn't have access to. Otherwise, it's, it's a benefit to sponsors and CROs because it allows for them to have access to those underrepresented and underserved populations. Thereby also improving both the, statistical significance of the data that they're capturing to support drug approvals, and hopefully also accelerating timelines to those approvals. And then lastly, as we think about that full community based ecosystem, as we're able to partner with the community. with other groups in and around those communities for things like labs and imaging etc. It really is a way to create a full spectrum ecosystem built around the participants to enable clinical trials.

Jimmy Bechtel: 5:42

That's, it's really cool Thad because it's A direct reflection, right? You've built an organization around some of the things that we have been talking about as being the top priorities for not only the future of clinical trials, but also the future of diversity, equity, and inclusion in our clinical trials. When we talk to sites and when we have these conversations that things like the include summit or the global site solution, some of that I know your organization has been part of in various ways in the past before becoming a G I P. One of the major things is that community engagement enablement. And I, again, your organization is a direct reflection on enabling that to happen and bring some of that to life, which is really, really cool. So what then speaking on that and, and tugging on that diversity and, trial patient retention strategy, what advice would you give to other organizations that might be looking to improve their diversity and retention in clinical trials? What can we do as a broader community? And you're doing something very tactical and have again, built an organization around it, but for maybe some of the others that are out there that need guidance or help. What, again, what advice might you bring to them?

Thad Wolfram: 6:57

Yeah, it's an excellent question. I think, the, the immediate answer is, the easy part is bringing, bringing research right to the doorstep of those communities. But, in terms of advice, it really does does go beyond that. No 2 communities are the same. And so, the 1st thing I would say is being very thoughtful about how you engage directly with the individuals in the community. And that has everything to do with, hiring local Employees like making sure that our research staff and community engagement staff on the ground are reflective of the local community in terms of culture and language, et cetera. And so I think, it comes back to that taking a very localized approach. So understanding the community you're going into engaging it based on that understanding and not taking a 1 size fits all approach. I think it's that more individualized community approach. is what really helps to to drive success. And I would say, one recent metric of ours that I think is reflective of that is, as we're looking at our ability to recruit and retain patients on studies, one lead indicator on that is the fact that, as we're scheduling pre screening and screen screening visits, what we see is those screens that are scheduled via more traditional patient recruitment methods versus those screening visits that are that are scheduled by way of our community engagement. We see far fewer no shows. By those individuals that we've engaged with directly through the community. And so it's that it really is that reaching out to the community side of this that that creates the trust and the, really, the, the willingness of individuals to engage in clinical research. And we see that even at the very, at the very beginning in terms of, them showing up and engaging when when they say they're going to.

Jimmy Bechtel: 8:54

That's incredible Thad. And I really want to emphasize and underline the importance of, as you mentioned, that community engagement and truly what it can do. It's great to see, your we'll call it a case study synopsis that you just gave of exactly the power that that kind of work can have. And if there's anything I want our, our audience to take away from this is not only that, EmVenio, is, is invested in. the growth of this space and in the continued work that SCRS is doing, but also what impact community engagement can have with advancing some of the work that we're trying to do in our clinical trials. So thank you for bringing some of that to light. It's, really, really incredible. So the last question I want to, I want to talk through here that is the future of EmVenio and what your goals are for the next five to 10 years, or maybe As part of that highlight some of the initiatives or programs that you're working on that you guys might be really, really excited about bringing to the future and getting in front of the research sites through avenues like SCRS.

Thad Wolfram: 9:56

There's really a two pronged approach, to how we're thinking about the coming years. The first is continuing to bolster around the community research sites that we've already established in the U. S. And really there's, there's two ways we're looking at that. The first is there, there are several, Still so many on, you know, communities in this country alone that don't have that easy access to clinical research. So, so how can we continue to establish new community research sites and anchor in those communities? Another way that we're, we're doing that is we formed a recent partnership with prime healthcare where we're establishing and then, research institutes in primes community hospitals. And so we're really taking this 2 pronged approach of, establishing brick and mortar research where it isn't taking place today. And extending that through the mobile sites into the community as part of our community research sites. So, prong one is really how do we continue to expand that footprint and that access to research in the U. S.? And then, next is we're further bolstering our initial capabilities around the U. K. and moving into Europe as, we're looking at All of the different areas that this model or permutations of it can be very valuable. And so looking at the UK, Europe, looking at Latin America, looking at, other countries as well to, to really start to think through, okay, how do we apply that localized, more individualized community approach in, in ever expanding international footprint. And so really, Our goals in the coming years are to take everything that we've learned today and been able to successfully deliver and establish and really just expand that to the greatest number of patients possible.

Jimmy Bechtel: 11:39

That's great to hear that. And hopefully then that means we'll start seeing you guys at the European site solutions summits as soon as next February, when we're hosting that over in Lisbon Portugal. But it's great to hear the continued emphasis on growth. and expansion to meet some of those underserved communities in other regions of the world and really bring that community first focus to clinical research. So the future is bright for the work that I think we can do together and I'm excited to see what EmVenio is able to do going forward. So thank you, Thad. for being with us. Thank you for joining the Global Impact Partnership Program on behalf of the sites. And we're excited to see what's next and how we can advance the work we're doing in clinical research together.

Thad Wolfram: 12:25

Thank you, Jimmy. As I mentioned SCRS is such an important organization and we really value our continued expanding commitment to being a part of a part of that and everything we can do together to advance clinical trials.

Jimmy Bechtel: 12:37

Excellent. Well, thanks again, Thad, and big thank you to EmVenio Research. For those listening, don't forget to explore more site focused resources like the Site Invoicables Toolkit and many others on our website, myscrs. org. You'll find a wealth of content and publications, plus the opportunity to save your spot for upcoming SCRS webinars and summits like our Global Site Solutions Summit coming up in September 2024. Thank you for tuning in, and until next time.