Growing with Purpose: Balancing Site Identity and Network Scale

Lauren Chazal, Chief Business Development Officer at Headlands Research, shares insights on growing from individual research sites to a 23-center network while preserving local culture and patient focus. Learn how Headlands maintains site identity during expansion, implements strategies for reaching diverse patient populations, and addresses the business realities sponsors often overlook. Lauren offers practical advice for site leaders on sustainable growth, selecting the right network partner, and maintaining a patient-centered mission at the core of operations as the industry continues to evolve and consolidate. 

Transcript

Jimmy Bechtel 0:01

Welcome to SCRS talks provided by the Society for Clinical Research Sites. Thank you for joining us as we explore the latest insights, trends, and innovations shaping clinical research today. I'm Jimmy Bechtel, the Chief Site Success Officer with SCRS. And I have the honor and pleasure of interviewing today. Lauren Chazal, the Chief Business Development Officer with Headlands Research Headlands, has been a longstanding member of SCRS. We'll talk a little bit about the growth and the history of headlands as we get into our topic for today around the business of research and what it means to kind of be and grow from a local. You know backyard clinical research site to a global clinical research network that Headlands is today. but before we jump into that, Lauren, I'd love to get a little bit deeper introduction from you.

Lauren Chazal 0:51

Thank you, Jimmy. I'm so excited to be here today. as you mentioned, we've been a longstanding member of the A-S-C-R-S community. you have done so much for clinical research sites over the years, and we're excited to be here today to talk to you about the. Business of research. So my background, I actually grew up in the clinical research space. my parents owned and operated a five site group. so really started my career as a janitor, in middle school for the site. So I have held just about every, position within a clinical research setting. I did a short stint in finance. I worked for a large commercial bank for about five years and then made my way back into research. I just. Couldn't get away from it. And so went back to the family business. It was promptly sold a year later to private equity. we became very suddenly 11 fully owned site group with a business development arm of about 50 contracted sites throughout the us. I stayed with them for about four years and then made the transition to BioClinica around the time where they purchased a very large site network, in Florida, but also had research centers in Europe, Latin America, a freestanding, dedicated research site in Hong Kong and a network of 200 hospitals that they partnered with in mainland China. I stayed with them for about another. Two and a half years and then was approached by Headlands. We were really, for all intents and purposes, a startup at that point by in an investment by KKR in October of 2018. I joined as the first employee under the then CEO, and today we've built and grown the network to. 23 research centers over 650 employees, and recently just, went through a recap to THL, which is our new financial partner. We're really excited to see, where we go into the future. But, I hope that, lends itself to maybe my history and experience within the.

Jimmy Bechtel 2:52

Thank you Lauren. and thank you for the background on Headlands as well. it's really important context for a lot of what we're gonna talk about today. As you mentioned, Headlands has really grown from those individual research sites to a decent sized, network. And I know you guys span a lot of different capabilities. But I guess we'll kind of start things off with a little bit of a, a broad, big question here. What is this evolution again from those individual sites to a large network? Taught you about the balance between that local site, that smaller institution, identity to that growth that comes with sort of that concept of centralized deficiencies and, and multiple different locations.

Lauren Chazal 3:32

Jimmy, that's an excellent question and it's a tough one to answer. you know, one of the most precious things about our space is the culture that we develop at our single sites. we are incredibly passionate about patients and bringing additional care options to them as part of what we do on a daily basis. We are truly bringing life-saving drugs to market, and that resonates. specifically with single sites. So when you start to bring those sites together as part of a larger organization, there's such a balance between keeping that individual site culture and then also bringing in best practices to produce the highest quality data for our sponsor partners at scale. I am a big believer that not all sites need to be homogenized, especially within a large network. There's a certain, TA structure or physician culture that's been developed specifically in a city or a single site that needs to be maintained as they become part of this larger network. And then implementing those centralized functions in order to support the site. So they can focus in on what they do best, which is seeing patients running clinical research trials and showing up with a huge passion every single day.

Jimmy Bechtel 4:53

That's great. Lauren, you know what I think is really interesting and important about what you mentioned is kind of that culture perpetuity, right? so building this really important, because as you kind of alluded to, it's one of the differentiating factors or even one might say, competitive advantages that certain organizations are gonna have over others, in this clinical research space. And it translates. Into so many different aspects of the business, that culture, that foundational who we are and what we do and why we do what we do. Then being able to replicate that or scale that across the organization as you, so astutely mentioned is such a critical piece to success and to growth effectively and not being disjointed because. If you, you know, the headlands will just continue to use you as an example, the headlands identity. If, you know, a sponsor's working with one site and then they go to work with another and it just feels disjointed or, the culture's different. And that translates into, countless different ways in which you would see differentiation there. As opposed to centralization that can really start to cause problems. So I guess the takeaway for me, from what you said is really establishing and scaling that culture and what comes along with that is really important to that growth, that evolution.

Lauren Chazal 6:08

Yeah. Jiv spot on. So what I think we've done, and part of the reason I joined in on the Headlands team really early on was the fact that we were so. People focus. So making sure that we were preserving the individuals that made our acquisitions or site partnerships a success in perpetuity essentially. And obviously we're not, forcing them to stay with us, but incenting them, through leadership roles and the ability to influence. Other sites within the network in a meaningful way, whether that be TA expansion or just sharing best practices, maintaining that leadership specifically from these amazing sites that we've purchased to help it continue to influence the culture at the site that they joined us at. But also, throughout the network has been one of the keys to our success as we've grown as a network We've stepped away from sites, that unfortunately, wanted to leave early on within that partnership. And, you know, it may or may not have been the right decision, but, at the end of the day, we stepped true to what we believed in and I think that's helped maintain our culture and a sense of community amongst our sites as we continue to grow.

Jimmy Bechtel 7:22

It's an excellent point, Lauren, and I think a key something for the listeners to really lean into and look and kind of take a step back and say, you know, how does this apply to my organization? But I wanna lean into that scale a little bit more and that scaling of consistency across to access and the concept of bringing more diverse patient populations into the clinical trial. So what strategies have helped you expand? While maintaining quality and patient focus across all of your sites.

Lauren Chazal 7:55

I think we can all agree that drug development should have all races, ethnicities, ages included. we are not doing, our job as clinical researchers if we do not include all of these individuals as part of the drug development process. So for us it's been a focus very early on in the inception of headlands, but also just a focus of mine, generally for my career. We, not only invested in the, clinical research centers in geographically diverse locations, but also put into partnerships early on. And, you know, the Pfizer partnership is very much public knowledge around our investments specifically in growing de novo sites in diverse areas. And so going to the patients where they're located, but then also working with Pfizer to invest in community liaisons and other tactics at the site in order to encourage diverse ethnically races, ages, participation in clinical research trials. So, you know, again, there's no silver bullet. For this. There is not one panacea, you know, solution to accessing diverse patient population so very much. Bespoke to each one of the sites that we're working with, and we have an individual catered plan to ensuring that we're reaching those diverse patient populations in a meaningful way across our sites as part of what we just do on a day-to-day basis.

Jimmy Bechtel 9:16

Absolutely Lauren. It's so important and so critical that we maintain that aspect and again, it kind of goes back to what we were saying. It's like that scale and that buildability around what it means to do that and building that as a core focus into our organizations. Right. There is no, we shouldn't approach research without the mentality of we need to enable it for everyone that needs to be accessible for everybody. So how do we continue to build our organizations and as you said, those, you know, bring in or support or enable these new sites, these in Novo sites into our work. Our partnership. In any way, shape or form, whether it be under a model like what Headlands has or, or frankly, any other, to enable that and really build that patient focus into the core of what we do.

Lauren Chazal 10:02

Absolutely. It needs to be built into everyday activities into the protoplasm of the site. It really needs to be embedded in, such a way that it's, unavoidable to just continue to reach out to those patient populations. So, absolutely.

Jimmy Bechtel 10:17

So running a network involves, as we know Lauren, both scientific and commercial realities when we talk about the research aspect of things, but also the business aspect of things as well. And we have to be able to manage both of those. so then what do you think sponsors or other partners overlook or maybe brush to the side when it comes to the business aspect? The business side of site operations?

Lauren Chazal 10:43

Yeah, it's tough. I think all of us may even show up to our jobs if, we didn't really have a business to run. But, we do, we have a business to run on a day-to-day basis. So I think some of the things that we've run into is, really when we're talking about study level activities, sponsors understanding that what they do truly affects the patients. And, you know, a great example of this is, when, a sponsor closes the study, say midday. We have oftentimes patients that are coming in closer to the end of the day that have taken off work or obtained childcare to be part of the clinical research trial. And it is disruptive and, ultimately a bad experience for them. being called up, say middle of the day when they're already on the way to the research center. To take part in a clinical research trial and, all of a sudden it's kind of pulled out from underneath them. So just consideration around those types of activities. And while that affects the patient, it also affects the business because ultimately patients choose us to be a part of their clinical care. They don't have to come into us but choose us. In order to be seen by excellent doctors to be part of a clinical research trial, to be part of something that's bigger than themselves, and so ultimately making that the most attractive option for them, and also making it. Easy is ultimately going to make our business successful. And then obviously the sponsor successful in gathering data that they need to go to the FDA. So, I was just making sure that we're thinking about through those things when we're talking about, trial design and ultimately closing out a trial because we've met our enrollment goals because what we're doing on that trial affects potential recruitment for the next trial and the next trial after that. So maintaining a really great experience for our patients is gonna benefit us all.

Jimmy Bechtel 12:34

I agree, Lauren, it's such an important perspective for us to maintain and humble ourselves around and rally around is that these patients choose to come into our clinics and participate in clinical trials. Sometimes one could juxtapose that argument with, well, sometimes it's the only choice we have, but at the same time, we should be honored that we are able to be that. ultimate choice, and give them the best experience possible. And sometimes the complexities, around that, get overlooked and the challenges that we face from the business side of administering those things is really tough. But if we continue to rally around, I think that's part of the reason why, when we host our site Solutions Summit, we always have a patient voice that's part of those panels. Because to me and to the rest of the SRS team, that's really the rallying point around why we're here, why we exist, why we continue to drive forward. It's a reminder, but it's also that reality check for all of us around what that means to be so that when we then go and embark. On the rest of those experiences and those touchpoint, those conversations, those challenges, and we face those challenges, we can rally again around, well we're doing this for the patient, so how can we work together to make this happen so that it can benefit this patient, but also patients of the future that will benefit from these medicines downstream.

Lauren Chazal 13:57

Absolutely. And we shall be patient centric. you know, obviously that's been something that we've all been, you know, just as an industry we are very, essentially patient focused and patient centric. And I think we're reaching this climax, as you said earlier, as a community where there's a lot of physicians retiring and we've spoken to a lot of sponsors and they're open to bringing on new investigators and, grooming these individuals as part of, an entrance into this space and really making sure that they are, well suited for the industry But I would encourage sponsors to be open, continue to be open to new investigators. the more individuals that we get involved in the research space, the better we are off as a community because educationally we have now expanded the scope. And I think that's one thing that we've struggled with for years is that you know, people don't. Know about clinical research. We all know about it because we love it and it's like, you know, we live it and breathe it every single day of our lives. But, we're still in a position where we really need to educate the general community that, clinical research is a part of your healthcare option, your healthcare care suite. And so the more physicians that we get involved as part of our research community, the better off we are. ultimately bringing in additional investigators is such a great thing. So, that is another point that I would say is maybe less patient focus, but also really important to the success of our industry long term.

Jimmy Bechtel 15:23

Absolutely Lauren. it's a great follow up point. I couldn't agree more with you on that. So we'll begin to conclude our conversation here. But I do have one final question. As we. Continue to consolidate and evolve and what it means to be a research site looks very different now than it did five years ago, let alone 10 years ago. So as we look to this new era and knowing what we know and seeing the direction that the industry is heading from a site perspective, what advice would you give site leaders who want to grow sustainably? But not lose that patient-centered mission. And again, I think you've touched on a lot of different ways to do that, but I guess kind of in summary here, or directionally, if you were to kind of put a pin in one or two, or three really solid foundational things, what advice would you give.

Lauren Chazal 16:11

Yeah, no, that's a, I was gonna say, I don't know if there's a fix all solution for that, but, if you, I was gonna say, if you are continuing to, you know, be a individual single site, or a, you know, a single few sites just making sure that you're thinking outside the box on how we access patients, how we're building culture at the site. I feel like we've done some of the same things For 30 plus years as we did, in my, parents research center back in the day. And so making sure that we're constantly evolving and then making sure obviously our staff and our patients are in the forefront of those activities. Right. And then if you should decide to join a network, if you decide that that's the path that you're on and you're ready to pursue that, choose your partner carefully. it's a marriage. you're getting into, a partnership with somebody that you wanna have aligned values with. You wanna make sure that you have, similar goals in mind for the future. And so, taking your time, don't feel pressured to join. somebody that. may or may not be the right fit for you. So really taking that seriously and, ensuring it's the right person, long term or the right partner, long term, is crucial to success.

Jimmy Bechtel 17:26

That's great Lauren, and I think that's a really great place for us to conclude our conversation and, rally around those points here. Thank you for sharing some of headlands secret sauce and some of what you do. I mean, I joke right, it's secret sauce, but it's also very. Foundational and very unassuming it's sometimes it's the basics. it's those things around culture and patient centricity, that really lend itself to success. And it sounds easier, I think, than it actually is in practice. we like to throw those words around and everyone throws them around. So they become very, we become very jaded on what it means to truly do that. I think as an industry. But it's great to see an evidence, some organizations like Headlands that have had success in that space and, have then grown into the organizations and that of the size and scale that you are. So, thank you for being here with us and sharing again some of your insights.

Lauren Chazal 18:18

Yeah. Jimmy, thank you so much for inviting me and we have loved being part of the SCRS community. we're scr, SERS for life or life, let's be honest. Yeah. So, yeah, and I was gonna say, I, you know, I'm an open book. Anybody who's listening to this podcast, feel free to, you know, connect with me on LinkedIn or reach out. Always happy to talk about the industry. We're all, You know, friends in this space and happy, to, you know, again, provide my advice, but also maybe learn something from you, should you reach out. So thank you so much, and have a great rest of your week everyone.

Jimmy Bechtel 18:51

Well, thank you Lauren. And absolutely. It was my pleasure. Be with you here today and then talk with you. And I hope everyone listening makes sure that they check out additional site focused resources made available to our entire community on our website, my scrs.org, including other podcasts, but also opportunities to engage and learn from partners like Lauren and Headlands at our Site Solutions Summit, taking place throughout the duration of the year. So with that, thank you for listening, tuning in, and until next time.

Lauren Chazal 19:20

Thanks, bye.