The Power of Different Perspectives

You can spend a day at a conference listening to presentations, learning about new technologies and discussing the future of clinical research. But often, it is a conversation over coffee, a question after a session or an honest exchange with someone facing the same challenges that stays with you.

These conversations matter, and they give us the chance to share experiences, challenge assumptions and understand from another perspective. They also remind us that, while we work across different organisations and parts of the industry, many of the challenges we face are shared.

Over recent months, colleagues from EMS Healthcare have attended events across the UK, Europe and the US, including SCOPE Europe, the SCRS Global Site Solutions Summit and World Vaccine Congress. The discussions have covered recruitment pressures, site relationships, AI, vaccine development and the role of community engagement in reaching participants.

These events create opportunities to explore important questions with fellow industry leaders, and next on the agenda is the CNS Summit, where EMS Healthcare CEO Dr Clare Grace will join fellow industry experts to examine how innovation can be applied in practice to drive change at site level.

For me, the value of being part of these conversations goes beyond what we learn in the room. It is about building relationships across the industry, understanding different perspectives and taking those insights back into our work, including how we connect research with communities across the UK. 

Better conversations lead to better delivery

At SCOPE Europe and the SCRS Global Site Solutions Summit, discussions around feasibility, recruitment expectations and budgets highlighted an important part of successful study delivery: getting the conversation right from the outset.

For sponsors and CROs, selecting the right sites is about understanding what delivery will involve, whether the timelines and budgets are realistic, and what each site will need to meet the study's objectives.

These conversations need to be honest and practical. Recruitment targets that look achievable on paper may not reflect the realities on the ground. Equally, sites need to be open about their capabilities, capacity and any challenges that could affect delivery. A data-driven approach to feasibility, informed by the eligible population and the practicalities of reaching them, helps sponsors and CROs make better-informed decisions before committing time and resources.

These considerations can have a direct impact on delivery and the participant experience, so they need to be part of the planning conversation, not addressed once a study is underway.

The opportunity for sponsors, CROs and sites is to challenge assumptions early, be clear about what is achievable and agree on the resources and support required. A more honest conversation at feasibility can help prevent avoidable problems later, strengthen site relationships and give a study a more realistic foundation for success.

Our LASER location intelligence system combines disease prevalence, demographic, travel and social data to identify where eligible patient populations are concentrated and pinpoint the optimal locations for each study. Combined with EMS Healthcare's understanding of local communities and established relationships with GP networks, this data-driven approach helps place research closer to the people who could take part, supporting faster enrolment and improved retention.

Trust comes from engagement

AI and innovation featured in discussions across several events, particularly their potential to support recruitment, site selection and operational decision-making.

The opportunity is to use technology to make better-informed decisions, combining data with the knowledge that comes from years of working with communities and understanding participants.

Data can help identify where potential participants may be, but it cannot tell us everything about their lives, their concerns or what might encourage them to take part. That understanding comes from listening to people, building trust and working alongside the organisations already connected to their communities.

At EMS Healthcare, our experience working across communities in the UK gives us a valuable people-led perspective to bring alongside data and technology. Combining these insights helps sponsors and CROs look beyond who might be eligible for a study to how they can meaningfully reach and engage those people.

Building these relationships takes time, and that work needs to be recognised and resourced. Discussions at SCRS highlighted the importance of funding community engagement beyond the immediate requirements of an individual study.

Innovation is most effective when technology and data are supported by real-world understanding of people. For sponsors and CROs, bringing these perspectives together can help inform recruitment strategies that are not only targeted, but grounded in the needs and experiences of the communities they aim to reach.

Innovation through collaboration

Innovation is most valuable when it translates into meaningful improvements in clinical research delivery. Across the industry, sponsors, CROs, sites and technology partners are developing new approaches to recruitment, site operations and participant engagement. Yet understanding what works in practice, overcoming barriers to adoption and sharing those learnings more widely remain essential to progress.

By coming together to understand each other’s challenges, share experience and explore solutions already being used day to day, the industry can identify what works, learn from practical experience and adopt effective approaches more widely. This collaboration is key to improving operational efficiency, reducing the burden on participants and making clinical research more accessible.

At EMS Healthcare, we believe progress comes from combining innovation with the experience of the people delivering research and the communities taking part in it. Technology and new ways of working have the greatest impact when they address real challenges and translate into better outcomes for studies and participants.

Join the conversation

Interested in how clinical research leaders are turning innovation into practical improvements at site level?

Join EMS Healthcare CEO Dr Clare Grace at CNS Summit for Innovation in Practice: How Clinical Research Leaders Are Driving Change at the Site Level on Tuesday, November 3 at 1:00-1:50 pm ET.

Chaired by Craig Lipset of the DTRA/Buffalo Initiative, the panel features Mike Wenger, Chief Innovation Officer at CRIO, Jonathan Wogel, CEO of NWEH, and Dr Clare Grace, CEO of EMS Healthcare.

The discussion will explore how the industry can overcome barriers to adoption and put proven innovations into practice to improve recruitment, operational efficiency and participant experience.

Each month, InSites draws on more than two decades of experience supporting communities across the UK, sharing what has worked, what we are learning, and what we are seeing across an evolving research landscape.

Subscribe to InSites.

Connect with Sarka Oldham on LinkedIn to stay up to date with the latest from EMS Healthcare.