US Clinical Researcher of the Year 2013 Competition Seeks Entries

Senior clinical executives from top pharmaceutical companies, including AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), alongside leading contract research organizations and representatives from the Association of Clinical Research Professionals (ACRP) and CenterWatch, met recently to set the quality standards and define the competencies for a global competition to recognize and encourage talented researchers in North and South America.

"The US Clinical Researcher of the Year competition highlights and celebrates the utmost levels of professionalism that clinical researchers are contributing to the ethical and responsible conduct of research on the treatments of tomorrow," says Jim Thomasell, executive director of ACRP, which serves as a competition partner and sponsor.

The case-study nature of the competition means participants and the organizations supporting them have no concerns over sharing sensitive information regarding their day-to-day work. Importantly, competitors can test their skills and knowledge within the protected environment of an industry competition.

"There are very few opportunities for professionals to benchmark their skills within a protected environment, where quality standards are established and judged by senior industry peers," notes Sean Morgan-Jones, director of PharmaTimes, which organizes the competition. "The aims of the competition are three-fold. Firstly to provide development for research professionals, secondly to help organizations benchmark with peer organizations, and finally to deliver broader industry insights and learning that can be disseminated through PharmaTimes' many communications platforms to a global community."

"This is a fantastic opportunity for the clinical research enterprise to showcase its most talented people," adds Carol Parish, senior director for clinical development and head for the European Union and Emerging Markets Asia Pacific for Stiefel, a GSK company. "Although it takes a little effort, and the competition is designed to challenge individuals, people do also seem to have fun and enjoy the finals day."

This was reiterated by Kelly McKee, a member of the MSD team that scooped the title of PharmaTimes Clinical Research Team of the Year 2012, who says: "This competition was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed embracing the challenge, thinking on my feet, and catching some of the energy from the other teams."

The executive steering committee's first task was to agree on quality standards for the first phase of the competition, an online multiple-choice questionnaire based on International Conference on Harmonization/Good Clinical Practice/Food and Drug Administration regulatory guidelines and ratified by lead examiners from ACRP. Skills and competencies will then be tested in a real-life challenge prepared by the executive steering group, and up to 10 of the best candidates from each of the five categories will then be invited to the finals to present to a panel of senior industry judges.

The finals take place on November 7 in Cary, N.C., at the global headquarters of competition partner SAS, with the awards ceremony to announce the winners taking place later that day at the Umstead Hotel, situated within the SAS campus.

Finalists will compete head-to-head for each of the competition titles, including top Study Nurse/Clinical Research Coordinator, New CRA (with less than four years of experience), Experienced CRA (with more than four years of experience), Project Manager, and Clinical Research Team.

Find out more or enter by visiting www.usclinicalresearcher.com or contacting Hannah Smith at [email protected].