Parexel & SCRS - Aligning Sites with Patient Needs to Increase Engagement

In clinical development, patient engagement is critical to success. However, when we talk about patient engagement, we can’t overlook the important role that investigative sites play in this effort. 

At Parexel, when we seek input from patients on their participation clinical trials, we frequently hear how critical their relationship with their site nurse or investigator was in their participation throughout the process and how important that relationship is even after the trial has concluded.  From those relationships, we can all glean important insights on what is needed to improve the trial experience for future patients.

Parexel has a long history of working closely with clinical trial sites and our Site Alliance Network harnesses the power of more than 500 clinical sites and 17,000 investigators to help advance our customers’ clinical research goals.  We recently announced the expansion of our partnership with the Society for Clinical Research Sites (SCRS), becoming a Site Engagement Partner and enhancing our support of sites with the ultimate goal of improving clinical trials for patients.

With the collaboration, we are proud to be the only CRO contributing to SCRS’ Diversity Initiative, “Site Awareness and Best Practices for Inclusion of Diverse Populations in Research,” along with a number of biopharmaceutical industry leaders.  This program is aimed at developing an improved understanding of the knowledge, expertise and best practices to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse population while providing solutions to assist sites in the successful inclusion of diverse patient populations in clinical research.

Additionally, the program aims to support efforts to meet FDA’s goals in improving the collection of demographic subgroup data by developing more innovative approaches to recruiting diverse patient populations.  Parexel also will host a Site Advocacy Group (SAG) focused on reducing the patient burden in clinical trials, an important and shared focus of many in our industry.

I’d like to extend a thank you to my Parexel colleagues who will be part of these important programs over the coming months. We look forward to kicking off these exciting new initiatives with SCRS, further engaging with our Site Engagement Partner colleagues and sharing the output of these discussions with our audiences. Please be sure to follow us for updates on these initiatives over the coming months.