LICR Meets Greenphire
How can we connect members of the research community?
Greenphire, an organization that works directly with leading research institutions, sites, sponsors and CROs to simplify clinical trials and facilitate stronger, more collaborative relationships, presented an interactive webinar to members of Latinos in Clinical Research (LICR).
LICR “makes the invisible visible, becoming the voice of the underrepresented community.” While its blog was created for patients, it now has 1,300 followers and will be networking on all channels. LICR is open to all ethnicities at no charge. It provides connections, resources ad content. LICR is open to people in the clinical trials industry and people considering it. Its members are involved in the group to benefit the industry as a whole. Among its missions is to let people know that Latinos are no well enough represented in the industry. English and Spanish videos and other materials are available. In the process people interested in research careers and those already in them can meet interesting people and benefit others.
Greenphire offers solutions that streamline workflows, enabling its clients to focus on providing better patient care. Greenphire focuses on improving the patient experience through financial automation. It has become the industry leader in clinical trial patient engagement. The company has been selected as the winner of the “Best Overall Patient Engagement Service” award in the fifth annual MedTech Breakthrough Awards program. The award is conducted by MedTech Breakthrough, an independent market intelligence organization that recognizes the top companies, technologies and products in the global health and medical technology market.
LICR, which was represented by Dan Sfera, Chris Sauber, Monica Cuitiva, Ashley Margo and Judy Galindo, talked about its many initiatives. They include providing scholarships, posting jobs and internships, making presentations in high schools and colleges creating a documentary, providing a career development series and developing a technical series with vendors.
LICR encourages its members to connect with clinical research professionals, be role models for new people in the field and those considering becoming part of the field and making positive changes. They do it by talking to people, getting to know them personally and helping them and their families.
Amy Sitnick, vice president, marketing, at Greenphire, said, “There has been a great impact on patients to date by having Hispanic researchers. Academies are trying to represent all populations to help the workforce to achieve diversity and expose people to the idea of clinical research. Grassroots organizations can increase diversity in the workforce. The challenge is time, with 60-hour work weeks.”
Joe Gough, solutions specialist for academic medical centers and universities, at Greenphire, added, “Research can lead to other careers such as marketing, accounting and others. It’s the best thing that has happened to me personally.”
Sitnick posed the question of how pharma sponsors can help recruitment sites. She cited grassroots efforts, educating sites by means of representatives and other resources, nationwide campaigns in English and Spanish and providing sites with materials in other languages.
Gough talked about how to get clinicians serving communities interested in clinical research. He suggested getting people trained using grassroots organizations, connecting physicians to researchers, using subcontractors and connecting doctors to sites.