Enabling excellence in clinical trial research services through collaborative working
Frontier Science Scotland prides itself on its collaborative working approach to providing clinical research services to our international clients that has been proven to yield successful project results. We’ve come up with a neat little approach that has proven itself many times over in boosting collaborative working efficacy, to help improve clinical development success rates and bring novel treatments to patients faster. We call it ‘Keep CAALM and Carry On Doing Clinical Trials’. The CAALM acronym at the heart of our approach breaks down as follows:
Communicate
It’s good to talk. Ensuring clear communication channels are established, both internally and with external collaborators, provides better results. Solid communication makes projects more robust, allowing partners to continuously align project information, such as values, vision, updates, roles and responsibilities etc., among partners. Plus, reactivity times improve, which is especially valuable in clinical trials, as every day counts.
Allocate
The essence of working seamlessly. To avoid the risk of collaborative working becoming demoted, organisations must recognise its value from the beginning and allocate time for collaborative working processes. This may include taking time to implement steps to get to know your partners or conducting a technology review. This step includes the allocation of roles and responsibilities, so it is crystal clear who is doing what and when.
Adapt
Rigid structures often fail. Organisations that cannot adapt as the world changes around them, including technology changes, personnel changes, and regulatory changes, become inefficient. Take time to conduct a ‘flexibility protocol’, which is internal review of your organisation to address questions such as: How is your organisation coping in the face of change? Can it adapt? To what extent is our team empowered to make decisions? Do we need policies, or an updated structure, to encourage this type of collaborative culture?
Lead
Building a collaborative working culture starts from the foundations, but this needs to be reflected at the top, too. It is one thing to ensure that partners are on the same page for project vision and values, but is your leadership team aligned too? Having leaders who stand behind a collaborative working culture can unlock many of the essential ingredients required for collaborative working, from technology updates to core time carved out for collaboration processes.
Measure
At FSS, we champion high-quality data, recognising its ability to change the world. So it should come as no surprise that that doesn’t change for collaborative working with our clients. Measuring collaborative working activities, and their outputs, can translate to future wins for your organisation, such as new funding or projects with world-leading companies that share your values. Plus, a growing body of data on collaborative working may influence sector-wide policy changes that normalise these types of partnerships.
If you are running Phase II or Phase III trials, set yourself up for success by talking to us today about advancing your drug development.
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Publications on Aphinity, ALTTO and OLYMPIA trials
OlympiA results in the subset of patients from Japan
The consistency of results between the subset of patients from Japan and the global OlympiA population supports the clinical benefit of adjuvant olaparib for patients with gBRCA1/2pv and HER2-negative, high-risk eBC in Japan after completion of local treatment and neoadjuvant or adjuvant CT.
Cardiac Safety in the APHINITY trial
ESMO Open has published an article confirming the cardiac safety of adjuvant anti-HER2 treatment with pertuzumab and trastuzumab.
Overall survival in the OlympiA trial
OlympiA demonstrates statistically significant improvement in overall survival with adjuvant olaparib compared with placebo
APHINITY | Annals of Oncology
Adjuvant pertuzumab and trastuzumab in patients with early HER-2 positive breast cancer in APHINITY: 8.4 years’ follow-up
OlympiA | ESMO Virtual Plenary Abstract | Annals of Oncology
Pre-specified event driven analysis of Overall Survival (OS) in the OlympiA phase III trial of adjuvant olaparib (OL) in germline BRCA1/2 mutation (gBRCAm) associated breast cancer
APHINITY | Journal of the National Cancer Institute (JNCI)
Impact of age on clinical outcomes and efficacy of adjuvant dual anti-HER2 targeted therapy