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I work on two trials in children which are
both taking place in Africa. My main responsibility is to
oversee the collection of data in these trials and to ensure it is
accurate. The data is collected by the trial teams in the
African centres, and they enter it on the database. I must make
sure it is entered in a timely fashion and is consistent. The
data then goes to the statistician, who might ask me to query more
things with the doctors and trial teams.
I also assist the trial manager with the
overall running of the trials. We write and update various
trial documents such as protocols and case report forms,
which are used by the doctors to record information about the
patients in the trial. We have to ensure that the trials are
running in accordance with the Good Clinical
Practice guidelines.
What does a typical day look
like?
A typical day might involve a teleconference
with the teams working in Africa, to discuss the running of the
trial, recruitment and any data queries. Sometimes important
events in the trial might be faxed through to me and I must review
these, and send them to our clinician if necessary.
I have a degree in Biology and a masters in
Epidemiology. Though these aren’t necessarily essential for
my job, they provide me with a good scientific background and the
skills needed to do my job well. I have to be very organised
with good attention to detail. A great deal of my job
involves communicating clearly, both written and orally, with many
different people. Although I work as part of team, I often
have to make decisions following guidance from trial documents,
such as manuals of Standard Operating Procedures or protocols.
There are opportunities for training relevant
to my job. This job provides me with the experience necessary
for promotion to jobs such as trial or project manager,
particularly as I work across different trials. There are
also opportunities in pharmaceutical companies or other medical
research organisations.
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