Dictionary.com defines the noun as: a supportive system of sharing information and services among individuals and groups having a common interest and the verb as: to cultivate people who can be helpful to one professionally, especially in finding employment or moving to a higher position.
I take it a step further by merging the two definitions in the forming of FOCM Networking. This is a site (system) for sharing information and services among individuals who have a diverse range of interests for the purpose of helping each other more than just professionally, but also socially and financially.
Category: Networking
What is networking?
Dictionary.com defines the noun as: a supportive system of sharing information and services among individuals and groups having a common interest and the verb as: to cultivate people who can be helpful to one professionally, especially in finding employment or moving to a higher position.
I take it a step further by merging the two definitions in the forming of FOCM Networking. This is a site (system) for sharing information and services among individuals who have a diverse range of interests for the purpose of helping each other more than just professionally, but also socially and financially.
The GLSA | FOCM Networking Event on Wednesday, August 17th, 2022 at 5:00 PM EST was expectedly light in attendance with many of our friends and colleagues taking a well-earned break during these summer months.
Our guest speaker, Michael O’Gorman, CEO of Life Science Marketplace, treated us to a demonstration on how to use his innovative pricing tool for Sponsors and Vendors to connect and access more information, providing a more competitive bidding experience and allowing vendors to highlight their strengths and set themselves apart from the majority.
Our own Chris Matheus and Denise McNerney were attending a live event that GLSA and FOCM Networking were co-hosting with ProTrials Research in Raleigh, NC at the AC Hotel Level 7 Rooftop Bar and thus did not join our virtual meeting.
For those who missed the event and would like to learn how to buy and sell with Michael’s platform, please feel free to watch the video:
Insert video link here:
For more information or to schedule a more in-depth demonstration please contact “>Hannah Lloyd or fill out this form and we will be happy to assist you.
Let’s continue to reinforce our collective goal to improve patients’ lives across the globe. If you would like to present briefly on an educational life sciences topic and spur our event discussions, please leave a comment below and I’ll reach out as soon as possible. Our next event is scheduled for September 21 and CoolChain has been invited to discuss how how to ship and maintain temperature controlled shipments with eco-friendly reusable cold chain shipping containers.
Attendees included people from these organizations:
biomedWorx, Life Science Marketplace, Cmed Clinical Services, Curebase, EmVenio as well as several GLSA staff.
The GLSA | FOCM Networking Event on Wednesday, July 20th, 2022 at 5:00 PM EST was a lively affair boasting a diverse crowd of life science professionals. Many who attended were the previous colleagues and / or the current friends of Chris Matheus (FOCM, President; GLSA Chief Commercial and Networking Officer).
The topic of the day was “Summer Fun” due to the prevalence of the industry to go semi-dormant in July and August to accommodate the well-deserved vacations of its workers. The introduction, led by Chris, briefly spoke of former events which usually involved the related capabilities or education topic of a guest speaker to spur industry-related discussions and aid in collaboration among the group. He expressed the intention of this event to be focused more on the personal activities and vacations of attendees in order to keep our minds on the relaxation of these summer months.
To nobody’s surprise, we couldn’t stay away from discussing work including the most recently held conferences; BIO International Convention in San Diego, CA and DIA Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL with a specific mention about the limited presence of sponsors. An outbreak of Coronavirus at these events and the apparently foul-tasting Paxlovid medicine used to treat moderate cases of COVID sparked conversation about who among us has contracted the virus and the varying degrees by which each individual was affected.
Andrew Mulchinski stated that Symbio hasn’t fully adapted to DCT yet, sparking the post-quarantine observations of many regarding the transition to decentralized and hybrid studies. Chris noted a number of CRO’s that have changed leadership or have been acquired by other companies.
By far the most celebratory moment of the event was the announcement of the recent success of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in a small clinical trial using immunotherapy. They achieved 100% remission of rectal cancer without the use of surgery, chemotherapy or radiation that can leave patients with life-long effects including infertility and colostomy bags.
Let’s continue to reinforce our collective goal to improve patients’ lives across the globe. If you would like to present briefly on an educational life sciences topic and spur our event discussions, please contact me.
Attendees: (first time attendees in bold)
Kimberly Lupo, MS, MBA, RAC
Founder & CEO at Portrett Pharmaceuticals LLC
Sara Tylosky
CEO, Farmacon
Nadia M. Bracken
Operational Advisor, Medidata
Brian Horan
CEO & Co-founder, SupplyRx
Tina Tran
Director, Business Development, Unlearn.ai
Heather Hollick
Rizers LLC; Author of “Helpful, A guide to life, careers and the art of networking”
Amy Zastawney
Seeking a new executive business development role
Jon Matheus
Commercial Real Estate, A.T. Pancrazi Real Estate Services
Unnat Patel
Founder & President, AnalysisMate
Peter Payne
Life Sciences Executive – Available for Consulting
Griffin Robertson
Partner Account Manager, Mednet
Nancy Zeleniak
Enterprise Strategic Partnerships & Participant Engagement; Atrium Health
Dhruv Wadhwa
Director of Business Development, HUMA
Michael Young
Founder & Principal, BIOMedworx
Scott Robertson
Vice President of Sales, Global Partnerships; Mednet
Ravipal Luthra, MS, BDS
Clinical Research Coordinator, University of Miami, Miller Medical Center
Andrew Mulchinski, MPA, MT, ASCP, CCRC
Business Development; Symbio, LLC
Lani Hashimoto
Associate Director Patient Engagement Management; Novartis
Amanda Putnam
Team Lead Manager; Data Recognition Corporation
Michael O’ Gorman
CEO and Founder at Life Science Marketplace
Eliana Burke
Global Head of Client Engagement & Marketing; Greenlight Clinical
Michael Minor
EVP, Clinical Research; IMA Clinical Research
Vaibhav Sawant
Pharma Marketing Executive
GLSA ATTENDEES
Denise McNerney
Chief Operations Officer
Hannah Lloyd
Account Manager
Zulma Varela
Director of Public Communications
Sally Haller
Operations Manager
Todd Neilson
Account Manager
Joe Buser
Chief Revenue Officer
Chris Matheus
Chief Commercial and Networking Officer
Yutong Liang
Intern, Data Management and Technology
Screen shots of the event follow:
Break out roomsScreen shot at 5:456:02 p.m. screenshot
On May 18, the GLSA and FOCM held their monthly online networking event. We always start the meeting with some time for people to give an update on any news they’re heard or a significant event that has happened in the past month. Then we move to a featured presenter for 10 – 15 minutes presenting information about themselves, their company or a clinical research topic of relevance to them or to the industry.
This event featured Alison Macpherson, CEO and Founder of Bright Pharmaceutical Services, a full service CRO headquartered in Los Angeles. Bright is celebrating their 20th year in business. http://www.brightps.com/
Alison talked about her experiences starting out in the clinical trials industry and how that led to her forming Bright with a boutique sponsor-centric approach and a focus on subject recruitment and retention. The company has worked in a variety of therapeutic areas and all phases of research. Its differentiators from other similar sized CRO’s is the very low turnover (less than 5%) over the 20 years in business, which means clients’ projects are supported by only very experienced and engaged staff. Additionally, while much of their experience is in phase I and II North America trials, they have worked in 30+ countries globally. Questions were handled as they came up leading to discussions about Bright’s experience with risk-based monitoring; the new normal of hybrid and decentralized trials; reducing the frequency of subject visits to the sites; and Bright’s experience with trials that require collecting data from wireless, connected devices, e-source data, etc.
After the presentation we had first time participants share their company names and experience. Josh Lang, Mike O’Gorman and Denise McNerney will be attending BIO in San Diego June 13 – 16. Carlos mentioned the networking event they are having on June 12 in San Diego for people interested in Farmacon Global’s August 25 conference focused on conducting clinical trials in Rare Diseases in Emerging Markets.In posing this question to the group – what are you working on and what do you need help with, Heather Hollick (who taught me this approach for successful networking) mentioned she is starting the Institute for Vibrant Leadership and could use connections to leaders, coaches with whom to collaborate as well as writers and virtual assistants. Subsequently, a few potential connection candidates have been sent to her. https://heatherhollick.com/
Attendees (bolded names indicate first time attendees):
Alison Macpherson, Bright Pharma Services
Heather Hollick, Rizers LLC; Author of “Helpful, A guide to life, careers and the art of networking”
Nicole O’Brien, Pain Care Labs
Josh Lang, Asymchem Group Barbara Hilewsky, BRCR Global Shane Krauss, Strados Labs Carlos Martinez, Farmacon Global David Holland, Cmed Research Michael O’Gorman, Life Science Marketplace Keisha Felix, IQVIA Ludmilla Scodeler Jim Choi, CRScube Cesar Serapiao Chris Matheus, Global Life Sciences Alliance
Sally Haller, Global Life Sciences Alliance
Denise McNerney, Global Life Sciences Alliance
Hannah Lloyd, Global Life Sciences Alliance
Todd Neilson, Global Life Sciences Alliance
Zulma Varela, Global Life Sciences Alliance
Several screen shots follow:
Bright Pharma Services
Screenshot of May 18 2022 eventScreen shot of May 18 2022 event
I am most definitely playing catch up with posts – but I’ve always been a strong believer or follower of the “better late than never” philosophy.
Here’s a picture of Bryan Clayton and Tope Keyes at a January 2017 Healthtech event. I’ve seen them both recently as we’re returning to in -person conferences and networking events.
Bryan Clayton and Tope Keyes
and this next photo may have been taken at the same event – at least I do know it was also taken in January of 2017. Brian Langin, Nithiya Ananthakrishnan, Deb Jendrasek and Rob Nichols. Please note neither Brian nor Rob have registration badges – it’s possible their attendance involved using the time honored Business Development technique known as “the Strand” or “the Langin”.
Brian Langin, Nithiya Ananthakrishnan, Deb Jendrasek, Rob Nichols
On April 20, the GLSA and FOCM held their monthly online networking event. We always start the meeting with a featured presenter spending 10 – 15 minutes presenting information about themselves and a clinical research topic of relevance to them or to the industry.
This event featured Amy Baxter, MD; CEO and Founder of Pain Care Labs. PCL’s NIH-funded pain relief device is an ingenious intervention to reduce needle pain and fear. https://paincarelabs.com/
Amy presented information on research results showing the incidence of needle fear among Americans. Research shows that 25% of Americans are adverse to needles. This is playing a role in the slower than desired vaccination rates against COVID-19.
Needle fear has increased dramatically since 1995 when it was reported that 10% of adults and 25% of children feared needles. Prior to 1980, children’s last vaccination was at age 2, except for DPT boosters every 10 years. Since 1980, children receive booster injections between the ages of 4 and 6, when fears form. A study in 2012 from Canada shows 63% of people born after 2012 have needle phobia.
Pain Care Labs has developed Buzzy for the management of needle phobia. This combines the distraction of cold with deep vibration which blocks the pain signal. Managing needle phobia is important for increasing vaccination rates among people of all ages. It can also play a role in clinical research if a clinical trial is a vaccine trial or a protocol requiring multiple needle-sticks, Such trials may have higher drop-out rates or decline to enroll due to the subjects’ fear.
After the presentation, there were questions, answers and discussions. We then allowed newer participants the opportunity to tell us about their history in the industry and ask how the group can be of help. Additionally, after the event Heather Hollick shared observations about what makes the GLSA online networking events work so well is:
Starting with initial casual conversation
Having a 15-20 minute learning session
Breaking into groups of 2-4 people several times so all can meet each other and share what they’re working on
Ending with closing remarks, comments and observations.
Online networking requires light moderation, because we’re missing body language for our cue as to who is to speak next.
Amy provided a good suggestion that we start these with a general ice breaker, a question or topic each can respond to. We’ll begin implementing that for our July event. The July and August events will be light-hearted and casual, imagine sipping a cocktail on a beachside outdoor deck with friends. In September, we’ll return to focused topics/presentations after the general ice breaker and before break out networking.
Attendees (bolded names indicate first time attendees): Amy Baxter, MD; Pain Care Labs Nicole O’Brien; Pain Care Labs Peter Payne; Consultant David Rodrin; IMA Clinical Research Daniel Paszterko; Myonex Ari Cofini; VeriSIM Life Neil Banerjee; QMS Integrity Nancy Zeleniak; Atrium Health Mike Minor; IMA Clinical Research Brittany Barber, Syneos Health Nicole Aubrey; Aubrey Cole Consulting Maria Frane, Simbec-Orion Ravipal Luthra, University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine Heather Hollick, Rizers LLC; Author of “Helpful, A guide to life, careers and the art of networking” Mike O’Gorman, Life Science Marketplace Edwin Gershom, Noble Life Sciences Hannah Lloyd, Global Life Sciences Alliance Denise McNerney, Global Life Sciences Alliance Joe Buser, Global Life Sciences Alliance Zulma Varela, Global Life Sciences Alliance Sally Haller, Global Life Sciences Alliance
Screenshots from the event:
Screenshot with Teddy in center squareAmy Baxter, MD; CEO & Founder of Pain Care LabsNeedle Fear StatisticsBuzzy for needle painScreenshot of AttendeesScreenshot of Attendees
I’m at the age where family, friends and acquaintances are passing away at greater frequency. It’s a part of life and comes as no surprise. That knowledge doesn’t make the grief of such events any less painful. Recently the world lost one of its great people – Karen Key. My soul is deeply sad at Karen’s passing.
There are a few people I’ve known in my life that I describe as “larger than life”. I’d seen that descriptive phrase for years in books I read and didn’t truly grasp the meaning of it. My friend, Peter Holthe who was the impetus, actually the creator for FOCM – the website, events, etc was “larger than life”. It was after his passing that I truly appreciated the phrase. At Peter’s memorial service, his college room-mate Byron Pitts was in attendance. In Byron’s autobiography “Step out on Nothing” there is a portion wherein he describes how much Peter helped him in college.
Karen is also a member of this elite group of rare individuals who touch your life and impact it forever. Her consistent kindness, respect for others, sincere and contagious enthusiasm, love of America coupled with her joy at having fun, smiling and laughing are what I think of and how I will remember Karen.
We met while working at Burroughs Wellcome Co., a unique pharmaceutical company founded in the UK in 1880. It was purchased in 1995 by Glaxo, which subsequently merged with SmithKlineBeecham to become GlaxoSmithKline. I think I met Karen in 1985 while we were both in Sales Representative Trainer Training class. My territory was in southern California and hers was the Raleigh-Durham, NC area.
We both came into the home office/headquarters around the same time. Senior management could tell early on that she was special – one of those people who excel at whatever they are assigned.
We weren’t in touch much in our post-coworker era but our friendship was one of those where that wasn’t necessary. In the most recent 10 years we were back in touch and saw each other more. I had a memorable stay with she and Donna and other BW alumni at their Hyco Lake house. She helped me get my dog Micah into the kayak so I could paddle him around.
On March 16, the GLSA and FOCM held their monthly online networking event. We start the meeting with a featured presenter spending 10 – 15 minutes presenting information about themselves and a clinical research topic of relevance to them.
This event featured Wessam Sonbol, founder of Delve Health. Wessam has been in the clinical research industry for 23 years. Many of these years have been in leadership and founding roles in the technology and product development to facilitate trials. He founded Delve Health in 2018. Delve Health provides innovative decentralized clinical trial solutions to improve clinical trial conduct for patients, caregivers, doctors and pharma/device. Offerings include ePRO/eCOA, eConsent, study tasks, wearables and biosensor integration, EMR data collection and Real-world evidence capabilities.
After the presentation, there were questions, answers and discussions. We then allowed newer participants the opportunity to tell us about their history in the industry and the group can be of help.
Attendees (bolded names indicate first time attendees):
Wessam Sonbol, Delve Health
Andrew Mulchinski, Symbio Research
Ravipal Luthra, University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine
Heather Hollick, Rizers LLC; Author of “Helpful, A guide to life, careers and the art of networking”
Michael Young, biomedwoRx: Life Sciences Consulting
Mike O’Gorman, Life Science Marketplace
Edwin Gershom, Noble Life Sciences Taylor Biche, Global Life Sciences Alliance Holly Cliffe, Global Life Sciences Alliance
Todd Neilson, Global Life Sciences Alliance
Hannah Lloyd, Global Life Sciences Alliance
Denise McNerney, Global Life Sciences Alliance
Joe Buser, Global Life Sciences Alliance
Zulma Varela, Global Life Sciences Alliance
Sally Haller, Global Life Sciences Alliance
Please join us on April 20 where the featured presenter will be Amy Baxter, MD; CEO and Founder of Pain Care Labs. PCL’s NIH-funded pain relief device is an ingenious intervention to reduce needle pain and fear – improving patient participation in clinical trials.
Selected screen shots appear below:
Delve Health PresentingScreenshot #1Screen shot #3Screenshot with Teddy in lower leftScreenshot #2
Yes ’tis true I am only 8 years behind in posting photos of members captured at various conferences.
This photo was taken at ASCO in June of 2014 in Chicago. American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) has been held in June in Chicago for many, many years. It is one of the largest Oncology focused conferences. It draws medical and clinical oncologist, oncology RNs, oncology NPs and PAs. The exhibit hall is huge and takes place at McCormick Center in Chicago.
I was working at YPrime at the time and was fortunate to be selected to attend. One of the things I love about conferences is running into friends and former co-workers. In most cases, its both. This time I ran into two of my favorites: Erica Hill and Sue Ruane. I’d met them both while working at ICON Clinical Research.
On February 16, 2022, the Global Life Sciences Alliance along with FOCM Networking held its monthly online drug and medical device development industry networking event. This was the second event of 2022 and like the January event, we again had 3 first-time attendees. Thank you to super-connector and FOCM member, Nadia Bracken for sharing our event with others.
We spent the first 15 minutes with introductions and general discussion about the weather in various attendees’ cities.
This event featured a presentation by Kalyan Ghosh, Founder and CEO of Inference, Inc (https://inferenceinc.com/). Inference, a GLSA client, was formed in 2017 by Kalyan. He has over 25 years experience in clinical biostatistics, having worked at both big pharma (Merck and BMS) and CROs (Vislation, INC Research and West Coast Clinical Trials). Kalyan is an accomplished presenter and presented an overview of biostatistics and the role that data management and biostatistics have in drug development.
Please join us next month on March 16 at 7:00 p.m. Wessam Sonbol, CEO of Delve Health, an e-clinical technology platform service provider and client of GLSA will spend 10 – 15 minutes talking about their approach to patient-centered hybrid and decentralized studies in drug development.
ATTENDEES (bolded names were first time attendees):
Kalyan Ghosh, Inference Inc, Andy Mulchinski, Symbio Justin Gundelach, Mayo Clinic Pauline Luong, Creative Clinical R & D Chris Bergey, NaviDx Brian Langin, Matrix Medical Ravipal Luthra, University of Miami College of Medicine Jon Matheus, A.T. Pancrazi Real Estate Services, Inc. Chris Matheus, Global Life Sciences Alliance & FOCM Denise McNerney, Global Life Sciences Alliance Joe Buser, Global Life Sciences Alliance Zulma Varela, Global Life Sciences Alliance Holly Cliffe, Global Life Sciences Alliance Sally Haller, Global Life Sciences Alliance Hannah Lloyd, Global Life Sciences Alliance Todd Nielson, Global Life Sciences Alliance
On January 19, 2022, the Global Life Sciences Alliance along with FOCM Networking held its monthly online drug and medical device development industry networking event. This was the first event of the new year and we had 3 first-time attendees.
We kept everyone in one main room and went around the room having each person introduce themselves. There was an open dialog and discussion on a variety of topics: expectations for COVID cases and treatments, the impact on travel and conventions/conferences and hopes for it to lessen and burn out and become similar to seasonal flu. The concern for another variant that could put us into strict measures is real yet the thought of having to deal with that makes us tired.
Heal Mary, (https://healmaryapp.com/) a GLSA client is an oncology patient recruitment platform founded by Cassandra Hui. Cass is from the tech industry and she started Heal Mary driven by her personal story: “My mom was told to go home and get her affairs in order, that there were no other options… I’ve made it my mission to ensure that patients know ALL of their options.” We showed a video of Cass explaining the motivation for starting Heal Mary using her tech and Artificial Intelligence skills to make sure patients know of treatment options available via clinical trials. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLB_CmGY3-trX3rKePF0FWw
Please join us next month on February 16. Kalyan Ghosh of Inference, a data management and biostatistics service provider and client of GLSA will spend 10 minutes talking about the role of data management and biostatistics in drug development.
ATTENDEES (bolded names were first time attendees):
Heather Hollick, Rizers, LLC; Author of “Helpful, A guide to life, careers and the art of networking” Mike Burrows, Burrows Life Science Associates Kate Findlen, Life Molecular Imaging Kimberly Lupo, Portrett Pharmaceuticals Mike O’Gorman, Life Science Marketplace Andy Mulchinski, Symbio Brian Langin, Matrix Medical Charlie Speno, Matrix Medical Michael W. Young, biomedwoRx: Life Sciences Consulting Chris Matheus, Global Life Sciences Alliance & FOCM Denise McNerney, Global Life Sciences Alliance Joe Buser, Global Life Sciences Alliance Zulma Varela, Global Life Sciences Alliance Holly Cliffe, Global Life Sciences Alliance Hannah Lloyd, Global Life Sciences Alliance
