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
So one day I got in the mail a note from the Lakota Sioux tribe with return address labels, so I sent them $10. I also order things from the Southwest Indian catalog and they sent me labels. I sent Easter seals $20 for some labels they sent me. This was in 2018 that I did that.
I get labels from so many places now: ASPCA, Doctors without Borders, Memorial Sloan Kettering, Southwest Reservation Aid, Susan Komen Foundation, Guideposts, Foundation, March of Dimes. I’ll never need another return address label for as long as I live.
Some also send note pads, shopping list note pads, To-do list note pads, bookmarks; it’s been great!
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
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.
So, as many of you know I am an extremely well known social media influencer*. What many of you may or may not know is that I have been dabbling in creating content for YouTube. I have even gone to the extreme of creating a character, Uncle Robby. Uncle Robby stops by to put up and take down outdoor Christmas lights.
For the cooking videos, that’s me, yep, just me, no character, simply dull me. After posting one cooking video, my brother (Jon) provided me with some brutally honest feedback and so I enrolled in an extensive series of media training courses*. I believe that my performance has improved immensely. The entire premise of this particular cooking series is to demonstrate my culinary belief that virtually any food that I enjoy can be put into a tortilla with cheese and salsa and be particularly tasty.
Leftovers from dinner the night before are especially good in a tortilla with cheese and salsa with an egg added making for a delicious breakfast burrito.
I have made a pot roast, carrots and potatoes burrito. I have made a boneless pork ribs, sauerkraut and carrots burrito. My most recent one was chopped shrimp and couscous to which I added tomatillo salsa, red chiles and red onions.
I trace this back to my childhood. I grew up in southwestern Arizona, about 10 miles from a Mexico border crossing. Mexican food was a staple, such that we didn’t even think of it that way. That the high school cafeteria had chimichangas (fried burritos) as an option everyday wasn’t noteworthy.
The great thing is I’m doing what I love to do and the various platforms on which I post things is paying me to do so. I average around $10,000 per month and am often paid to attend parties and dining events.* People ask to get their picture taken with me.+ https://focmnetworking.com/networking/focm-membership-ceremony/
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
So after 16 years of selling e-clinical technologies (technologies used in clinical trials), I felt like I had truly absorbed vast amounts of technical knowledge. After all, sales is learning some words to say in the right order to demonstrate one’s knowledge.
I know there’s probably more to it than that as there are technical sales people that have done real work and know exactly what they’re talking about. For example, I can say, yes we’ll provide you your data in a flat ASCII file. I have absolutely no idea what that means, stands for, looks like and how it happens. There are some who do know. I’m told it’s a computer file (not a manila folder file) that has rows and columns with info in each cell.
So after those 16 years I go to another e-clinical tech company and in helping prepare a proposal I demonstrate my expertise thusly by writing this:
We need some words here to describe the application architecture. The CIO is to provide some dazzling descriptions of this stuff. To help him with it, here is a start from which he can edit my text.
We utilize a three layer approach (see image below). The integration layer, known in tech language as “the back end” has a persistence layer as well as this really cool feature known as “hibernate”; similar to what bears do in the winter, the data rests in small caves until the proper conditions occur for it to be released. Herein is also a rectangle labeled DAO and another one that says Resource.
In the business layer, we utilize a spring framework, which resembles a complex set of slinkies going down a never-ending escalator. This endless loops allows for us to refresh data continuously.
For the “front-end” or presentation layer, also known as the user interface (UI) or graphical user interface (GUI – pronounced ‘gooey’), we have 5 rectangles of different sizes and the components of this layer are listed below:
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
You would have thought those first days of Covid lockdowns would have been a great time for me to try to catch up on my backlog of posts. But no, here I am during a snow storm warning in Wilmington, NC doing some catchup.
So, Mike Jones sent me this picture in June of 2014, so it had to be at a DIA Annual Convention. This is of dear friend and former co-worker at ICON Clinical Research, Robin Tuck receiving her FOCM membership card. The sheer joy on her face says it all doesn’t it? Clearly this was before I’d been taught how to edit photos by FOCM member Michelle Jacobson. She literally changed reality in front of my face by lightening and changing the contrast of a back lit photo. FOCM will provide 1 year free FOCM membership ($20 dollar value) to the first person who contacts me who will then be sent this photo, lighten it up and return it to me. Upon receipt of improved photo, the membership will be issued.
