Winners of the prestigious US Clinical Researcher of the Year competition have been announced following an intense finals day hosted by partners SAS at its global headquarters in Cary, North Carolina.
The competition, organized by PharmaTimes and supported by leading professional organizations including the Association for Clinical Research Professionals, CenterWatch and CORE, recognizes the clinical excellence of US researchers through a series of competency-based challenges reflecting real-life scenarios, which are judged by a panel of more than 30 senior industry executives.
This year, 64 finalists from 17 research institutions, global pharmaceutical companies and CROs – including the Grunberger Diabetes Institute, Children’s Medical Hospital Central California, AbbVie, Alcon, Lilly, Chiltern, Covance, INC Research, inVentiv Health Clinical, PAREXEL, PPD and PRA International – competed head-to-head for the titles.
PRA International scooped the biggest prize of the night, winning US Clinical Company of the Year for its finalists’ superb achievements across the competition. “In the hustle and bustle of our day jobs it is sometimes hard to find time to acknowledge the brilliance and expertise of our team members and what a fantastic job they do in driving forward clinical research. PRA is committed to identifying and developing extraordinary talent and is extremely pleased to be recognized in these efforts for the second year running as Clinical Company of the Year,” the company said.
Meanwhile, Covance took the top spot for Clinical Team of the Year, Narvelle Delabruere of Children’s Hospital, Central California won the Study Nurse title, Rebecca York of PPD won New CRA of the Year, Allison Tallon of INC Research took the title of Experienced CRA of the Year and Promise Lawrence of PRA International won Project Manager of the Year. As Narvelle noted: “I am so appreciative of the US Clinical Researcher competition, as it afforded me the opportunity to challenge my knowledge and application of good clinical practice and applicable federal regulations.”
Organizer of the team finals simulation Carol Parish, senior director, clinical development, head EU and EMAP, Stiefel, a GSK company, added: “It’s been a great competition this year. Everyone rose to the challenge as we really tested the team dynamic. All the team finalists were tremendous and the team that took the Pharma truly deserved their win.”
The key theme of the 2013 competition was strategic partnering. As Eileen Daniel, senior director, development operations, Endo Pharmaceuticals and new chair of the US competition’s executive committee, commented: “In every clinical program, we carry out highly regulated work across vast networks of people and motivations. To be effective, clinical researchers at sites, at CROs and at sponsor companies have to demonstrate an adeptness and a creativity in problem-solving that is a match with the depth of their technical skills. The US Clinical Researcher of the Year competition creates a unique experience that highlights and promotes these needs.”
All the winners can be found below and on our website at www. www.usclinicalresearcher.com, alongside photography and videos capturing the highlights of the competition.
“SAS was delighted to once again host the finals of the US Clinical Researcher of the Year and welcome the nation’s top clinical researchers to our global headquarters,” commented Dan Cain, senior director for SAS Health and Life Sciences. “We fully support this initiative which aims to recognize and encourage the tremendous work done by professionals within the US clinical research fraternity. SAS works closely with the life sciences industry to generate insights from the wealth of data resulting from clinical trials, and is helping to provide infrastructure to accommodate clinical trial data transparency efforts, a key initiative for the industry as regulators continue to demand more clarity and uniformity. We congratulate the finalists and winners for their tremendous achievement and wish them continued success.”
The USCR initiative represents a huge collaboration between pharma, CROs and site management organizations that are aligned around a common goal of recognizing and encouraging talented clinical research professionals. This initiative provides a wonderful exemplar of what can be achieved by cross industry collaboration and the PharmaTimes team would like to congratulate and say thank you to all of the winners, finalists, business partners and sponsors – here’s to 2014.
For a full list of finalists, winners and photographs please visit: http://www.usclinicalresearcher.com/Winners.aspx or if you would like to register your interest to be involved in 2014 please contact donna@pharmatimes.com.
The competition will be covered in the December issue of PharmaTimes magazine. For a free subsciption, go to www.pharmatimes.com/Subscribe.aspx.
The US Clinical Researcher of the Year competition would like to thank all those organizations that have supported the event this year: Chiltern, CORE, INC Research, inVentiv Health Clinical, PRA International, PMG Research and SAS, and to our executive committee, comprising ACRP, APCR, SCRS, Alcon, AstraZeneca, CenterWatch, Endo Pharmaceuticals, GSK, MSD, Shire, Sanofi and Stiefel.
The winners are:
Clinical Team
Covance
Project Manager
Gold – Promise Lawrence – PRA International
Silver – Sarah Connell PRA
Bronze – Adrienne Stoudenniure PRA
Study Nurse
Narvelle Delabruere – Children’s Hospital, Central California
New Clinical Research Associate
Gold – Rebecca York PPD
Silver – Lee Steen PRA
Bronze – Kelly Little PPD
Experienced CRA
Gold – Allison Tallon, INC Research
Silver – Matt Eaton, Alcon
Bronze – Scott Stockmyer, Parexel
US Clinical Company of the Year
PRA International
