Another of experts who made time for us at the Congress in Washington last month is Parexel’s Dr Anne Kasmar, who joined us at the event to discuss “sustainable speed at scale” in the Clinical Trials track. Dr Kasmar is an infectious disease-trained physician-scientist and Parexel’s Senior Vice President and Head of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases, leading 12 physicians across the globe.
Sustainability, speed, scale
Our first question takes Dr Kasmar’s presentation and asks about some of the key concerns or themes that emerged in this. Dr Kasmar considers the title in the context of the remarkable scientific achievements during the pandemic. While it was “extraordinary”, it demanded work at an “unsustainable pace”.
“The key question is: how can we continue that amazing pace of progress without burning everybody out, without Warp Speed investment?”
At Parexel, the team has “learnt a lot” in the seasonal space as well as COVID, exploring maintaining speed, at scale, with inclusion.
“That really requires partnership, and it requires a lot of the innovations that were developed during COVID at the site level.”
The conversation that took place at the Congress explored Parexel’s work in this regard and offered insights from partners.
Key challenges
Our next question explored some of the key challenges with sustainability, speed, or scale. Dr Kasmar breaks them down one at a time. For sustainability, people were hired during COVID for the “huge amount of work”, and Dr Kasmar recognises the value of expanding the workforce. However, this has to be supported by “providing high quality training so they can upskill in a timely fashion”. At Parexel, this is carried out through the Parexel Academy.
“Some of sustainability is revitalising, replenishing, and growing the workforce.”
Next, Dr Kasmar discusses speed, which is “streamlining the processes and systems”.
“Working as one team across the different parts of the process.”
Streamlining processes can look like “data cleaning in real time” and having “open and transparent communication across the partners”.
For scale, Dr Kasmar highlights the importance of not relying on the same sites.
“We learnt so much from COVID and we want to really now implement that into regular business as usual across the board.”
Dr Kasmar shares a motto from earlier in her career, which she believes is central to this part of the ecosystem:
“If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.”
She adds that the pandemic taught us that the industry can go fast and far when we work together!
Parexel takes on these challenges
We then ask about how the team that Dr Kasmar works with is meeting some of the challenges that sustainability, speed, and scale present. Her initial reaction is appreciation for the Vaccine Alliance Network, which allows collaboration and sharing of suggestions.
“Some of the innovation is really bubbling up out of the individual sites through the Site Alliance Network.”
Another opportunity to streamline and improve is presented in repeat business and repeat partnerships.
“It’s about continuous process improvement within everything we do.”
Why WVC?
Finally, we ask about Dr Kasmar’s experience of the event and her reasons for joining us. She shares that she has loved seeing “so many colleagues and friends”.
“Every booth I learn something different.”
It’s lovely to hear that walking the exhibition floor was a “walk down memory lane” for Dr Kasmar, who has a wealth of experience, and that she was able to connect with and learn from so many colleagues. She mentions a session from Economist Impact on their Immunisation Readiness Index, which we discussed with Miranda Baxa in another interview, and looks forward to examining this and understanding its implications for her work.
Dr Kasmar’s last point is a very kind shoutout to our weekly newsletters, which you can subscribe to here!
It was great to meet Dr Kasmar and hear her insights; we hope that you enjoy the interview!
For more conversations with our experts from the Congress in April do make sure you subscribe for weekly updates here!
