Clinical Research Coordinators and Associates
Clinical Research Coordinators have many responsibilities. Some of these include arrangement for a research study site, recruitment, screening and enrolling of participants in the clinical study, arrangement of follow-up visits, completing case report forms and ensuring that they are accurate, maintaining and dispensing study supplies, and making sure that everything is performed according to the guidelines of Clinical Practice. The Clinical Research Coordinators’ duties are delegated by the investigator, but the generally refer to administering the study site. Clinical Research Coordinators can find career opportunities in medical facilities, such as hospitals or physicians’ offices, in research organizations, either contract ones or biomedical ones, in specialty disease centers, or with medical and pharmaceutical device suppliers. The biotechnology is expected to develop even more than it already has, leading to an increase in the demand for trained and certified Clinical Research Coordinators. The wages that these professionals earn vary depending on the research setting, degrees obtained, credentials, and experience. Leading educators such as Unitek Education offer accelerated learning in this course (http://www.unitekeducation.com/Clinical_Research_Home/?source=articlesender).Clinical Research Associates have a greater responsibility as far as the clinical trials are concerned, in that they set up, monitor, and complete these processes. In other words, they are entirely responsible for the way a clinical trial is performed and completed. Contract research organizations, or pharmaceutical companies themselves, are the ones that run the clinical trials. Clinical Research Associates have numerous responsibilities which include: developing trial protocols and presenting them to a steering committee, designing case record forms, respecting the rights and ensuring the well-being and safety of trial subjects by coordinating with the ethics committee, managing marketing and research of both new and existing drugs, and so on. As far as the study center is concerned, it the Clinical Research Associates’ responsibility once again to locate and assess the facilities suitability at the center, and to make sure that each center has the training staff and trial materials to meet the specific and industry standards. Clinical Research Associates must also brief doctors and/or consultants on how the trial is being conducted, and visit each study center regularly, so that they are able to monitor the clinical trial throughout its duration. They must make sure that the patient clinical notes are correctly entered on to the case record forms, and that such completed forms are collected from general practices and hospitals. On completion of a clinical trial, Clinical Research Associates are responsible for closing down the study centers, and accounting for the unused trail supplies, as well as for discussing the trial results with a statistician. The may also be required to prepare final reports and/or manuscripts for publication. The salaries for Clinical Research Associates vary according to the employing company and to experience, but they generally match the huge responsibilities and the stress that may originate from the demand of respecting deadlines. Jobs are mainly in restricted environments and locations, and serious training and education are the key to ensuring a successful career in this field. Every clinical research class that is part of a training program provides comprehensive introduction to the process, and the skills and competencies that a candidate for a clinical research position must have.The clinical research class comes with some requisites which include attendance, class participation, and submission of a final paper, for which students get to choose a topic out of several possible ones. For more information, please go to http://www.unitekeducation.com/Clinical_Research_Home/?source=articlesender.
About the Author
IT Marketing Coordinator Visit their website at: http://www.unitek.com
Tell others about
this page:
Comments? Questions? Email Here