Debunking The Myth: Sites Don’t Want It!

“Sites don’t want eConsent.”
“Sites don’t want central recruitment.”
“Sites don’t want patient concierge services.”

This session challenges common myths about what sites will accept, showing that sites often say yes when solutions are well designed, properly trained, and tailored to real workflows. This discussion reveals why sites accept or reject offerings and what changes the outcome. Sites will learn how to push back or redirect resources, while sponsors and CROs understand the value of asking instead of assuming.

From Feasibility to First Choice: What Sponsors Really Want

Sponsors pull back the curtain on site selection. This candid panel reveals what truly drives their decisions beyond enrollment numbers and therapeutic experience. Hear real examples of what works, common red flags that eliminate sites from consideration, and the specific feasibility indicators that influence awards. Learn what “study-ready” actually means and how to build trusted relationships that lead to increased study opportunities.

Future-Proofing Your Site: Forecasting & Resilience

Build a proactive strategy that protects your site against market volatility and unexpected disruptions. Learn to track the operational and financial metrics that predict future capacity: backlog health, feasibility volume, pipeline velocity, and activation timelines. Identify early warning signs of declining opportunities, develop response strategies that protect revenue and staffing, and make data-driven decisions about resource allocation and therapeutic diversification. Leave with practical tools for scenario planning and long-term resilience.

Leading With Culture: Building Strong Teams

In high-stakes environments, culture isn’t optional. It’s essential. Clinical research often focuses on the technical (SOPs, monitoring reports, regulatory timelines), but culture truly powers our work. Discuss how to intentionally build teams where people are engaged, collaborative, and connected to the mission. Learn how culture differs across site sizes, how to create career development pathways and recognition programs, and how to manage external pressures from sponsors and partners while maintaining internal morale.

Protocol Pressures: Understanding The Site Burden Index

Trials grow more complex while site resources stay stretched. This session explores the Site Burden Index, a quantifiable framework that measures operational demands protocols place on sites by considering site, clinical, data, and technology pressures. Calculate your capacity tolerance and realistic caseload limits, then use this common language for data-informed conversations with sponsors and CROs. Move from anecdotal complaints to structured dialogue: identify pressure points early, assess workload using practical tools, and develop strategies that improve execution for everyone.

Regulatory Readiness: FDA Inspections

The best time to prepare for an FDA inspection is before you need one. This comprehensive session covers inspection triggers, quality management systems, documentation organization for efficient retrieval, staff training, internal audits using practical checklists, and how to respond during actual inspections. As sites adopt AI and technology-driven processes, learn about inspection outcomes for paperless systems, timestamps, and digital workflows. Walk away with your own internal QA checklist and strategies from sites that successfully navigated inspections.

Retention Strategies To Keep Patients Connected

As trials grow more complex and decentralized, sites must rethink participant engagement models. This session explores strategies to sustain participation: building staff rapport, managing retention barriers proactively, accessing tools like home care and telemedicine, and gaining sponsor or CRO support for patient needs. Learn retention success examples, key performance indicators, and how to distinguish between site-controlled retention issues and dropout due to drug-related factors (a critical distinction sponsors must recognize).

What You’re Not Charging For: From Identification to Justification

This session highlights where hidden costs are increasing and how they affect site budgets. After a quick refresher on tracking overhead, the focus shifts to newer pressures like political requirements, patient comfort costs, training expenses, academic pricing differences, and global cost variation. Learn how to justify these costs to sponsors, present them as value, and stay both sustainable and competitive.