Clinical Operations & Strategy

Clinical R&D modernization stalls through incremental optimization of individual workflows, but meaningful systemic change requires leaders to visualize structural relationships, understand hidden incentives, and identify leverage points that benefit the whole system rather than parts.

The evolving role of medical affairs in connecting patients, physicians, and evidence generation.

Protocol assumptions about patients, visit schedules, timelines, and vendors are rarely tested against operational reality until startup, but early engagement of experienced execution strategists can identify and mitigate feasibility gaps before commitments harden into expensive course corrections.

From real-time evidence generation to federated AI to site-level data integration, ACT spoke with seven experts at DIA 2026 on the trends and challenges defining clinical trial operations today.

Discover how Quest Diagnostics puts its vast database of lab results to work and leverages patient and physician credibility to efficiently and effectively connect the best-fit patients to the clinical trials that will benefit from their participation.

Discover how Quest Diagnostics’ comprehensive lab data can elevate your clinical trials. Our latest white paper, "6 Ways Lab Data Can Improve Clinical Trials," explores the power of real-world data at every stage of the trial process.

As the clinical research landscape evolves, decentralized clinical trials (DCTs) have emerged as a foundational competency, enabling broader patient participation, increasing trial efficiency, and driving more inclusive, real-world data collection. However, the successful execution of DCTs requires more than just innovative technology—it demands a comprehensive strategy that addresses the unique challenges of decentralization.

Download the case study and learn how Quest Diagnostics and PatientsLikeMe helped accelerate recruitment and enrollment for a struggling study.

Traditional CRO contracting models create misalignment between effort, progress, and financial outcomes, driving revenue recognition risk and margin volatility, but shared performance contracts linking costs to deliverables can improve transparency and accountability.

In this video interview from the 2026 DIA Global Annual Meeting, Joan Chambers, independent senior consultant at Tufts CSDD, examines the operational challenges sites face when implementing DCT components and makes the case that the industry is still in a learning phase—one the data will ultimately need to guide.

In this video interview from the 2026 DIA Global Annual Meeting, Nick Scott of Biogen and Samantha Hadfield of Thermo Fisher Scientific, explain why mixed FSP models are becoming a strategic tool for sponsors seeking greater agility and how geography and portfolio structure shape the decision.

In this video interview from the 2026 DIA Global Annual Meeting, Joan Chambers, independent senior consultant at Tufts CSDD, explains how the flexibility and accessibility of decentralized trial modalities are expanding patient reach—and why fit-for-purpose deployment is key to making them work.

Outdated payment methods like prepaid cards and checks create administrative burden and retention friction, but modern flexible payment platforms with multiple payout options and global reach can improve participant experience without adding compliance complexity.

In this Q&A, Abraham Gutman, founder and CEO of AG Mednet, discusses why the clinical trial industry has mastered data capture but never built the execution architecture needed to act on it, how the right infrastructure changes the role of human experts, and why enthusiasm for agentic AI is outrunning what clinical trials can realistically support.

In this Q&A, Robert Hummel, chief operating officer at Suvoda, discusses how agentic AI is compressing RTSM build and deployment timelines, what safeguards are needed to maintain compliance and oversight at speed, and how intelligent automation will reshape the broader clinical trial technology stack over the next decade.

From planning one Phase III trial at a time to digital standardization on repeat.

In this Q&A, Sam Hinsley, statistics manager at Phastar, discusses the role statisticians play in raising standards across the clinical development timeline—and why getting early phase decisions right is critical to the entire drug development pathway.

Optimization challenges spurring cultural, strategic, and organizational change.

In this video interview, Abraham Gutman, founder and CEO of AG Mednet, shares his key takeaways from SCOPE X, including a pointed caution against the idea that agentic AI can run clinical trials autonomously and why process architecture is the real entry point for AI to deliver on its promise.

In this video interview, Abraham Gutman, founder and CEO of AG Mednet, describes how AI can take on rote reasoning tasks like PHI redaction and document QA, and why offloading that work is what gives human experts the clarity to focus on genuine decision making.

Study coordinators identify only about 45% of critical and major problems during document reviews, with substantial performance variability across experience levels, but focused training can improve detection rates from 45% to approximately 68%.

In this video interview, Abraham Gutman, founder and CEO of AG Mednet, explains why decades of progress in data capture have not solved the execution problem in clinical trials, and what an operational architecture for AI actually looks like in practice.

Despite political headwinds, life sciences leaders are holding their ground on DEI, but translating organizational commitment into representative enrollment requires structural changes to protocol design, site selection, and community engagement that most of the industry has yet to fully make.