Investigative Sites

Unpack why persistent communication breakdowns between sponsors, CROs, and sites undermine startup efficiency—and how bidirectional, site-informed engagement models can improve collaboration and momentum.

Explore how contract standardization, proactive budget alignment, and AI-enabled negotiation tools can reduce site activation delays and turn agreements into strategic accelerators rather than administrative bottlenecks.

Examine the strategies community research sites can use to secure trial opportunities, from adopting AI-enabled workflows to proving verified access to underrepresented patient populations.

Learn how real-time patient eligibility data is reshaping trial planning and site selection, allowing sponsors to design more inclusive studies based on current patient reality rather than past performance.

Unpack how rising competition for the same high-profile sites is slowing startup and enrollment—and what sponsors must change in their site strategies to ensure AI-enabled efficiencies translate into real-world impact.

Explore how sponsors can recalibrate efficiency efforts to avoid overconcentrating trials at familiar sites and instead expand access through community partnerships, point-of-care research, and intentional outreach models.

By leveraging the Fresh Start Effect at site initiation and shifting from passive training to demonstrated readiness, sponsors and CROs can turn trial launch into a powerful multiplier for early performance, compliance, and execution quality.

Review the performance, engagement, and satisfaction metrics sponsors and CROs should track to determine whether operational improvements are reducing burden and strengthening site relationships.

Learn how AI-enabled automation can streamline existing operational processes, reduce manual effort, and enhance efficiency while allowing sites to work as they do today.

Explore why new tools should aim to remain burden-neutral before delivering efficiency gains, and how sponsors can introduce systems that benefit sites without disrupting daily trial management.

Examine how evolving sourcing strategies, functional standardization, and system choices can help sponsors support sites more effectively while minimizing operational switching and complexity.

Explore how expanding clinical trials into community and nontraditional sites, simplifying protocols, and leveraging AI can broaden patient access and bridge the gap between real-world care and research.

See how combining human oversight with AI insights improves protocol authorship, site selection, and monitoring strategies, delivering better decisions than AI-only or human-only approaches.

As clinical trials become more complex and decentralized, the role of the CRA is evolving from site monitor to strategic, digitally fluent partner, requiring expertise in hybrid oversight, risk-based monitoring, and multi-system data management.

A new global Tufts CSDD survey of 387 investigative site professionals reveals broad experience with digital and decentralized trial tools, growing site-driven technology investments, and strong support for remote data collection—while highlighting persistent burdens tied to fragmented systems, training demands, and financial strain.

How pharma–hospital partnerships can overcome operational, financial, and organizational barriers to build high-performing clinical trial programs that expand access, accelerate accrual, and strengthen research capacity across both academic and community settings.

Leveraging real-world data and AI-driven insights in clinical trial planning can reduce enrollment failures, improve retention, and prevent costly rescue studies by providing a more accurate view of patient populations and site feasibility.

Melissa Hutchens, vice president of research & benchmarking at WCG, and Jimmy Garza, senior director of clinical operations at Bayer, discuss findings from the latest WCG CenterWatch Global Site Relationship Survey, revealing a decline in overall site satisfaction. They explore key drivers behind this trend, including technology usability, communication gaps, and limited site input in protocol design, and share actionable approaches to strengthen sponsor-site partnerships and improve study execution.

Gain insight into why sponsors are taking a larger role in site selection and CRO oversight using robust data to validate feasibility before launch.

Discover why strategies must vary by indication and geography and how data-driven matching with supported referrals can outperform site expansion and generic advertising.

Gain insight into how principal investigator scarcity, frequent protocol amendments, and uneven site performance undermine enrollment and extend timelines.

In this episode of the ACT Podcast, Jeneen Donadeo, executive director of portfolio management at TransCelerate, and Laura Galuchie, senior director and TransCelerate program lead at Merck, discuss the findings from a recent TransCelerate and Tufts CSDD study revealing that nearly one-third of data collected in Phase III trials is non-essential. They explore why trial complexity continues to grow despite industry efforts toward efficiency and share strategies for reducing data burden while maintaining compliance.

Learn how increasing system complexity and patient-facing technologies are creating new burdens for clinical trial sites—and what vendors and sponsors can do to streamline operations and improve support.