From Country Selection to Site Activation: Bridging the Gap Between Site Potential and Real-World Performance

Expanding into new countries can increase patient access, but trial success depends on far more than population availability alone. Join IQVIA to explore how sponsors can strengthen site readiness, reduce execution risk, and turn promising geographies into high-performing trial environments.

Patient access is only the starting point delivery success depends on site capability, readiness, and execution in context. In this webinar, IQVIA shares how sponsors can move beyond country selection to activate stronger site performance and more predictable enrolment outcomes.

Register Free: https://www.appliedclinicaltrialsonline.com/act_w/country-selections

Event overview:

Expanding clinical trials into new countries is no longer a simple “country list” exercise. Sponsors face rising protocol complexity, persistent under enrolment, and growing site burden risk challenges that are amplified when entering unfamiliar health systems, regulatory environments, and site ecosystems. Too often, patients are present, but experienced investigators, site capability, and delivery infrastructure are not.

In this webinar, IQVIA explores a patient population first approach to country and site decisions, connecting early feasibility to the realities of site capability, readiness, and execution risk. Drawing on proven global expansion learnings and structured readiness thinking, we outline how sponsors can pair Strategic Site Solutions insight with a hands-on site engagement layer that builds protocol level understanding of how sites actually operate.

Central to this approach is the role of Site Enrollment and Engagement Lead who act as an on the ground bridge between strategy and execution. Through structured site assessment, Site Enrollment and Engagement Lead identify gaps in capability, capacity, and processes, and enable targeted, flexible interventions such as training, resourcing, and patient engagement to elevate site performance where it matters most.

The result is a more connected approach to country expansion, one that moves beyond patient access to activate site performance, enabling smarter country selection, stronger start up, and more predictable enrolment in new geographies.

Key Learning Objectives:

• A practical framework to pressure test country choices beyond patient counts including investigator experience, site maturity, and real-world delivery conditions.
  
• Sponsors are increasingly entering regions where patients exist, but site readiness is variable. The challenge is not access; it is consistent, reliable delivery at the site level.
  
• Why patient availability ≠ recruitment success and how to validate country and site readiness early in the decision-making process.
  
• How an engagement bridge between strategy and enablement through Site Enrollment and Engagement Lead site assessment reveals real constraints before decisions are locked in.
  
• The role of Site Enrollment and Engagement Lead in identifying site level barriers and deploying targeted, flexible interventions (e.g. training, staffing, engagement strategies) to unlock performance.
  
• Where targeted enablement reduces burden, strengthens site capability, and protects timelines during start up and early enrolment.

Speakers:

Kelly Sanford
Head of Operations, Site Enablement Solutions
IQVIA (US)

Kelly Sanford serves as Head of Operations for Site Enablement Solutions within Patient & Site-Centered Solutions at IQVIA. In this role, she leads the Project Leadership and Operations team, driving operational excellence across SES delivery to enable consistent, high-quality outcomes for customers, sites, and study participants.

Kelly brings more than 24 years of experience in clinical research, with a background spanning Study Coordinator, Clinical Research Associate (CRA), Clinical Lead, Clinical Project Manager, and operational leadership roles. She is a certified Clinical Research Associate (CCRA) and Project Management Professional (PMP) and holds a Master of Science in Health Sciences (MSHS) in Clinical Research Administration from The George Washington University, with undergraduate studies at American University.

She lives in Hillsborough, North Carolina with her husband, children, and dog, and enjoys spending time exploring the community and traveling to the coast.

In today’s session, Kelly will discuss how Site Enablement Solutions partners with sites to address resourcing gaps and support reliable study delivery.

Sarah Thinnesen
Director of Site Enrolment and Engagement Leads
IQVIA (UK)

Sarah Thinnesen is a UK based Director of Site Enrolment and Engagement Leads at IQVIA, specializing in rare and complex diseases including pulmonary arterial hypertension and interstitial lung disease.

She leads the strategic oversight and operational delivery of Site Enrolment and Engagement Leads, supporting study teams to optimize patient identification, screening, and recruitment, and ultimately improve study performance at site level. Her work focuses on bringing real world field insights into study strategy, helping to bridge the gap between site potential and actual delivery.

Sarah brings over 26 years of experience across clinical research, medical affairs, and frontline healthcare, including leadership roles in Biotech Corporations and more laterally IQVIA. She has extensive experience in KOL engagement, investigator sponsored research, and study development, underpinned by her background as a cardiac intensive care nurse.

Today, she will share practical perspectives on how integrated, field-based approaches through Site Enrolment and Engagement Leads can help close the gap between site capability and real-world trial performance.

Jose Luis Carbajales
Director of Site Enablement Solutions
IQVIA (Spain)

José Luis Carbajales is Director of Site Enablement Solutions at IQVIA, based in Madrid, with over 20 years of experience in clinical research. He has worked across a broad range of roles, from regulatory affairs to decentralized clinical trial operations, supporting studies across multiple regions. Today, he focuses on expanding site enablement solutions into new countries, helping sites and sponsors work more effectively together. José is passionate about collaboration, innovation, and delivering practical, site and patient focused solutions that improve clinical trial execution.

Register Free: https://www.appliedclinicaltrialsonline.com/act_w/country-selections