Commentary
Video
SCOPE Summit 2025: Advarra’s Ashley Davidson Highlights Current Challenges with Study Startup
Author(s):
In an interview with ACT senior editor Andy Studna at SCOPE Summit, Davidson, vice president, product lead - sponsor tech strategy, Advarra, discussed ongoing challenges in study startup processes, including contract and budget issues, and feasibility concerns, which have persisted for over a decade.
ACT: What are some current challenges with study startup and how can they be addressed?
Davidson: Unfortunately, we have a lot of the same challenges today in study startup that we were talking about 10 or 15 years ago. We still as an industry, are aware of the longest pole in the tent, which is contracts and budgets. We know feasibility is a challenge, but I would actually add another challenge today that's even more pervasive than ever before, and that is the lack of collaboration in study startup and a lack of site centricity. I think that's really important to consider the site as a very big stakeholder in the study startup process. Study startup is not just a transaction where you're needing to get things from sites and get those back, they actually want to be an active part of it, and also need the same amount of visibility into those critical path milestones as sponsors do.
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