News|Articles|February 4, 2026

SCOPE Summit 2026 Keynote Fireside Chat: Aligning Purpose, Innovation, and Operational Excellence in Clinical Development

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Key Takeaways

Therapeutic-area specialization in medical monitoring and clinical operations is increasingly necessary as pipeline breadth grows, given protocol “make-or-break” nuances across immunology, ophthalmology, and chronic-care programs.
Data minimization strategies prioritize critical endpoints and measurement frequency to reduce patient burden and avoid generating largely unused data that amplifies management, cleaning, and operational complexity.
Rebuilding trust post-pandemic demands tailored engagement for anti-science and newly resistant, well-educated communities, plus patient-centric protocol design grounded in clear participation value.
Practical retention and access interventions, such as onsite childcare and meal vouchers, can materially improve enrollment feasibility, particularly for participants from middle-income countries.
AI is being applied to automate documentation and data intake while enabling predictive analytics on site performance and preferences, with an emphasis on external partnerships to operationalize insights.

Ken Getz of Tufts CSDD and Eliav Barr of Merck discuss how efficiency, public trust, and AI all fit into the current state of clinical research.

“Now we have new communities that are resistant—new people—including quite well-educated people, so we have to be able to address how to reach them in a new way.”

The first full day of SCOPE Summit 2026 kicked off with a keynote fireside chat between Eliav Barr, head, global clinical development and chief medical officer, Merck Research; and Ken Getz, executive director and professor, Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development, Tufts University School of Medicine.

The main theme of the conversation between Barr and Getz was centered around purpose, innovation, and operational excellence in clinical development.

Specialization in therapeutic areas

Kicking off the discussion, Getz began by asking Barr to highlight Merck’s pipeline growth over the last several years and how his team has handled the additional capacity.

“We've been working hard to find the right drugs, but what we need to do is to increase the expertise in each therapeutic area,” Barr responded. “There are common principles across all therapeutic areas, but there are really specific elements that would make or break a clinical trial in immunology, ophthalmology, or in a more chronic care setting, like lipid lowering and so on.”

Barr continued by explaining how this has required Merck to specialize on the medical monitoring and clinical side.

Efficiency in clinical development

Getz then asked Barr to discuss driving efficiency—a key theme that has emerged at this year’s SCOPE Summit.

In clinical development, there is a desire to collect every last bit of data, especially in a manner that that enables stakeholders to answer any and all questions that they might ever consider.

Barr explained that the problem with this is that the majority of data is not actually used. Collecting too much data puts additional burden on patients, even if done electronically. This effect continues downstream by creating challenges in data management and cleaning.

“We're trying very hard to focus our attention on what are the critical questions that the relevant constituents want from us, and how often do you have to measure that piece of data,” Barr said. “The idea here is, if we can reduce our complexity by a reasonable percent—I'm not talking about massively, just moderately—I think that'd be really useful.”

Public trust in scientific research

As the conversation shifted away from operational efficiency, Getz asked about the current state of public trust in clinical research.

“During the pandemic, we saw much higher levels of awareness about clinical research and within select communities, trust in the clinical research process increased,” Getz said. “It's actually fallen since then.”

Barr began his response by emphasizing that the industry needs to accept people where they are. “Being able to meet patients, physicians, and policymakers where they are is important,” he continued.

However, the biggest challenge is when people are completely anti-science.

“Now we have new communities that are resistant—new people—including quite well-educated people, so we have to be able to address how to reach them in a new way,” Barr explained.

Getz and Barr then focused on patient centricity. While stakeholders may be focused on building a protocol that addresses a lot of questions, Barr said for him it is all about simply why a patient would want to participate in a trial and what they are being offered.

Barr recalled when Merck was doing trials for Gardasil, a common challenge for women in the studies—particularly from middle-income countries—was childcare. Doing something as simple as providing daycare centers at sites or being able to offer a meal voucher, for example, can make a large difference.

The use of AI in clinical operations

The conversation between Getz and Barr wrapped up with discourse around real-world applications of artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled solutions.

Barr mentioned his company’s use of AI in reducing basic manual tasks such as writing and bringing in data. Merck is also working on ways to predict site behaviors and desires.

“We are very eager to partner with organizations who have thought through that kind of technology and can help us ingest all that information in a manner that can help our teams predict things going forward,” Barr concluded.

Source

Getz K, Barr E. Aligning Purpose, Innovation, and Operational Excellence in Clinical Development. SCOPE Summit 2026. February 3, 2026.

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