New Blog series: The Buzz

“The Buzz“:  Breaking News, Industry Trends, and Editorials. Plus, regular updates on what I am reading, listening to, or learning about next.

Each year in my professional development goals I try to identify at least one industry conference to attend, choose job-related books, podcasts, and webinars to consume and share with my colleagues, and attend local networking events for ACRP, HBA, Women in Bio, etc. Today I am kicking off a new blog series called “The Buzz” where I’ll report back on my reactions to breaking news and industry trends (like Risk-Based Monitoring).  I’ll also pepper in the occasional piece about what I am reading, listening to, or learning about next.

Why didn’t I go to DIA?

Today I’m just brooding with jealousy as the folks in my network post twitter, facebook, email, and LinkedIn updates on their travels to Boston for the DIA 2013 49th Annual Meeting; Drug Information Association (DIA) conference is one that I have never attended before.  I just looked at my email filter and I have a ton of messages inviting me to networking sessions, dinners, happy hours, contests, and providing general info. I’m not exaggerating, I have exactly 101 emails about this event, some generic form letters but many of them are personal notes and invitations.  Apologies here to those I have yet to respond to: Thank you for your invitation, I am not attending this year but yes, I did get the memo.

I already went to a conference earlier this year

I attended the West Coast Outsourcing in Clinical Trials conference by Arena International.  I spoke on a panel, authored one of the presentations, and led a roundtable.  It was an excellent experience but it only left me hungry to go to more conferences. Incidentally, on Friday I received my goal-setting template from corporate headquarters; I may write DIA 2014 in as a professional goal.

If I did go to DIA this year

There are some sessions, tutorials, and roundtables that I regret I will miss.  If I did go to the Drug Information Association conference this year, here is some of the content I might have selected for the first two days from the 4 day agenda.  If you go and you charitably want to fill me in on anything I missed then please email me.

Sunday, June 23rd

Japan’s Regulatory Environment
Sunday, June 23, 8:30AM – 12:00PM

Clinical Statistics for Nonstatisticians
Sunday, June 23, 9:00AM – 5:00PM

Quality Oversight of CROs-Clinical Vendors
Sunday, June 23, 9:00AM – 5:00PM

Monday, June 24th

Managing Risk in Outsourced Clinical Trials
Monday, June 24, 11:00AM – 12:30PM

Practical Considerations for GCP Audits in a Risk-based Environment
Monday, June 24, 11:00AM – 12:30PM

Vendor Management Using Quality by Design and Risk Management Strategies
Monday, June 24, 11:00AM – 12:30PM

DIA Executive News Conference
Monday, June 24, 11:30AM

Implementing Performance Metrics: How Investigator Sites Can Pave the Way for Running Successful Clinical Trials
Monday, June 24, 2:30PM – 4:00PM

CDISC SHARE: A Promising Approach to Therapeutic Area Standards Development
Monday, June 24, 2:30PM – 4:00PM

Tuesday, June 25th

Making CRO-Sponsor Partnerships Work: Executive Roundtable
Tuesday, June 25, 8:00AM – 9:30AM

Development of a New Patient-reported Outcome (PRO) Measure for Depression: Progress and Results from the PRO Consortium
Tuesday, June 25, 8:00AM – 9:30AM

Using Risk-based Signal Detection Methods to Identify Sites with Potential GCP Problems: Better Than a Crystal Ball
Tuesday, June 25, 8:00AM – 9:30AM

Big Data: Impact on Innovation
Tuesday, June 25, 10:15AM – 11:45AM

Enrollment Analytics: Moving Beyond the Funnel
Tuesday, June 25, 1:45PM – 3:15PM

Taking the Measure of Metrics
Tuesday, June 25, 1:45PM – 3:15PM

Human Abuse Liability Testing in CNS Drug Development Workshop
Tuesday, June 25, 1:45PM – 3:15PM

Evaluating Sites for Optimum Site Selection and Performance
Tuesday, June 25, 4:00PM – 5:30PM

Investigator Budgets Impact on Patient Enrollment and Retention: How to Improve Sponsor/CRO/Site Processes to Increase Productivity
Tuesday, June 25, 4:00PM – 5:30PM

Wednesday, June 26th & Thursday, June 27th

For a list of the sessions and posters that interest me for the last two days of the conference check out my next blog post.

There’s an app for that!

Still need help choosing your sessions?  No, kidding, they even have a mobile app – how cool is that?  I’ll be following the twitter #DIA2013 chatter as I enjoy a quiet week…at my office.

What else is buzz-worthy?

I’m interested in speaking opportunities at local conferences and events.  I am currently submitting abstracts for 2014 conferences and collaborating with a trusted former colleague on my first journal article submission.  If you would like to network more on these types of topics I’d love to hear from you via email; I’m always looking for the next big “buzz-worthy” topic.

Related Content from the Clinical Operations Toolkit:

• Worthwhile Webinars May 2013
• Powerpoint Presenter View June 2013
• Change of Seasons June 2013