Dr. Lauren Allen, DrPH in Health Care Management & Leadership | Chief of Operations, Major Extremity Trauma and Rehabilitation Consortium (METRC) at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

In this episode, we discuss Lauren’s work as the chief of operations of the Major Extremity Trauma and Rehabilitation Consortium (METRC) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, her experience pursuing the practice-oriented DrPH while remaining a full-time professional, and her advice for getting into the operations and coordination side of clinical research.

Hosted by Megan Benay

To connect with Lauren and to learn more about her story, visit her page on the PHutures #100AlumniVoices Project website.

Transcript

Megan Benay

Hi! I'm co-host Megan Benay and this is 100 alumni voices podcast, stories that inspire, where we explore the personal and professional journeys of a diverse group of 100 doctoral alumni from Johns Hopkins University. Today we're joined by Doctor Lauren Allen, DrPH in healthcare management and leadership from the Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Allen is currently the chief of operations for the major extremity, trauma, and rehabilitation consortium at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Allen, welcome!

Lauren Allen

Hello! Thank you for having me.

Megan Benay

So, your title is a little bit of a mouthful. Would you would you mind telling us a little bit more about this long and prestigious title, and what it actually means? What do you do?

Lauren Allen

Sure, I'd be happy to. So, the METRC we can say moving forward is the the short version of the big mouthful major extremity trauma and rehabilitation consortium, we call ourselves METRC. Within Hopkins, we are the coordinating center data and methods coordinating center for a large orthopedic trauma clinical trials consortium. We are, of course

Megan Benay

This is the this is the short version. This is the truncated. Yeah, data and methods, got it.

Lauren Allen

Yeah, there's no real short version. But yes, we it's a long name, but we are situated within the Department of Health Policy and Management within the School of Public Health. The METRC, so the orthopedic trauma clinical trials consortium was established in 2009 with funding from the Department of Defense, and it's pulled together a large group of orthopedic trauma surgeons both in the military and civilian settings throughout the United States, pulled those together with academic help services, researchers, clinical trialists within the school public health to form this, you know, unprecedented, collaborative, clinical research platform to conduct clinical, multi-center clinical trials that are relevant to the injuries experienced by our servicemen and women as well as the civilian population. That's sort of the very overarching description of what METRC is all about. I have been working within that coordinating center actually for what feels like my whole life, professional life, at least, at Hopkins. I joined the group in 2011. Actually, I was on the staff research staff at that time, and matriculated into the DrPH program that same year. And so over the course of a decade, more or less, I sort of grew along these parallel professional and academic pathways. And there's a lot of a lot of work and a lot of you know, but also at the same time, a lot of fun sort of taking what I was experiencing, you know, in my real world clinical trials practice into my, you know, educational setting and vice versa. But over the course of time, I, you know, have held many different positions within the coordinating center, but have been serving in this operation's role really since 2016, I would say, and it's you know, continued to grow as our coordinating center has grown and become sort of a more diverse and complex organization.

Megan Benay

Okay. Holy cow. I have so many questions. So, so we go back to 2011. So, this coordinating setting center had sort of recently come about right. You said 2009. So, this was like sort of still new.

Lauren Allen

That's right.

Megan Benay

And did you say that that you came into working here and the doctoral program at the same time?

Lauren Allen

That's right.

Megan Benay

Intentionally, like on purpose?

Lauren Allen

Yeah, sort of. So, I had been in the school of medicine in a research position for a couple of years and had applied and was accepted into the DrPH program in the School of Public Health. That program the the DrPH Program is a part-time program by design. It really is intended for it's it's a practice-oriented program. It sounds a little funny because I am in a research setting, but what I do have a clinical trials practice. But anyway, yeah. So, there was always the intention of continuing to be a full-time professional, and that really is the, you know, the experience of the vast majority of students in that DrPH program. It's really sort of individuals, kind of mid-level in their career who want to kind of take things up a few notches. And that's what that program is intended to do, sort of position people for you know, some of the most senior leadership roles within usually health care delivery organizations. I just sort of took all of that and applied it in this health services research-ish environment.

Megan Benay

I can, I can appreciate the part-time, you know, applied, applied Doctorate directly to your practice. I'm in the I'm in the EdD program with the School of Education. So similar idea of you know you're getting a practice-oriented doctorate rather than a research-oriented doctorate, although it sounds like yours you were still heavily involved in research. So, would you say, then? I know you just mentioned that you were you were working in medicine, or you were you were doing research already in medicine, would you characterize your career I guess, as a health and medicine career or an operations career?

Lauren Allen

It is an intersectional career, I think.

Megan Benay

Okay.

Lauren Allen

I think what I you know, my my kind of pocket, my niche is to bring the sort of the management and leadership the performance excellence sort of principles and methodology into this healthcare research world.

Megan Benay

So, do you think what you learned in your applied dissertation, or excuse me, your applied doctorate, do you think that that has served you well in this operations-based position?

Lauren Allen

Oh, absolutely. I think it's really, I kind of ultimately created the position just by, you know, sort of doing what I what was, you know, a need for our coordinating center, but also what was of interest to me as my sort of skill sets and experience was, you know, growing and maturing in the the academic program. So, absolutely, it it served me well. I sort of the the whole experience I owe to, you know, kind of where I am today, what I'm doing. But yes, we, you know, so we we're forming, you know, this clinical, you know, multi-sites center clinical research, you know, consortium. If you think about it, you know there are, you know, you know there's a commercial market that does contract, you know, research where you know, scientific folks can go and give them a whole lot of money, you know, to do sort of the business side of implementing their study. Certainly, there is a, you know, scientific piece of this but then there's also sort of a management piece of it. And so, you know, we were bringing together, you know, the the most ambitious, the brightest minds, you know, in in orthopedic trauma both, you know, the providers, but then, also, you know the the researchers in the school of public health and we you know, with very few resources essentially, built you know an organization, and you know a business that you know to now, you know, really is the largest you know, ever orthopedic trauma, you know collaboration of this nature. And so, we, you know, we've over the course of the consortium, we've done more than 35 multi-center, you know, clinical trials. We conducted those trials in a network of more than 70 trauma centers throughout the United States. We've added a few in Canada, so there are enormous and complex sort of platforms that facilitate all of that work. And my role, it has been sort of fun and creative to, you know, sort of play a major part in developing those systems. And you know, really making sure that we were achieving all of the economies of scale along the way, so that we could, you know, really maximize the funding that we were, you know, receiving from our various sponsors. We remain predominantly funded by the department of defense. We do we have diversified a little bit, but at the end of the day the amount of science that we're accomplishing, you know, relative to the level of resources is really, I think, speaks for itself within kind of the this particular community, and they're just we've been more successful than anything has been able to be in the past. And so it's been really wonderfully and a privilege to be able to be a part of the legacy. And you know we have all good things to look forward to. We're not going anywhere. So, I'm excited to see where we go in the future.

Megan Benay

So speaking of the future, and it sounds like you, you sort of created, you know, carved this space out for yourself around the the managing, the operations sort of space. I often threaten to go back to school for more school once I'm done with this school to which I've been in formed will lead to a divorce in no uncertain terms. But I'm just curious if you've ever considered maybe an MBA if you know, being in this operate, maybe you weren't thinking you'd be in operations, but now you are in operations, like have you considered more degrees?

Lauren Allen

Yes and no. I guess I've I mean I can. The literal answer is, I've thought about it before, you know, but I think it's at this point really, you know, I have the tools that I need, and and access to resources to stay kind of fresh and relevant. And I think the further in I go, the more sort of specialized. I mean at this point, sure I can apply the skill set that I've developed in I can imagine a variety of other settings, but I don't plan to, you know, necessarily. I think this is sort of a niche environment. And there's, you know, I think, a real need for sort of within the clinical research ecosystem sort of at the most macro kind of, you know, level within the United States at least, a need for people who are doing this work and thinking about, you know, innovative ways to improve the success rate of, you know, of conducting gold standard, you know clinical trials. They often fail. They're just, you know, really complex, really hard to do, really expensive. And so if you can, you know, leverage all of the sort of administrative the financial data, all of the metadata that sort of surrounds these, these big scientific endeavors to really determine what the best practices are to, you know, you know, maximize the resources, conduct studies, and you know, on an efficient timeline so you're addressing the clinical questions while they're still relevant, etc. You know, I think there's there's just a need, and it's there's certainly recognition for that. There are plenty of others that are are doing this work in different settings. And I had the, you know, a pleasure of meeting some of them in different ways for different reasons. But yeah, I think I can imagine myself continuing to work within this sort of you know, operations of clinical research world. 

Megan Benay

It sort of—I don't know if this is if this is a correct analogy, but it sort of sounds like the work that you're doing is is similar to the networked improvement science body of body of work, where you know you've got multiple sites that are actually—it may have actually come out of the medical field. I know it from education, but it may have come from medicine. Is that the idea that, like there are multiple places that are sort of working together to get better faster and conduct these studies but like learn from one another rapidly? Rapid improvement cycles?

Lauren Allen

There I would it's not a like a one to one I don't, I think, with what you just described. But there are other sort of models. But yes, it's it's process improvement, you know. And and sort of doing research about research. I think that's part of it, too. So, I think where getting you know my degree within the School of Public Health, you know, certainly a lot of what I was learning and focusing on was very practice oriented, but but there's a it's sort of meta right? What I'm ultimately interested in is looking at the data, you know, doing this research about like the administration, the business data to see, well, can we, you know, can we really optimize the number of you know, enrollment sites in a given clinical trial, so that we finish the study that as fast as we possibly can, you know, within the timeline of the funding, but we don't waste any money because there's, you know, at a certain point, you know, taking on additional enrollment centers that are actually ultimately costing the study more. You don't need them to reach your sample sizes. So, it's using all of this sort of business data to do that, answer some of those research questions, to develop the tools and that's what's kind of new and exciting, and certainly niche. I think there are there aren't other people that are as excited about this kind of stuff as I am.

Megan Benay

Well, I can certainly understand getting excited about things that most people are not excited about. About the story of my life, and I was about to ask you your favorite database tool. But I'll just. I'll I'll pause on that. There are a ton of people who are super interested in that question, but I will say that someone who's not certainly not in the health field, what you're doing sounds really interesting to me. So, if you were, if you hadn't had sort of a linear path, and the way that it sort of sounds like you did, if you are maybe getting a doctorate in something else. But what you are talking about sounds really interesting, like researching research, optimizing processes, operations of research. How would you suggest someone goes about, and you also said you kind of made up this position, like you made this. So, how would you suggest one like goes about getting into this? Or are you it, are you the researcher?

Lauren Allen

No, no, definitely not special in that way. Maybe within our coordinating center, you know, but certainly not within the overarching clinical research ecosystem. I can imagine so many different pathways. Honestly, I you know, I think, even just thinking about my colleagues within our center, you know the people that I work with come from diverse, you know, backgrounds. Some of them have sort of grown up in the clinical research world doing sort of research coordination work, and that's sort of their pathway. Others are, you know, more, I guess traditional research, like pure health services researchers, has gone sort of that educational pathway. But I can also imagine, you know, if we had unlimited resources, for example, we would, you know, probably want to build capacity sort of in this kind of domain within our coordinating center this operations domain, and I'd be very interested in looking outside of our, you know our sort of particular area, you know, someone who is coming from a business or management background that maybe has never worked within clinical research before. I actually think that kind of fresh perspective could be really useful in that setting. So, you know, truly, I can imagine many roads into this type of work.

Megan Benay

That's great and you also mentioned, so that you you carved out this position, and I think that's something that is unique and would love to hear how did you advocate for that? Like did you have to like? I'm trying to imagine what that looks like. Did you like walk into someone's office and you were like, I want this job that I just made up? Here's the job description?

Lauren Allen

No! So that would be a good story. But that's not my story unfortunately. But I like my story, and it's also an opportunity to say that I have had, you know such a wonderful journey and experience at Hopkins. I've had the best mentors who have been just so supportive of of me all along the way in and in you know all of the domains you know, of this journey. You know academic mentors, but then, you know, within METRC I've certainly had mentors there as well, and and really it was just about, you know, I kind of got in at the beginning. So that was part of it, right. There was a lot of work to be done, and I was, you know, fresh in the program, my DrPH program. I was excited you know about all of these things that I was learning, and you know, really motivated to apply in in this, you know, consortium setting, and it was but you know the it was fertile grounds to do that, and I think you know I mean, I had an actual role. You know I was managing some studies, but just you know, saying like I hey, you know, I noticed that we could gain some insight into you know how our you know clinical sites are performing if we kind of focus you know our attention on these different domains of performance. And I think we could develop some indicators and generate these report cards. And you know, or I think we could really use, you know, an administrative database, where we, you know, amass all of this information, and it can be this sort of central resource, and and people just said yes, because it didn't, you know it was stuff that didn't exist. It was low risk, I think, for the organization at that time, and so I had, it was just this beautiful convergence of I kind of it was the right time, right place, all those, you know, right place, kind of overlapping it was, you know, and I think I realized that there was a real, there was a lot of luck and privilege in being able to have the opportunities that I was, you know, generously given, you know, all along the way. I mean, I think I sort of proved myself. And so you know, as time went on, and that's what allowed me to kind of work my way into the role that I have now. And it's interesting that I didn't, I just started being called that actually. 

Megan Benay

Can you add a couple more words into my title? Please? Thank you.

Lauren Allen

I just started being introduced that way at some point. That sounds silly, maybe admitting that, but but it it was great. I just slowly had started to take on, you know, my, the scope of the work you know, that I was involved in, and sort of my the impact of the things that I was working on just kind of grew and expanded over time. And then you know I don't think that I ever was really paying a lot of attention to like I would like to have you know this well-defined job with this specific title. It all just kind of came together, not passively, because I wasn't being passive about the work that I was doing. But that was something that was kind of happening. I wasn't focused on it. It sort of it was a label that came up later, and not one that I made for myself. But the work itself is something that I carved out, and that's what was exciting and continues to be.

Megan Benay

I mean I could, we could probably talk about that all day, cause I also think there's a lot in there. I, I'll ask one more question, and and then we'll close out. But I don't know if this is true, for you. But I had a sort of similar experience, and I was younger and I'm a woman, and I basically just ended up doing 2 jobs. And so, I was doing twice the amount of work. I was spread so thin. But I wasn't hustling, you know, and I also didn't truly did not know how to advocate for myself in a male-dominated workplace where I could say, you're not paying me for 2 jobs. So, I'm actually only gonna do one job. 

Lauren Allen

Right.

Megan Benay

How did you like, were you also doing 2 jobs for a while? You know, you were like, hey, we should build this database, and we should like track these metrics. But then also do what you were hired to do. And do you think like for for other women in you know any field really, how do you go about advocating for yourself to say you know I can't work for free forever?

Lauren Allen

Yeah. Oh, it's a doozy of a question. 

Megan Benay

Yeah, just a light one. 

Lauren Allen

I, but you just very familiar. I don't know that I ever thought of it. I wasn't, I guess, I wasn't framing it, the experience of it that way in my mind, and it sort of slowly creeps up on you right? Like I wasn't like I'm doing this very specific job. And then also have taken on this very specific job. And my boundaries I think were maybe a little unique, because I was also trying to squeeze as much value out of the professional experience as I could to be, you know, because it was enriching my educational experience, and vice versa. And so, it never felt like I was being asked to over extend myself. I think it felt a lot more like I was being given opportunities and there were times, I mean, I think over the course of the 10 years certainly as my life changed and different life events happened, you know. I, you know, getting married and having children, and all of that business. There were times when I was much more, you know, sort of just completely in that that world, and and happy about it, you know, and then times where I sort of had to pull back a little bit and really focus on what was most essential. But I think in terms of advocating for oneself it's just I don't know if it's a fine line between, you know, you want, in some way, you know, it was asking, advocating for myself and my interest, you know, and and there was such accommodation and support. I think, advocating for yourself in terms of like your boundaries, you know, and your worth, and you know, is a whole different thing. And I'm not sure I figured that part out yet to be honest.

Megan Benay

Well, if you ever do, please do let me know, and I should say I should say no one asked me to do any of those things. I brought it all on myself. Like I, even I, had, you know, my boss was saying, you know, you need to do less, and I was like, but there's no one else to do it. I have to do it all, and I think that's a good, probably a different problem for a different day to tackle. But as we, as we close out our time here together, we would love to know what inspires you right now?

Lauren Allen

What inspires me certainly in in the professional domain, what inspires me, you know so much has changed in the 12-13 years that our center, you know METRC has been around, our consortium has been around, and there are new, just technologies, you know that, you know, I think are so exciting, and are automating so much of the the work you know, of implementing a clinical trial which is exciting because then that's that's you know, more money to do science and less money to you know, for tedium so I'm really excited about that. And inspired by that. I’m anxious to see what that is going to mean for clinical trials operations. What I'm also what I, as an individual sort of a little selfishly excited about something our consortium has never quite done before, you know, sort of an area for growth for us would be to develop translation mechanism for our study results. You know so as of right now we're disseminating, you know, our research results we publish in big journals. You know the main results of all of our our studies, of course, plus, you know, dozens and dozens hundreds of other secondary papers. But I'm really interested in getting the findings, you know, translated, not literal translation like language, but into resources that are more consumer-oriented, that are, you know, making sure that they’re in the hands of the people who you know we are, you know, intending to serve. And so, you know I don't have enormous amounts to experience with it, but we're starting to make some, you know, inroads in that that world, and and I think we can just even, you know, do an even better job of serving you know, our the community and sort of fulfilling our mission, and I I'm excited to also I'll have a chance to learn something new and kind of get my hands dirty with something new again. So, build building something new sounds really fun. 

Megan Benay

Yes, really bringing the research to practice. And in a meaningful and actionable way. Well, thank you so much for joining us, and we will hope to hear from you again soon.