Innovating Clinical Trials
Welcome to Innovating Clinical Trials, the podcast designed for clinical research professionals eager to deepen their understanding of clinical trials through concise, insightful segments. Join your hosts, Liam Eves and Ted Trafford, as they uncover the core issues in clinical research, reflect on the industry, and challenge conventional wisdom.
Ted Trafford - https://probitymedical.com/
With 30 years of experience in clinical research, Ted serves as the Director of Business Development, driving business growth and leading Feasibility and Site Relationship teams at Probity Medical Research, a clinical trial site administrative support company with a consortium of 75+ sites across four countries. As a writer and speaker, Ted contributes to thought leadership and strategic initiatives in the clinical trials industry, leveraging his extensive experience and creative approach to drive meaningful discussion and progress for Sponsors, CROs, Sites and Technology Vendors.
Liam Eves - https://www.theendpointpodcast.com/
Liam's held executive roles in SMOs and CROs, and led all major functions of trial delivery. His journey into the field began unexpectedly after an injury ended his career as a professional footballer. Over the years Liam has optimized trial delivery methods / systems for effective enrollment and trial delivery. Currently, he focuses on building and advising companies in the clinical trial space.
Opinions expressed are those of the participants and not their employers.
Episodes
49 episodes
ICT Ep 2.20: What Monty Python Can Teach Us About Clinical Trials
Clinical trials don’t become complex overnight, they get there one added process at a time.In this episode, Ted and Liam break down why the industry is so effective at adding new layers, but rarely takes the time to remove what’s no lon...
ICT Ep 2.19: Everyone Has a Plan Until the Trial Starts
A 5 AM wake-up call. A perfectly planned setup. And a moment that never delivered.In this episode, Liam and Ted use a story about a missed “blood moon” to explore a deeper truth in clinical trials: expectations don’t always match realit...
ICT Ep 2.18 What Recruitment Is Missing: Time, Trust, and a Cup of Tea
What does it actually mean to put the patient first?In this episode, Liam and Ted explore the role of empathy and human connection in clinical trials. From rushed pre-screening calls to a powerful story of pausing a consent conversation...
ICT Ep 2.17 Borrowing the F1 Playbook: What Formula One Gets Right That Clinical Trials Don't
What makes a truly high-performing team?Inspired by the precision of Formula One pit crews, where the difference between winning and losing is measured in milliseconds, Ted and Liam explore what clinical trial teams can learn from elite per...
ICT Ep. 2.16 Leading Teams That Take Risks and Deliver Results With Frank Watanabe (3/3)
In Part 3 of 3, Liam and Ted continue their conversation with Frank Watanabe, CEO of Arcutis Biotherapeutics discussing work-life balance, building social capital, and management vs. leadership.The conversation explores leadership at a p...
ICT Ep. 2.15 Innovation, Risk and Building Great Teams With Frank Watanabe (2/3)
In Part 2 of 3, Liam and Ted continue their conversation with Frank Watanabe, CEO of Arcutis Biotherapeutics, focusing on what it takes to hire and build high-performing teams in high-risk environments.Frank shares how he approaches hiri...
ICT Ep. 2.14 From Navy Officer to CEO: The DNA of Leadership with Frank Watanabe (1/3)
In this episode, Liam and Ted sit down with Frank Watanabe, President and CEO of Arcutis Biotherapeutics, to explore his journey from a Navy officer to a biotech executive and the leadership principles established along the way. Fra...
ICT Ep 2.13: The Hidden Complexity of Trial Feasibility
A patient in a database is not a patient in a trial. So why do we keep treating feasibility like a headcount?Fresh from a week deep in feasibility work, Liam introduces four characters who show up and cause chaos in almost every feasibil...
ICT Ep: 2.12: Dropping the Baton: Why Clinical Trial Handoffs Keep Failing
In elite sports, races are often won or lost in the transition, and Liam and Ted argue that the same is true in clinical trials. Drawing on the precision of Olympic relay racing, they make the case that the handoff points between sponsors, CROs...
ICT Ep 2.11: The Top 10 Signs Your Site Feasibility Process Is Off Track
Using a David Letterman-inspired “Top 10” format, the conversation highlights common feasibility pitfalls faced by sponsors, CROs, and clinical trial sites, including overly complex questionnaires, unrealistic enrollment expectations, delayed c...
ICT Ep 2.10 Where Clinical Trials Break Down, Even With Good Teams
Why do clinical trials struggle even when teams are experienced and well-intentioned?In this episode, Liam and Ted explore why these outcomes are rarely about individual performance and far more often about system-level misalignments. T...
ICT EP 2.9: Designing Eligibility Criteria That Work in the Real World
Eligibility criteria are meant to bring clarity to clinical trials, but in practice, they often do the opposite.In this episode of Innovating Clinical Trials, Liam and Ted unpack how poorly worded, ambiguous, or misaligned eligibility c...
ICT EP 2.8: The Cost of Fragmented Enrollment Ownership And Why Leadership Must Step In
In this episode, Liam and Ted unpack why enrollment behaves more like an operating system rather than a standalone process. They explore the question of ownership, the role sponsors play through protocol design, and how operational practices, h...
ICT EP 2.7: Rethinking How Sponsors Build Site Relationships
In this episode of Innovating Clinical Trials, Liam and Ted explore why building strong relationships with clinical trial sites requires more than dedicated relationship teams, it requires fixing problems at their source.They discuss ho...
ICT EP 2.6: What Shapes the Trajectory of a Clinical Trial
In this episode of Innovating Clinical Trials, Liam and Ted explore what determines the trajectory of a clinical trial and why success often depends on preparation, collaboration, and the ability to adapt when things don’t go as planned. They d...
ICT EP 2.5: Why Enrollment Is Slow and the Questions We’re Not Asking
In this episode of Innovating Clinical Trials, Liam and Ted challenge a familiar question in clinical research: “How do we increase enrollment?” Instead, they argue that progress starts by asking a better one- “What makes enrollment challenging...
ICT Ep 2.4: The Impact of Getting Site and Patient Engagement Right
In this episode of Innovating Clinical Trials, Liam and Ted explore why clinical research is, at its core, a people-driven business. Drawing on real-world experiences from both patient and site perspectives, they discuss how trust, communicatio...
ICT Ep 2.3: The Cost of Sponsors’ Extra Requests and what Sites can do about it
Welcome to Innovating Clinical Trials, the podcast designed for clinical research professionals eager to deepen their understanding of clinical trials through concise, insightful segments.Join your hosts, Liam Eves and Ted Traff...
ICP Ep 2.2: Building Better Sponsor-Site Partnerships
Welcome to Innovating Clinical Trials, the podcast designed for clinical research professionals eager to deepen their understanding of clinical trials through concise, insightful segments.Join your hosts, Liam Eves and Ted Traff...
ICT Ep 2.1: How Sponsors Win by Checking In Early with Sites
Welcome to Innovating Clinical Trials, the podcast designed for clinical research professionals eager to deepen their understanding of clinical trials through concise, insightful segments.Join your hosts, Liam Eves and Ted Traff...
ICT Ep29: Feasibility is Broken: Maya Zlatanova on Redesigning Feasibility
Welcome to Innovating Clinical Trials, the podcast where Liam and Ted explore the evolving landscape of clinical research and challenge the assumptions holding it back. In this episode, we sit down with Maya Zlatanova — CEO of TrialHub and Find...
ICT Ep28: Recruitment Solutions with Jill Pellegrino
Welcome to the Innovating Clinical Trials podcast, where we explore the evolving landscape of clinical research.In this episode, hosts Liam Eves and Ted Trafford sit down with Jill Pellegrino, CEO of AutoCruitment, to explore the future ...
ICT Ep27: Expanding the Scope of Feasibility in Clinical Trials with Nick Palumbo (Part 3 of 3)
Welcome to the Innovating Clinical Trials podcast, where we explore the evolving landscape of clinical research. In this episode, hosts Liam Eves and Ted Trafford continue the conversation with clinical trial feasibility expert Nick Pa...
ICT Ep26: Balancing Data, Technology, and Human Expertise in Feasibility with Nick Palumbo (Part 2 of 3)
Welcome to the Innovating Clinical Trials podcast, where we explore the evolving landscape of clinical research. In this episode, hosts Liam Eves and Ted Trafford continue the conversation with clinical research expert Nick Palumbo, di...
ICT Ep25: A deep dive into Feasibility with Nick Palumbo (Part 1 of 3)
Welcome to the Innovating Clinical Trials podcast, where we explore the evolving landscape of clinical research. In this episode, hosts Liam Eves and Ted Trafford sit down with clinical research expert Nick Palumbo to unpack the challe...