Pamela Williams

"My Skills My Life identified me as a Campaigner, Coordinator and Manager and this combination describes me perfectly!I enjoy working with teams to support, motivate and develop them. I love meeting new people and ensuring that they feel part of the team. I have an open minded approach which allows me to work with the teams, to ensure we can deliver the requirements of the clinical trial on time and within budget. I need to be organised, have an attention to detail and good at meeting deadlines. Overall, I really enjoy my role and I feel it fits very well with my personality."

"I work for Thermo Fisher Scientific supporting Clinical Research. We support a whole range of clinical trials, covering all areas of medicine, including drug and vaccine development. All clinical trials need to be approved by regulatory and ethics authorities before patients can take part. We also need to ensure that all the equipment, lab kits and drug supplies are delivered to the hospital or GP site before the clinical trial starts. My role is to support the Start Up Team managers (STM), who manage these requirements for a clinical trial and ensure we follow a consistent, high-quality process. This also involves coordination with a number of different departments.The best part about my job is working with a global team to accelerate the start of a clinical trial, and ultimately, support the delivery of new drug and vaccine treatments. I love using my clinical research experience to support the teams!"

"While reading scientific papers on new drug treatments for parasitic diseases, such as malaria, I gained an insight into the world of clinical trials and knew this was the career for me! I secured my first position as a Clinical Research Associate (CRA), where I would travel to hospital and/or GP surgeries (or \"sites\") that were taking part in the trial, to review and collect the study data. I've been involved in clinical research for over 20 years and had a variety of roles. These have included project management for the whole study, coordinating the many different departments involved in a trial. I've also worked as Clinical Team manager, providing day-to-day support on the study processes for the CRA team. As part of the feasibility team, we used data to provide the best strategy for site placement on a global basis. I've always loved the fast dynamic nature of the start of a clinical trial and now work as a Start Up Team Manager Director, where I work with a number of teams over many trials, to ensure we activate sites as quickly as possible so doctors can recruit patients into the clinical trial. "

"As a mother of 2 boys, there's never a dull moment! Although they do not share my passion for Zoology, in particular, Parasitology (it's engineering for them!), I enjoy talking to them about science and clinical research.In my free time, I enjoy yoga and pilates classes, which are great for both the mind and body. Although I have hung up my tap and ballet shoes, I still love everything to do with dance. My favourite pastime is going to the see musicals in the theatre. "

"My typical day starts with checking emails to ensure I'm up to date. As a global industry, it's quite typical to receive information overnight. I have meetings with each of the Start Up Team managers (STMs), to discuss the progress of each clinical trial, which are all done by MS Teams. I also work on reports to senior management teams, which require a number of data sources to be checked. We are most definitely a global team, so my typical day involves talking to colleagues from all parts of the globe, which is an aspect I really enjoy! I also work on different projects that may be related to process development or new initiatives. This is a great opportunity to use my experience and support the development of the team.Many roles in clinical research can be based at home, and as such, I have worked from home for most of my career. As and when required, I would travel to meetings, which may be for study updates or for business development. As a CRA, I would travel to hospital and GP sites all over the UK. "

"BSc (Hons) 2i Zoology (Parasitology)MSc Biological Electron MicroscopyPhD Zoology (Parasitology)BSc in a Life Science related field or a Registered Nursing certification are required for a CRA position. There are however, lots of other roles in the clinical trial industry that do not require a life science degree."