Clinical Trial Podcast | Conversations with Clinical Research Experts

Clinical research and clinical trial management form the backbone of drug and device approvals worldwide. Learn from the leading industry experts to build and advance your clinical research career. You'll hear from sponsors, clinical research organizations, and clinical trial sites around the globe. This show is for all current and aspiring clinical research professionals including clinical research associates (CRA), clinical operations managers, study managers, biostatisticians, medical doctors, safety monitors, clinical scientists and other healthcare professionals. To learn more, visit https://clinicaltrialpodcast.com/

Best Practices for Clinical Trial Budgeting 01/19/2026

Best Practices for Clinical Trial Budgeting Clinical trial budgeting remains one of the biggest bottlenecks in study startups, driving delays, rework, and frustration across sponsors, CROs, and research sites. In this episode of the Clinical Trial Podcast, recorded live at Research Revolution, a clinical research conference hosted by Florence Healthcare, we take a hard look at why clinical trial budget negotiations continue to break down—and what experienced operators are doing differently. This conversation brings together sponsor, site, and consultant perspectives to unpack the real drivers of delay, including slow escalation pathways, unclear or inconsistent budget justifications, misaligned expectations, and communication gaps between stakeholders. Rather than rehashing theory, this episode focuses on practical, experience-driven insights you can actually apply. In this episode, you’ll learn: The most common causes of delays during clinical trial budget negotiations How sites can create clear, defensible budget justifications without triggering endless revision cycles What sponsors look for when approving higher-than-expected line items Best practices for internal rate cards, fee schedules, and budgeting templates How improved communication and transparency can reduce negotiation friction and speed study startup This episode features insights from: Kristen McKenna, Senior Manager and Investigator Contracts Lead at Pfizer Heidi Castle, Director of Business Development at Mercy Research Matt Lowery, CEO and Principal Consultant at The Pathways Group If you’re involved in clinical trial budgeting, contracting, or study startup - whether at a sponsor, CRO, or research site - this episode offers practical insights to help you navigate negotiations more effectively and avoid common pitfalls. Listen to the episode to hear how sponsor, site, and consultant leaders approach clinical trial budgeting and study startup. /episode/index/show/clinicaltrialpodcast/id/39786025

Risk Based Monitoring in Clinical Trials with Artem Andrianov 12/31/2025

Leading a Clinical Research Organization in the European Union with Dr. Philip Raeth 12/15/2025

Sponsor, Site, and Technology Vendor Collaboration with Mike Wenger 11/14/2025

Inspection Readiness with Donna Dorozinsky 10/12/2025

Clinical Trials in Saudi Arabia with Dr. Majed Al Jeraisy 05/31/2025

Cardiology Clinical Trials with Dr. Gregg Stone 07/31/2024

Cardiology Clinical Trials with Dr. Gregg Stone To learn more about this important field of cardiovascular clinical research, I invited Dr. Gregg Stone on the podcast. Dr. Stone is an Interventional Cardiologist and Director of Academic Affairs for the Mount Sinai Heart Health System and Professor of Medicine (Cardiology) and Professor of Population Health Sciences and Policy at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, NY. He has served as the national or international principal investigator for more than 150 national and international multicenter randomized trials and studies (many of which have led to new device approval or indications in the US), has authored more than 3000 manuscripts and abstracts published in the peer-reviewed literature, and has delivered thousands of invited lectures around the world. With an H-index of 202, Dr. Stone has been recognized in Nature Medicine as one of the most prolific authors in science, and by the Web of Science as among the top 0.01% of cited researchers in science. Dr. Stone completed medical school at Johns Hopkins University Medical Center, in Baltimore, MD, and his internship and residency at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center in New York City. He completed his general cardiology fellowship at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA and subsequently a dedicated fellowship in advanced coronary angioplasty in Kansas City, MO. Please join me in welcoming Dr. Gregg Stone on the Clinical Trial Podcast. Sponsor(s): This podcast is brought to you by Florence Healthcare. Florence eliminates chaotic workflows in clinical research operations with remote access and digital workflow platforms. More than 12,000 study sites, sponsors, and CROs in 45 countries trust them to accelerate their operations. To learn more, visit This podcast is brought to you by Slope. Slope drives operational excellence for highly complex, sample-intensive, early-phase clinical trials. The platform transforms chaotic clinical trial supply chains into protocol-specific operational workflows for sponsors, CROs, clinical research sites and labs. Learn more at /episode/index/show/clinicaltrialpodcast/id/32375357

Clinical Trial Insurance with Dan Fuld 07/14/2024

Diabetes Clinical Trials with Dr. Stayce Beck 02/29/2024

Access to Novel Medical Products with Dr. Alison Bateman-House 11/05/2023

Access to Novel Medical Products with Dr. Alison Bateman-House Providing patients access to novel medical products can be challenging to navigate for sponsors and trial participants alike. To learn more about expanded access, compassionate use, Right to Try laws, I invited Dr. Alison Bateman-House, PhD, MPH, MA, an Assistant Professor in the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Dr. Bateman-House is co-chair of the Working Group on Compassionate Use and Preapproval Access (CUPA), an academic group that studies ethical issues concerning access to investigational medical products and which consists of patient advocates, clinicians, members of industry, current and former FDA staffers, lawyers, and academics, among others. She advises biopharmaceutical companies, patient advocacy organizations, governmental, and non-governmental entities about clinical trial design and non-trial access programs, and she serves as ethicist for numerous data safety monitoring boards overseeing clinical trials. She has published and spoken extensively on non-trial access to investigational medical products, equity in clinical trials, individualized therapeutics, the history and ethics of using humans as research subjects, and public health ethics. Sponsor(s): This podcast is brought to you by Florence Healthcare. Florence eliminates chaotic workflows in clinical research operations with remote access and digital workflow platforms. More than 12,000 study sites, sponsors, and CROs in 45 countries trust them to accelerate their operations. To learn more, visit This podcast is brought to you by Slope. Slope drives operational excellence for highly complex, sample-intensive, early-phase clinical trials. The platform transforms chaotic clinical trial supply chains into protocol-specific operational workflows for sponsors, CROs, clinical research sites and labs. Learn more at /episode/index/show/clinicaltrialpodcast/id/28519829

Clinical Research as a Profession with Erika Stevens 08/24/2023

Clinical Research as a Profession with Erika Stevens Unlike an electrical engineer or a plumber, clinical research roles are not explicitly defined or categorized as such, in government employment databases. There are no certification or degree requirements to work as a clinical research professional either. To explore the topic of clinical research as a profession, I invited Erike Stevens on the podcast. Erika advises life sciences, academic medical centers, hospitals, cancer centers, foundations and health systems process improvement initiatives for productivity, quality and efficiency in operations, cross-functional relationships, administration, manufacturing, and compliance. She has over 20 years of research/ R&D experience, serving in roles such as Vice President Research, Senior Managing Director, Director Clinical Trials Office, Director of Clinical Research, Interim Executive Director, Clinical Trials Office and Director of Research Operations. Erika holds her B.A. from the University of Vermont, her M.A. from Case Western Reserve University and her M.A. from Temple University. She also holds a Graduate Certificate in Gerontology from Case Western University. Please join me in welcoming Erika on the show. Podcast Sponsor(s): This podcast is brought to you by Slope. Slope drives operational excellence for highly complex, sample-intensive, early-phase clinical trials. The platform transforms chaotic clinical trial supply chains into protocol-specific operational workflows for sponsors, CROs, clinical research sites and labs. Slope is trusted by industry leaders in complex early-phase clinical trials from top 50 pharma and CROs to emerging biotechs, and a global site network including NCI cancer centers and AMCs. Learn more at This podcast is brought to you by Veeva. Veeva connects patients, sites, and sponsors, on a single technology ecosystem to make clinical trials easier and faster. I’m particularly excited about Veeva SiteVault. SiteVault gives research sites one place to work with sponsors – to reduce the number of systems and logins used to run clinical trials. To learn more, visit . /episode/index/show/clinicaltrialpodcast/id/27844956

Community Engagement in Clinical Trials with Chris Komelasky 08/07/2023

Community health system-based research with JoAnne Levy 04/30/2023

Community health system-based research with JoAnne Levy Community health system-based research continues to become an important focus area for pharmaceutical and medical device sponsors given the recent FDA guidance on diversity in clinical trials. Our guest for this episode is JoAnne Levy, Vice President at Mercy Research, a part of Mercyhealth. Mercy Research is one of the largest fully integrated, community health system-based research organizations in the United States with more than 40 acute care, managed, and specialty hospitals, convenient urgent care locations, imaging centers and pharmacies. In 2022, over 38,000 Mercy patients contributed to research learning. JoAnne has served in the healthcare industry for almost 30 years. She leads Mercy Research, a not-for-profit organization managing clinical and real-world-evidence research activities across Mercy. JoAnne serves as current Chair and inaugural founder of Mercy Women in Leadership Council and as a member of Mercy’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Advisory Board. JoAnne received her undergraduate, law and master of business administration degrees — all with honors — from Washington University in St. Louis. Please join me in welcoming JoAnne on the Clinical Trial Podcast. This podcast is brought to you by Veeva. Veeva connects patients, sites, and sponsors, on a single technology ecosystem to make clinical trials easier and faster. I’m particularly excited about Veeva SiteVault. SiteVault gives research sites one place to work with sponsors - to reduce the number of systems and logins used to run clinical trials. To learn more, visit . This podcast is brought to you by Slope. Slope drives operational excellence for highly complex, sample-intensive, early-phase clinical trials. The platform transforms chaotic clinical trial supply chains into protocol-specific operational workflows for sponsors, CROs, clinical research sites and labs. Learn more at slopeclinical.com /episode/index/show/clinicaltrialpodcast/id/26695860

Postmarket Surveillance Studies with David Rutledge 04/24/2023

Postmarket Surveillance Studies with David Rutledge In this episode, we’re going to talk about Postmarket Surveillance Studies. In light of the EU Medical Device Regulation (MDR), medical device manufacturers are required to implement a Postmarket Surveillance (PMS) plan, which in turn may require them to conduct Postmarket Surveillance Studies. The importance of such studies has grown in recent years as regulators want to know about the safety and effectiveness during the lifetime of a medical device. To learn about Postmarket Surveillance Studies regulatory requirements, process for collecting clinical data for such studies, key elements of PMS plan, and more, I invited Dr. David Rutledge on the podcast. David is the President & CEO at Global Strategic Solutions, where he works as a global consultant for clinical evaluations, clinical risk management, regulatory, quality, and clinical investigations. David brings over 25 years of experience and knowledge in product-level analysis, clinical protocol and case report form development, scientific data analysis, organizational design, integration of science with business needs, quality management systems, signal detection, global clinical evaluations, clinical risk management, and regulatory affairs. David is Six Sigma and CAPA certified, an ISO 13485 lead auditor, and author of Mythical Medical™: Revelations from a Global Product Approval Consultant. * This podcast is brought to you by Florence Healthcare. Florence eliminates chaotic workflows in clinical research operations with remote access and digital workflow platforms. More than 10,000 study sites, sponsors, and CROs in 45 countries trust them to accelerate their operations. To learn more, visit This podcast is brought to you by Calyx. Calyx is a trusted name in medical imaging, having delivered imaging services to meet the needs of global biopharmaceutical sponsors and clinical research organizations for over 25 years. To learn more, visit * /episode/index/show/clinicaltrialpodcast/id/26628366

Human-centered design role in clinical trials with Bruce Hellman and Ben James 03/31/2023

Clinical Trial Site Networks with Christian Burns 01/18/2023

Clinical Trial Site Networks with Christian Burns There are advantages and disadvantages when it comes to being a standalone clinical trial site. Standalone clinical trial sites enjoy the freedom of running their own operations. But they may face challenges with executing some parts of a clinical trial. This is where site networks come in. For example, a site can run more efficient marketing campaigns, be more systematic in its clinical trial operations, or share patient recruitment and retention resources by being part of a site network. To learn more about site networks, I invited Christian Burns, President of Elligo Health Research and Co-Founder of ClinX, on the show. Christian is a serial entrepreneur, investor, and founder of multiple clinical trial companies, including ClinEdge, BTC Network, and Guidestar Research. Christian has a track record of success in the pharmaceutical industry, with a particular focus on decentralized and direct-to-patient clinical trials. With experience across most therapeutic areas and a presence in over 30 languages and 40 countries, Christian's companies have served patients and providers across thousands of research sites globally. His goal is to accelerate the development of new therapies by creating innovative solutions that connect and empower the clinical trial ecosystem. A native of Philadelphia, Christian holds a B.A. in Public Health from the University of Tampa. Enjoy! Sponsors: This podcast is brought to you by Veeva. Veeva connects patients, sites, and sponsors, on a single technology ecosystem to make clinical trials easier and faster. I’m particularly excited about Veeva SiteVault. SiteVault gives research sites one place to work with sponsors - to reduce the number of systems and logins used to run clinical trials. To learn more, visit . This podcast is brought to you by Slope. Slope’s eClinical Supply Chain Management (eCSCM) platform reduces clinical trial risks, reigns in costs, improves the productivity of clinical trial collaborators, and increases subject retention by removing the manual, spreadsheet-driven, and error-prone processes used to manage and track clinical supplies and biological samples to a digital platform. To learn more, visit . /episode/index/show/clinicaltrialpodcast/id/25645476

Heart Failure Clinical Trials with Sonna Patel-Raman 12/26/2022

Heart Failure Clinical Trials with Sonna Patel-Raman In this episode, I’m excited for you to learn about Heart Failure Clinical Trials for medical devices. Our guest today is Sonna Patel-Raman. Sonna is currently the President at NuPulse Inc, an early stage medical device company responsible for developing the first minimally invasive, long-term, ambulatory counterpulsation device that works in sync with the heart. At NuPulse, Sonna is responsible for developing and executing on strategic initiatives for the company, building a diverse and multidisciplinary team of engineers, regulatory and quality associates, marketing, manufacturing, clinical affairs and education, and trial operations. Sonna and her team successfully completed enrollment in an FDA-approved feasibility trial and are now working towards the next phase of their medical product development lifecycle. Sonna has extensive experience in the heart failure medical device space. Prior to joining NuPulse in 2015, she worked as the FDA Branch Chief where she managed a team of 16+ reviewers and clinicians and was responsible for the technical review and development of pre-marketing approvals (PMAs), Investigational Device Exemption (IDEs), 510k)s and more. In this interview, Sonna provides us with a great introduction to heart failure trials, an overview of the medical device ecosystem for the treatment of heart failure, unique operational considerations for heart failure clinical trials, working as a woman leader in the medtech space, and more. Sonna is an effective communicator (as you’ll soon find out after listening to this interview) and an amazing human being. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Sonna Patel-Raman. Sponsors: This podcast is brought to you by Veeva. Veeva connects patients, sites, and sponsors, on a single technology ecosystem to make clinical trials easier and faster. I’m particularly excited about Veeva SiteVault. SiteVault gives research sites one place to work with sponsors - to reduce the number of systems and logins used to run clinical trials. To learn more, visit . This podcast is brought to you by Slope. Slope’s eClinical Supply Chain Management (eCSCM) platform reduces clinical trial risks, reigns in costs, improves the productivity of clinical trial collaborators, and increases subject retention by removing the manual, spreadsheet-driven, and error-prone processes used to manage and track clinical supplies and biological samples to a digital platform. To learn more, visit . /episode/index/show/clinicaltrialpodcast/id/25430463

Medical Imaging for Clinical Trial Sites with Kelie Luby 12/10/2022

Risk Management for Clinical Investigators with Bijan Elahi 11/22/2022

Risk Management for Clinical Investigators with Bijan Elahi This is a special episode on risk management. It is important to understand what dictates the work we do as clinical research professionals and how our work fits into the bigger picture of medical product development. This episode serves exactly that purpose. You’ll be introduced to ISO 14971 Application of risk management to medical devices and learn about its relationship to ISO 14155 Clinical investigation of medical devices for human subjects — Good clinical practice. You’ll also understand key terminology around risks, how to define risk, what's special about clinical studies with respect to risk management, and much more. Our guest today is Bijan Elahi. Bijan has worked in risk management for medical devices for over 29 years at the largest medical device companies in the world, as well as small startups. He is a technical fellow and Medtronic corporate advisor on safety risk management of. medical devices. In this capacity, he offers education and consulting on risk management to all Medtronic business units, worldwide. Bijan is a lecturer at Eindhoven University of Technology (Netherlands), where he teaches risk management to doctoral students in engineering. At the invitation of the FDA, he also teaches a graduate course on medical device risk management at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Bijan is the founder of MedTech Safety, Inc., an education and advisory company. He has educated over 6,500 individuals worldwide. Bijan is a frequently invited speaker at international professional conferences, and is also a contributor to ISO 14971, the international standard on the application of risk management to medical devices. Last but not least, he is the author of Safety Risk Management for Medical Devices, published by Elsevier publishing. Enjoy! Sponsor: This podcast is brought to you by Slope. Slope provides an online eClinical Supply Chain Management (eCSCM) platform for sponsors and research sites collaborating on complex, sample-intensive, early-stage clinical trials. The Slope eCSCM platform reduces clinical trial risks, reigns in costs, improves the productivity of clinical trial collaborators, and increases subject retention by moving the manual, spreadsheet-driven, and error-prone processes used to manage and track clinical supplies and biological samples to a digital platform. To learn more, visit and ask to speak with a solutions coordinator today. /episode/index/show/clinicaltrialpodcast/id/25096374