A Day in the Life of a Clinical Trial Pharmacist at UCLA Health
A Clinical Trial Pharmacist at UCLA Health acts as a "project manager," overseeing multiple clinical trials simultaneously, juggling tasks from initial setup and "making sure the operational setup is proper" in the electronic medical record (EMR) to inventory management, logistics, and data provision to sponsors. This involves coordinating with various stakeholders, including technicians and sponsor representatives, to ensure drug dispensing accuracy and adherence to regulations.
Project Management, Inventory Management, Data Management, Communication, Logistics
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Chai Lam
Clinical Trial Pharmacist
UCLA Health
UCLA 2004
UCSF PharmD
Biology & Related Sciences
Biotechnology & Pharmaceutical
Research and Development (R&D)
Honors Student, Scholarship Recipient, Pell Grant Recipient, Took Out Loans, Immigrant, Worked 20+ Hours in School, First Generation College Student
Video Highlights
1. Project Management: Clinical trial pharmacists manage multiple trials simultaneously, acting as project managers to oversee various stages and stakeholders.
2. Operational Setup and Inventory: Responsibilities include setting up trials in electronic medical records (EMR), managing inventory, overseeing shipping and logistics, and ensuring proper drug storage and temperature control.
3. Data Management and Collaboration: Pharmacists collaborate with sponsor representatives, arranging data collection appointments, providing data access, and verifying dispensing and drug inventory.
Transcript
What does a day in the life of a clinical trial pharmacist look like?
A lot of the role is much like a project manager. We consider each clinical trial a project.
To manage and oversee it all, multiple stakeholders are involved. A typical day can involve working on several projects.
Some of the duties include ensuring each trial is at the correct stage, whether during startup or making sure the operational setup is proper. I work with our health IT to ensure everything is set up in our EMR.
We also deal with inventory, including shipping and logistics. We have a couple of technicians who help us oversee the shipping, logistics, and storage. This ensures we don't have any temperature excursions.
For trials that are already up and running, sponsor representatives come to collect data. We arrange appointments and consultations with them to provide the data they need and access to the EMR or our drug storage area. This is to confirm we've been dispensing and have the correct amount of drugs.
That's pretty much the bulk of the work, but there are quite a bit of several different types of duties involved.
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