Main Responsibilities of a Senior Clinical Trial Coordinator at UCLA Health
A Senior Clinical Trial Coordinator at UCLA Health juggles three key responsibilities: first, ensuring patient comfort and understanding by making "expectations for the trial...very clear"; second, maintaining strong relationships with pharmaceutical companies, meeting deadlines, and adhering to "very specific criteria"; and third, supporting the clinical team by providing necessary information and resources. This multifaceted role highlights the coordinator's crucial contributions to successful clinical trials.
Project Management, Communication, Teamwork, Problem-Solving, Data Analysis
Advizer Information
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Cindy Tong
Sr. Clinical Trial Coordinator
UCLA Health, Hematology/Oncology
UCLA, 2017
UCLA FEMBA 2026
Biology & Related Sciences
Healthcare, Medical & Wellness
Research and Development (R&D)
Took Out Loans
Video Highlights
1. Patient care coordination: Ensuring patients have necessary appointments, addressing questions, and managing expectations to create a comfortable experience.
2. Pharmaceutical company liaison: Meeting deadlines, adhering to trial protocols, providing data and updates on patient progress and side effects.
3. Internal team collaboration: Supporting the clinical team by providing treatment plans, managing testing, and communicating important information about patients and trials
Transcript
What are your main responsibilities within your current role?
My role as a coordinator is to manage multiple aspects of a clinical trial. I can break this down into three main groups or clients.
The first, and most obvious, is our patients. I coordinate their care, ensuring they have necessary appointments and start the trial promptly. If they have questions for the physician and the physician isn't available, I can help prioritize their needs. My goal is to make patients feel comfortable and well-cared for.
It’s important to ensure that expectations for the trial and appointments are very clear for the patients. This way, all they have to do is show up for their appointments.
The second responsibility is to our pharmaceutical companies, who fund all our trials. These trials are intervention-based, involving medication, surgery, or other treatments. The hope is to either cure patients' cancers or extend their lives, depending on the cancer's progression.
I ensure I respond promptly to sponsor inquiries about patient progress, data, and any noted side effects. Meeting enrollment deadlines is crucial, as is running the trial according to their protocols. Each trial has specific criteria for patient populations and required assessments like EKGs and labs. It's a regimented system, and I adhere to our contractual obligations to the sponsor.
Third, I focus on our clinical team, including doctors, nurses, medical assistants, and my own assistants. I ensure they have what they need to do their work. This involves creating treatment plan outlines by interpreting complex protocols. I also make sure we have the correct testing and specimens on-site.
This helps nurses know exactly which labs to collect or assessments to perform. Additionally, I keep physicians informed about trial openings, patient status, and any side effects. I answer any questions they may have.