dr chin yee streamlining clinical trials

Transcript

34 min

Ram Yalamanchili (00:04.568)

Hi, Dr. Chin Yee. Welcome.

David Chin Yee (00:07.29)

Thank you for having me Ram. Always a pleasure to meet up and have a great discussion.

Ram Yalamanchili (00:12.034)

Yeah, absolutely. Looking forward to talking to you. So to start off, I'd love to get a quick introduction about you and what you're doing with your program, with your practice. I'd love to hear little bit more about that.

David Chin Yee (00:27.222)

Well, as you mentioned, I'm David Chin Yee. I am the research director at Georgia Retina. We are a private practice retina group that somewhat recently been acquired as part of private equity. Our organization is called ISO partners, and I'm specifically in charge of our site at Georgia Retina. We've been around for over 25 years. Within the practice, we have over 25 retina specialists. We've had a robust clinical trial team for quite some time. We've been involved in all the pivotal studies that have gotten many of our current treatments available that we're currently using. Recently, over the past year and a half, I've started to be the research director. The reason for that is we've had a large turnover. Some of my more senior partners have decided to maybe take a slower pace in regards to the clinical trials department. I was very eager to get involved as I see many opportunities and treatment modalities coming to our field, and it was intriguing to me to get more involved. I hope to provide access to our patients to some of these new treatment modalities that are coming to our field.

Ram Yalamanchili (01:44.662)

Absolutely. And if I'm not wrong, your practice is one of the largest practices in Georgia. Is that correct?

David Chin Yee (01:51.956)

Not only in Georgia, probably in the southeast.

Ram Yalamanchili (01:55.04)

Okay, Yeah. Just a quick introduction on my end. I think we've met through a common connection, if I'm not wrong, through another retina physician. What was interesting when I first saw your practice was the volume of patients you're seeing regularly. Your forward thinking in terms of adopting new technology or ways of essentially managing your research program. It'll be great to have you share more thoughts about that.

David Chin Yee (03:14.456)

Yeah, starting off with turnover. Whenever we have a need for replacement, getting staff up to speed and filling different roles can be somewhat challenging. If you're already part of a clinical trial, having someone else fill in can take some time. You may have someone that has experience in ophthalmology, but they may not understand the regulations and documentation required for a clinical trial. Conversely, you may have someone well-versed in clinical trials but lacking in ophthalmology language. This field's terminology is unique, making it challenging to find someone with both clinical trial and ophthalmology experience. We primarily take technicians from our site but need to train and get them up to speed efficiently.

David Chin Yee (05:34.446)

We have over 15 office locations and currently only one study site. One of the reasons I stepped in was to expand and have another study site on the south side of Atlanta, necessitating efficiency in our systems.

Ram Yalamanchili (05:54.658)

Let's start with the staff training or onboarding aspect. You've preferred bringing on technicians with clinical experience and training them for research. What went well or didn't in that process?

David Chin Yee (06:26.618)

It’s essential to find someone on the same wavelength and passion for clinical trials. They need to understand the importance of our work. Identifying individuals with the right capability and open mindset is critical. Unfortunately, in smaller organizations, the candidate pool may not be abundant. If turnover occurs, proper communication with patients and sponsors becomes challenging, leading to additional hurdles in talent identification.

Ram Yalamanchili (07:54.126)

Can you tell me more about the turnover issue? What contributes to that?

David Chin Yee (08:17.968)

The workload stress is significant due to the larger demand for ophthalmology clinical research coordinators versus limited supply. Turnover is driven by better opportunities elsewhere, e.g., higher pay and less stress. Additionally, the inefficiencies within clinical trials themselves consume significant time, and staff often feel overwhelmed, which reduces their enthusiasm.

Ram Yalamanchili (10:14.166)

It’s interesting that these burdens and inefficiencies resonate across the clinical research spectrum. This entire environment struggles with efficiency, impacting trial operations overall.

David Chin Yee (11:03.216)

Indeed.

Ram Yalamanchili (11:04.442)

You are utilizing our AI platform in your clinic. What interested you in exploring AI teammates?

David Chin Yee (12:29.268)

I believe AI is the future and will help cut back on inefficiencies. AI can streamline processes from training to data entry, minimizing errors and redundancy. Our partnership allows us to implement projects we didn’t have the bandwidth to develop ourselves.

Ram Yalamanchili (13:56.494)

How do you see quality and data management interacting?

David Chin Yee (15:46.746)

The bottleneck often lies in efficiently moving patients through the study protocol. If our processes can increase efficiency, we can allow more patients into studies. We need to flatten operational steps to facilitate this better.

Ram Yalamanchili (19:05.954)

Administrative burdens are common in this industry, diminishing staff's time for patient interaction. This issue complicates efficient study management across regulatory, quality, and data management.

David Chin Yee (22:05.432)

Unfortunately, billing falls behind as patient care becomes the priority. It's critical that the financial aspect isn't neglected as it ensures study growth and sustainability.

Ram Yalamanchili (25:31.822)

Let's focus on effectively operating within this ecosystem to improve research program efficiency.

David Chin Yee (30:25.964)

Various advancements in AI technology today can assist with patient documentation and monitoring. AI's applications in diagnostic evaluations can greatly enhance how we assess treatment effectiveness.

Ram Yalamanchili (31:49.316)

Moving forward, how do you think we should approach adopting these technologies?

David Chin Yee (33:23.298)

Don’t overthink the process. Reach out and explore tools that can help streamline your operations. Action is vital, so take the first step in finding solutions to your needs.

David Chin Yee (35:01.454)

My aspiration is to establish our site as a leading clinical trial center. I want Georgia Retina to be recognized for our quality, recruitment, and the impact we make in providing access to advanced treatments for our patients.