For Research Associate/Clinical Research Coordinator, what did you interact with physicians about?

[runningpenguin]

For those who are/have been a Research Associate or Clinical Research Coordinator before, do you interact much with physician(s)? If yes, why are you interacting with them? For example, are you asking them for help in learning how to fill out paperwork/consent patients or is it for career advice/development?

Edit: Also, I probably should have been more broad in the title. Not just interacting with physicians, but supervisors (so whoever was in charge of you). Can you specify who was in charge of you as well?

Also, is there any way to change the title of a post on SDN? Thanks!

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[tbonez71]

For those who are/have been a Research Associate or Clinical Research Coordinator before, do you interact much with physician(s)? If yes, why are you interacting with them? For example, are you asking them for help in learning how to fill out paperwork/consent patients or is it for career advice/development?

Edit: Also, I probably should have been more broad in the title. Not just interacting with physicians, but supervisors (so whoever was in charge of you). Can you specify who was in charge of you as well?

Also, is there any way to change the title of a post on SDN? Thanks!

I have worked both as a research associate, and now as a clinical research associate.

Being a research associate entailed a lot of basic science, so all my bosses were all, none of them doctors. In fact, in that company I never once interacted with a doctor. As is often the case with these positions, you might be researching/developing a new therapy or technology that may not require doctor input to you directly. Obviously this varies greatly on the stage of development, as well as the use of what you are working on.

My CRA position is totally different - literally all of my bosses are doctors who also work with the company. Typical CRA work would include site monitoring, initiation, Dealing with IRB stuff, etc. so you would likely work directly with docs at their clinic or within your own team. They will run the study, write protocols, and provide feedback on the trial. In my case, I work in R&D so our clinical team (with docs) provides feedback to the engineers on how our medical devices are working and what needs improvement, so not everyone is clinical. Consenting patients is just something you learn so it is not a huge deal, you would be able to do this yourself with training.

Hope this helps!

 

[runningpenguin]

I have worked both as a research associate, and now as a clinical research associate.

Being a research associate entailed a lot of basic science, so all my bosses were all, none of them doctors. In fact, in that company I never once interacted with a doctor. As is often the case with these positions, you might be researching/developing a new therapy or technology that may not require doctor input to you directly. Obviously this varies greatly on the stage of development, as well as the use of what you are working on.

My CRA position is totally different - literally all of my bosses are doctors who also work with the company. Typical CRA work would include site monitoring, initiation, Dealing with IRB stuff, etc. so you would likely work directly with docs at their clinic or within your own team. They will run the study, write protocols, and provide feedback on the trial. In my case, I work in R&D so our clinical team (with docs) provides feedback to the engineers on how our medical devices are working and what needs improvement, so not everyone is clinical. Consenting patients is just something you learn so it is not a huge deal, you would be able to do this yourself with training.

Hope this helps!

For CRA, what do you discuss with the physicians? Also, what is consenting patients like? How long does it take to learn how to actually consent patients? I've seen postings for CRA positions, but I'm not sure if I fit their criteria. A lot of times they want people with experience so there is less training involved.

Also, what does a CRA do for site monitoring, initiation, IRB (what you mentioned)? I've seen this sort of stuff mentioned around on the forums, but I don't have a background with which to understand what it means exactly.

 

[Styrene]

For those who are/have been a Research Associate or Clinical Research Coordinator before, do you interact much with physician(s)? If yes, why are you interacting with them? For example, are you asking them for help in learning how to fill out paperwork/consent patients or is it for career advice/development?

Edit: Also, I probably should have been more broad in the title. Not just interacting with physicians, but supervisors (so whoever was in charge of you). Can you specify who was in charge of you as well?

Also, is there any way to change the title of a post on SDN? Thanks!

When I was a clinical research coordinator at a hospital, I helped physicians implement their studies, and then I performed continual quality control after training all of the RAs...so interaction with physicians was based around that.

 

[CloverBale]

does being a linical research coordinator look good on your app? Worth sending an update letter?

 

[chappikachu]

For those who are/have been a Research Associate or Clinical Research Coordinator before, do you interact much with physician(s)? If yes, why are you interacting with them? For example, are you asking them for help in learning how to fill out paperwork/consent patients or is it for career advice/development?

Edit: Also, I probably should have been more broad in the title. Not just interacting with physicians, but supervisors (so whoever was in charge of you). Can you specify who was in charge of you as well?

Also, is there any way to change the title of a post on SDN? Thanks!

Currently working as a clinical research coordinator under an MD physician (PI) during my gap year.

I interact with physicians almost on a daily basis (both in person and via email/text) to touch base about ongoing research studies we're working on (troubleshooting problems, updating progress on work, etc.) and to ask for help/advice while I'm applying this cycle. Part of my job also involves shadowing physicians during clinic and helping out with administering cognitive tests for a research study.

 

[tbonez71]

For CRA, what do you discuss with the physicians? Also, what is consenting patients like? How long does it take to learn how to actually consent patients? I've seen postings for CRA positions, but I'm not sure if I fit their criteria. A lot of times they want people with experience so there is less training involved.

Also, what does a CRA do for site monitoring, initiation, IRB (what you mentioned)? I've seen this sort of stuff mentioned around on the forums, but I don't have a background with which to understand what it means exactly.

Definitely for CRA you need experience, it isn't an entry level position, it would take probably too long to not only get acquainted with the science/technology in question, but also about the regulatory facets of the job. It might be possible to get a CRC position though (clinical research coordinator).

I basically just help physicians with their job. Travel around to sites and monitoring their activities is one thing (making sure they are sticking to a protocol well, good clinical practice, IRB forms, etc.), initiation is setting up a site to use in a clinical trial which requires some steps of paperwork to be cleared for use by regulatory bodies (IRB). IRB is an "institutional review board", or independent 3rd party, that looks over clinical trials to make sure all parties involved in a clinical trial are sticking to ethical and efficient practices.

Consenting patients is just reviewing what will happen in a clinical trial with a patient, and their rights, then you have them sign some documents. This needs to happen before every clinical trial with every patient. It takes a few tries but would not take long to learn to do if you know the gist about what is going on.

 

[runningpenguin]

Definitely for CRA you need experience, it isn't an entry level position, it would take probably too long to not only get acquainted with the science/technology in question, but also about the regulatory facets of the job. It might be possible to get a CRC position though (clinical research coordinator).

I basically just help physicians with their job. Travel around to sites and monitoring their activities is one thing (making sure they are sticking to a protocol well, good clinical practice, IRB forms, etc.), initiation is setting up a site to use in a clinical trial which requires some steps of paperwork to be cleared for use by regulatory bodies (IRB). IRB is an "institutional review board", or independent 3rd party, that looks over clinical trials to make sure all parties involved in a clinical trial are sticking to ethical and efficient practices.

Consenting patients is just reviewing what will happen in a clinical trial with a patient, and their rights, then you have them sign some documents. This needs to happen before every clinical trial with every patient. It takes a few tries but would not take long to learn to do if you know the gist about what is going on.

Thanks. I appreciate your reply, but could you go into greater detail? It's hard to understand these things without too much of a background in research? What is the CRA's role in helping physicians with good clinical practice/IRB forms for example?

When consenting patients, do you interview them as well? I've seen some threads that mention CRA/CRC interviews patients, but I don't know how this works because I thought learning how to interview patients took a long time/years to learn.

Also, do you personally feel like this job helps prepare you for medical school? Patient interaction and interacting with physicians/learning more about research?

 

[runningpenguin]

Currently working as a clinical research coordinator under an MD physician (PI) during my gap year.

I interact with physicians almost on a daily basis (both in person and via email/text) to touch base about ongoing research studies we're working on (troubleshooting problems, updating progress on work, etc.) and to ask for help/advice while I'm applying this cycle. Part of my job also involves shadowing physicians during clinic and helping out with administering cognitive tests for a research study.

Thanks, how is it possible to get a CRC job? They seem to ask for prior experience or at last good clinical practice training/certification. Also, they ask for a long time commitment...2 years minimum?

 

[chappikachu]

Thanks, how is it possible to get a CRC job? They seem to ask for prior experience or at last good clinical practice training/certification. Also, they ask for a long time commitment...2 years minimum?

Unfortunately, I’m not sure if I can give you helpful advice about applying for a CRC job. I actually worked as a research assistant for a couple of summers during undergrad under my current supervisor. She knew I was taking a gap year and offered me a position as CRC for the year without the long-term commitment you speak of and with flexible hours (in terms of taking time off for interviews). Other people I know who have worked as CRC also seemed to have worked with the physician (their supervisor) before, then were later offered a position. Have you worked closely with a physician before? If you don’t already have an established relationship with a physician, it may be hard to get such a position for just a single year but I also didn’t go through the application process so I may be wrong.


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