How does one break into the world of clinical research? Where are these jobs? Do you need some sort of certification? Anyone know? 👍 
Getting Started In Clinical Research
- Thread starter ZAZA67401
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Most open clinical research jobs are posted on either hospital or university job websites. That's how I got my clinical research job!
My suggestion to you would be to find the hospitals and med schools in the city you want to be in, find their websites, and go to their job postings. That website will usually be on the home page, but if not, search for their HR department. Generally entry-level positions are for Clinical Research Coordinators, or Clinical Research Associates. Associates generally do more data entry/IRB correspondence stuff, which Coordinators do more subject/patient interaction. Often the two roles are combined.
I wouldn't recommend just looking up clinical trials and calling the people listed there, because more likely than not the person you will be calling is the research coordinator, and not the physician running the study. If there is a job to be had in clinical research it will be posted on the job listing site.
Where are you trying to find a job? If you're in the Boston area, I would recommend checking out the Partners Healthcare website. They have almost all clinical research jobs for several Harvard-affiliated hospitals (MGH, Brigham and Womens).
Good luck!
My suggestion to you would be to find the hospitals and med schools in the city you want to be in, find their websites, and go to their job postings. That website will usually be on the home page, but if not, search for their HR department. Generally entry-level positions are for Clinical Research Coordinators, or Clinical Research Associates. Associates generally do more data entry/IRB correspondence stuff, which Coordinators do more subject/patient interaction. Often the two roles are combined.
I wouldn't recommend just looking up clinical trials and calling the people listed there, because more likely than not the person you will be calling is the research coordinator, and not the physician running the study. If there is a job to be had in clinical research it will be posted on the job listing site.
Where are you trying to find a job? If you're in the Boston area, I would recommend checking out the Partners Healthcare website. They have almost all clinical research jobs for several Harvard-affiliated hospitals (MGH, Brigham and Womens).
Good luck!
ZAZA67401 said:Is there a website somewhere? Do you just look up clinical trials and start calling these people for a job?
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Come to where the feds fund your research
ZAZA67401 said:How does one break into the world of clinical research? Where are these jobs? Do you need some sort of certification? Anyone know? 👍
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Don't just look into clinical research from the academic side! In the private sector, there are companies called clinical research organizations (CROs). Their sole function is essentially to adminster clinical trials. A bachelor's in bio and some science or hospital related experience should be fine for an entry-level position. Your best bet is to work in something like data entry or have regulatory responsibilities like getting forms in. It also pays pretty well.
To clairfy what someone else mentioned. A clinical research associate (CRA) means something very specific here. These people will go out to sites (doctor's offices) and monitor the progress of the site throughout the clinical trial process. You generally need a few years experience, and it involves quite a bit of travel. Maybe this explicit division of labor is different in academia.
To clairfy what someone else mentioned. A clinical research associate (CRA) means something very specific here. These people will go out to sites (doctor's offices) and monitor the progress of the site throughout the clinical trial process. You generally need a few years experience, and it involves quite a bit of travel. Maybe this explicit division of labor is different in academia.
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It's often extremely difficult to find a job unless you have connections through family or school. I've been looking for months now and only just had an interview with another tomorrow. You have to be persistant. I'm also in a city with tons of research money (Philadelphia) and it wasn't even easy here.
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I would say your best bet is an academic hospital -- they often have job sites that list clinical research positions (ie CRA or just Research Assistant) that are entry level. You do not need a certification. I got my first job as a Clinical Research Assistant at UCSF with my bachelor's degree -- my main experiences prior had been volunteer research positions. If you are on the west coast, they are a good place to try. If you are more interested in a biotech company, you'll probably have to do more data entry/admin stuff at first. There's a site called www.medzilla.com where you can look for stuff. Good luck!
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One route is to think of a research project you'd like to undertake and then call a medical professor to see if they want to conduct the research with you. This could lead to a lead author credit and a very interesting project.
I'm a physician that works in the pharma industry. I work exclusively in clinical research. Here are the basics:
Pharma companies contract out a large part of the work involved in each clinical trial. Here are the various pieces:
1) SMO - Site management organization. Usually a group of physicians who have lots of experience in running trials as investigators. Each investigator is known as a PI (Principal Investigator) who is usually an MD/DO/PharmD who has experience in running trials in a specific therapeutic area like Diabetes, Depression, etc.
2) CRO - Contract Research Organization. A loose term which generally means a company that specializes in contracting for various pieces of the outsourced work in a clinical trial. Some of the larger CROs in existence are: Quintiles, Covance, PharmaNet, PPDi, etc.
3) CRA - Clinical Research Associate. Also known as "monitors". These people work on behalf of the sponsor (pharma company) to go to each investigator's site to make sure he/she is doing the trial correctly and according to guidelines. Most CRAs are certified by a professional organization known as the ACRP (http://www.acrpnet.org). These positions involve a lot of travel (>100K miles per year). Some pharma companies have in-house CRAs which are known as clinical trial managers. These positions will all require prior experience.
4) CRC - Clinical Research Coordinator. Usually bachelors level or nursing level people who have experience in running the trials at the investigator's site. These positions usually require experience or certification by the ACRP. Some SMOs have what are known as Research Assistants (not CRAs) whose main function is to assist the CRCs. This may be a good starting point for you.
Now getting a job in clinical research without experience is going to be tough. My first suggestion would be to work for 6 months in an Academic setting then try to work your way into a CRO. Then if you get ACRP certification plus 2 years experience, then you might try getting a job in a pharma company. Here are some sites to check for job listings:
http://www.centerwatch.com/careers/careers.html
http://www.diahome.org/docs/jobs/Jobs_index.cfm
http://www.landmarksearch.com/
http://www.biospacejobs.com/bspj/servlet/BSPJHome
http://www.medzilla.com/
Also Monster is a good source -- just type one of the above job titles into the search box.
Pharma companies contract out a large part of the work involved in each clinical trial. Here are the various pieces:
1) SMO - Site management organization. Usually a group of physicians who have lots of experience in running trials as investigators. Each investigator is known as a PI (Principal Investigator) who is usually an MD/DO/PharmD who has experience in running trials in a specific therapeutic area like Diabetes, Depression, etc.
2) CRO - Contract Research Organization. A loose term which generally means a company that specializes in contracting for various pieces of the outsourced work in a clinical trial. Some of the larger CROs in existence are: Quintiles, Covance, PharmaNet, PPDi, etc.
3) CRA - Clinical Research Associate. Also known as "monitors". These people work on behalf of the sponsor (pharma company) to go to each investigator's site to make sure he/she is doing the trial correctly and according to guidelines. Most CRAs are certified by a professional organization known as the ACRP (http://www.acrpnet.org). These positions involve a lot of travel (>100K miles per year). Some pharma companies have in-house CRAs which are known as clinical trial managers. These positions will all require prior experience.
4) CRC - Clinical Research Coordinator. Usually bachelors level or nursing level people who have experience in running the trials at the investigator's site. These positions usually require experience or certification by the ACRP. Some SMOs have what are known as Research Assistants (not CRAs) whose main function is to assist the CRCs. This may be a good starting point for you.
Now getting a job in clinical research without experience is going to be tough. My first suggestion would be to work for 6 months in an Academic setting then try to work your way into a CRO. Then if you get ACRP certification plus 2 years experience, then you might try getting a job in a pharma company. Here are some sites to check for job listings:
http://www.centerwatch.com/careers/careers.html
http://www.diahome.org/docs/jobs/Jobs_index.cfm
http://www.landmarksearch.com/
http://www.biospacejobs.com/bspj/servlet/BSPJHome
http://www.medzilla.com/
Also Monster is a good source -- just type one of the above job titles into the search box.
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I've been looking to break into this for about a month and a half or so now. For me, it's particularly difficult, since I have a social science degree and no lab and very little clinical experience (I'm starting a post-bacc program in Sept.). I've had a few interviews so far, for both tech and coordinator positions, and one thing I'll tell you is that experience counts. Big time. I think the only reason I've gotten as far as I have is that I have a good bit of public health research and practice under my belt which I think lots of docs find interesting.
The only advice I can give is don't give up. Use the $hit theory: if you throw enough at a wall, something's bound to stick eventually. And yes, that is the extent of my scientific training. I don't know where you live, but talk to people you've done volunteer work with, let doctors know you're pursuing a career in medicine, apply for everything you see that's interesting on their websites. Of course, you may prefer advice from someone who's actually been successful.
The only advice I can give is don't give up. Use the $hit theory: if you throw enough at a wall, something's bound to stick eventually. And yes, that is the extent of my scientific training. I don't know where you live, but talk to people you've done volunteer work with, let doctors know you're pursuing a career in medicine, apply for everything you see that's interesting on their websites. Of course, you may prefer advice from someone who's actually been successful.
