Evolving the Dinosaur: Rebuilding Paediatric Clinical Trials as a Service

Dinosaurs evolved faster than we previously thought. We've seen a similarly fast evolution occurring with paediatric clinical research in light of global legislative changes, increasing commitment by pharmaceutical companies and urgency for high-quality clinical trials in children. In Evolving the Dinosaur, Violet Ford demonstrates how a transformative, data-driven change, measure and track framework, combined with adaptive practices, successfully turned around a pharmacy-managed paediatric clinical trials/research service. Ford has made the intrapreneurial journey, and now she is sharing the lessons learned on how to expand on current practices to improve operational performance, patient safety and quality care through service optimisation, efficient interprofessional collaboration and streamlining cross-functional workflows. Evolving the Dinosaur offers expert guidance and pragmatic solutions for various stakeholders either directly or indirectly involved with pharmacy trials services. Ford shows how to improve clinical trials' disconnected systems, substandard data collection tools and information resources, and develop more effective systems to meet the twenty-first-century demand for high-quality paediatric clinical research. It's time to evolve the dinosaur!

About the Author

Violet Ford is an advanced paediatric clinical pharmacist at the front line of therapeutic care and intrapreneur. Her four-decade career spans across industry, business, academia, senior leadership and specialised clinical and research roles. As an expert, she is actively involved in paediatric medication safety and in practice-based, as well as collaborative, research initiatives. Following successful execution of pharmacy-coordinated paediatric research as a service at the Children's Hospital at Westmead, and driven by her firsthand experience with paediatric therapeutic challenges, Violet Ford works in synergy with pharma companies, CROs and drug development stakeholders to deliver and shape the future of quality paediatric clinical trial patient-centred care services.