Meet Daniel Joffe, Senior Clinical Project Manager at FHI Clinical. “It can be a tough job — but it’s the most amazing feeling when things come together, for example, when a site or study is initiated. You look back and see what we accomplished as a team. That's the reward — when you know that all the hard work paid off. That's what keeps me motivated.”
In her day-to-day activities, Stephanie Nono, based in Côte d’Ivoire, works closely with study sites on a COVID-19 feasibility project and unwinds on the weekends by exploring the area with her family.
Dr. Johnson carries the responsibility of many roles as part of the PREVAIL team, including being a licensed Liberian medical doctor and providing insights, expertise and guidance to her colleagues on a daily basis.
We were honored to be part of the important discussion in a recent webinar from the African Academy of Sciences — “Strengthening the African clinical trials regulatory and ethics environment” — about extending research to areas where FHI 360/FHI Clinical has worked for decades. Participants included representatives of the AAS, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Africa, Novartis and FHI Clinical.
Targeted geographic areas for the development of an antimalarial drug by Novartis included malaria-endemic regions in Africa and Asia, and Novartis requested assistance identifying and assessing potential clinical sites for their planned clinical trial. Our team conducted 38 rapid, in-depth, 2.5-day site feasibility assessments in the 18 countries.
One example of the ability of public-private partnerships to establish and strengthen research capacity is the Equatorial Guinea Malaria Initiative (EGMVI), which began within the larger Bioko Island Malaria Control Project (BIMCP). Last year, the two were combined into the Bioko Island Malaria Elimination Project (BIMEP). Dr Stephen Hoffman from Sanaria, Inc. shared details of the BIMEP with us. FHI Clinical has also had the privilege of being involved in studies conducted by the EGMVI (now BIMEP).
FHI Clinical hosted a dinner for a group of speakers and guests from all facets of clinical research to discuss strategies to keep sites active and leverage research-ready sites (and their patient populations) in areas that are not necessarily front of mind. With this blog series, we will describe some of the topics discussed during the event.
Within a challenging, resource-limited setting, the project team succeeded in reaching FP/FV six weeks after arrival in Sierra Leone and 99.998% accuracy of the planned-to-execute budget.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is currently experiencing the world’s second-largest Ebola outbreak. Despite a coordinated vaccination and containment effort that began in August 2018, cases continue to occur and spread. As with other disease outbreaks in limited-resource countries, numerous factors have challenged the Ebola health care response in the DRC.
FHI Clinical Headquarters
359 Blackwell Street, Suite 200
Durham, NC 27701 USA