SCRS Talks

Site engagement often shows up only after a study is already in trouble. In this episode of SCRS Talks, Jimmy Bechtel sits down with Julie Wilhjelm, Senior Director of Site Strategy and Engagement at Novotech, to talk about why it should be built into how studies are planned and run from day one. They cover what separates real engagement from checkbox outreach, how early feedback during feasibilit...

Lauren Stockwell sits down with Jennifer Larkin, VP of Business Development at M3 Wake Research, to break down what a modern site BD function actually looks like day to day. Jennifer walks through how data intelligence and AI platforms have reshaped feasibility and pipeline management, why relationships alone aren't predictive of future business, and the tiering framework she used to re-rank...

Jimmy Bechtel sits down with Mike Hutton of Almac Clinical Technologies to talk about where site burden really starts, and what sponsors can do earlier in study design to reduce it. They dig into the difference between protocol complexity and operational complexity, why fragmented systems and workflows quietly pile friction onto site staff, and what a more connected, site-first approach to trial d...

Jimmy Bechtel sits down with Megan Richards, Director of Sponsor Operations at CRIO, to talk about how research sites can get more strategic with their data. Megan walks through where to start when identifying the right KPIs, how to build dashboards that actually get used (and the four common pitfalls to avoid), and how benchmarking against industry standards helps sites spot both wins and opportu...

Jimmy Bechtel talks with Catherine Gregor, Chief Clinical Trial Officer at Florence Healthcare, about Operation Trialblazer and what it means for sites and sponsors. Drawing on her experience running sites (including at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center) and now working in trial technology, Catherine unpacks why regulatory ambiguity holds both sides back, how CRAs lose major visit time to admin work...

Lauren Stockwell sits down with Rick Greenfield, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of RealTime eClinical Solutions, to talk about three awards making their debut at the 2026 Global Site Solutions Summit Eagle Awards Gala. Rick and Lauren break down what each award is looking for, from the best exhibit booth in the hall to the person who best embodies the spirit of the summit itself. The bulk of t...

In this episode of SCRS Talks, Lauren Stockwell sits down with Dave Damrau, VP of Global Clinical Operations for the Americas, and Amy Cramer, Global Head of eSource Data Acquisition, both from Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine, to unpack J&J's EHR to Sponsor initiative. They discuss why duplicative data entry remains one of the biggest burdens on site staff, what the data shows a...

What happens to unused medical supplies when a clinical trial ends? For years the answer was simple: destroy them. Josh Kravitz (MedSurplus Alliance) and Greg Folz (Kits4Life) join Jimmy Bechtel to tell the story of how a stack of boxes, a looming Site Tank deadline, and a crisis in the Congo turned into a program that has now impacted over 6 million lives worldwide. Greg walks through the moment...

Jimmy Bechtel sits down with Dr. Tia Warrick, CEO of Lesous Consulting, to talk about what actually drives clinical trial failures and what the industry can do about it. With nearly a decade of experience spanning coordinator to CEO, Dr. Warrick brings a ground-level perspective to a problem that costs the industry billions. The conversation covers why so many trials struggle before enrollment eve...

In this episode, Jimmy sits down with Brian Burkhardt of the Oliver Patch Project and Andy Shepherd of Project Outrun to talk about the Patchwork Collective, a growing coalition of pediatric oncology advocacy organizations working to bridge the gap between families battling childhood cancer and the clinical trial world. From a "Pharma at the Table" activation at SCOPE to the upcoming Pat...

Jimmy Bechtel sits down with Kimberly Staeck, Head of Global Site Partnerships and Trial Enablement Solutions at Syneos Health, to dig into what it really means to treat sites as partners rather than execution engines. Kimberly brings two decades of operational and partnership experience to a conversation that gets honest about where the industry falls short. They cover why sites have learned to t...

Jimmy Bechtel sits down with Brooklyn Montgomery, Business Development Director at Deep Intelligent Pharma (DIP), to explore how agentic AI is reshaping the way clinical research sites operate. Brooklyn breaks down where AI delivers real value for physician-led research, what meaningful adoption actually looks like at the site level, and the three questions every site should answer before spending...

Kathy Cox and Ryan Johnsen of Interspond discuss how their platform CROWN is reshaping the study feasibility process for clinical research sites. Rather than sites waiting to be contacted, CROWN puts the power in their hands with a web-based marketplace where they can browse opportunities, manage their profile, and respond to time-sensitive requests all in one place. The result is a smarter, less...

 In this episode of SCRS Talks, Jimmy Bechtel sits down with Sean Stanton, Founder and CEO of K2 Medical Research, and Christian Burns, Founder and President of Populus Health, to explore how their two organizations are working together to advance CNS drug development. With decades of combined experience across psychiatry, neurology, and neurodegeneration, Sean and Christian discuss what makes CNS...

In this episode of SCRS Talks, Jimmy Bechtel sits down with Donna Cryer, Chief Patient Officer at Cryer Health and active FDA patient advocate, to explore the critical difference between patient inclusion and patient leadership in drug development. Drawing on her own lifelong experience as a patient, Donna makes the case for why having patients in real positions of authority is not just a values s...

AI is moving fast, and research sites are feeling the pressure to keep up. But before diving in, there are some foundational questions every site should be asking. Jimmy sits down with Marc Wartenberger, VP of Compliance and Security at CRIO, to break down what a defensible AI validation approach actually looks like, why under-documentation is the most common compliance mistake sites are making ri...

Josh Stent, CEO of Momentum Clinical Research, joins Jimmy Bechtel to share how his 19-site network in Australia and New Zealand is using AI and automation to cut administrative burden, improve data accuracy, and get more time back for patients. From centralized data reporting to automated invoicing and smarter recruitment funnels, this episode breaks down what practical AI adoption actually looks...

The rare disease space is often overlooked, but it may be the most important laboratory we have for the future of medicine. Jimmy sits down with Rob Freishtat, board member of the Foundation for mRNA Medicines, to talk about what is actually driving collaboration between academic institutions and industry, what a changing regulatory landscape means for sites, and why financial viability and patien...

What happens when a research site gets so frustrated with disconnected systems that they decide to build their own? In this episode, Jimmy Bechtel sits down with Brian Hunter, COO, and Florin Petrutiu, CIO of Site Centric, to hear exactly that story. Born out of CNS Healthcare over 18 years ago, Site Centric has evolved from an internal workaround into a full CTMS platform now available to sites e...

What does it actually mean to be a sponsor of choice? In this episode, Jimmy Bechtel sits down with Carrie Lewis and Suzy Montanye from Keenova to find out. The two share how the newly formed company, born from the merger of Mallinckrodt and Endo, is building a site partnership model grounded in accountability, transparency, and real feedback. From their site operational advisory board to a dedica...

Jimmy Bechtel sits down with John Worden, Chief Commercial Officer at Javara, to explore how AI-driven data analysis is moving clinical research and patient care away from one-size-fits-all medicine toward truly personalized treatment pathways. They discuss how embedded research sites inside healthcare systems are uniquely positioned to put these tools to work, what end-to-end data integration mea...

Jimmy Bechtel sits down with Dr. Anastasia Christianson, former senior innovation leader at Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson, to talk about what a real AI strategy actually looks like in clinical research. They dig into why isolated pilots fall short, how to think about AI as a process change rather than a tool add-on, and where the biggest missed opportunities are right now. Dr. Christianson also...

Every site absorbs costs that never show up in a budget. Coordinator overtime, screen failures, startup inefficiencies, technology burden — these aren't edge cases, they're everyday realities. And over time, they're what push good investigators out of research for good. Lauren Stockwell sits down with Mike Pierre, Project Manager at SCRS, to talk about the Hidden Costs Workshop, why...

Jimmy Bechtel sits down with Kristen Bosse, VP of Product Development at CRIO, and Samir Jain, VP of Product Management at Medidata, to talk about a collaboration that has been a long time coming. Together they break down why eSource to EDC integration has historically been out of reach for dedicated research sites, what has made it so hard to do at scale, and how their joint solution is changing...

Cybersecurity threats are becoming more sophisticated, and research sites are not immune. In this episode, Jimmy Bechtel sits down with Anders Lindquist, Senior Manager of Research Site Enablement at LabCorp, to break down the most pressing digital security risks facing clinical research sites today. Anders shares how human behavior is at the core of most cyber breaches, what red flags to watch fo...