Blog Posts

The Spirit of the Olympics in your TMF

February 21, 2018

The PyeongChang Olympics have begun with a flurry of inspiring headlines: Shaun White takes the gold medal and regains his crown’ Russian athletes allowed to compete despite doping controversy’ Unified Korean women’s hockey team takes the ice under united one flag’ These headlines give us hope that the Olympic Games reflects the best of humanity.…

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Romance in the TMF

February 12, 2018

I bet you are familiar with those cliché candy hearts, but did know those little hearts share some history with the pharmaceutical industry? Conversation hearts were first invented in 1847, when Boston pharmacist Oliver Chase decided he wanted to make his fortune in the apothecary lozenge fad of the mid-1800s.  While Chase was working as…

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Embracing the Risk-Based TMF

February 8, 2018

Introduction The release of the 2017 ICH GCP E6(R2) guidelines marks a paradigm shift in clinical research. Risk is mentioned no fewer than 30 times in the guidance. ICH GCP E6(R2) section 5.1 requires that the sponsor of a trial, “implements and maintains systems for quality assurance and quality and control.” 1 The EMA recognizes, that although…

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TMF Summit 2018 – Top Three Trends

February 8, 2018

It was a pleasure attending this year’s TMF Summit for many reasons. Here are the top three trends in TMF that I noticed throughout the presentations: Focus on the TMF (Trial Master File) varies greatly by company. I was surprised to see that even some of the bigger companies in attendance have only made the…

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TMF Game-Plan: Penalty Avoidance

February 6, 2018

No matter who you wanted to win the Super Bowl, we can all agree that the officiating of the game played an unusually large role in the outcome of this season. A series of key calls seemed to tilt the odds in favor of the Patriots—much to the frustration of everyone but Pats fans. The…

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Moving the Fleet Forward – Managing Complex Trial Master Files from a TMF Project Manager Point of View

January 30, 2018

Running a tight ship while utilizing a complex TMF offers many challenges.  Although advanced document management systems are designed to simplify the process and minimize potential gaps, there are still many moving parts.  Regardless of how advanced your TMF is, it will never remove the need for basic human interaction. With a complex TMF you…

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Staying out of the Ozarks: Financial Disclosure and the TMF

January 18, 2018

Up until the day everything changed, Marty thought he lived the perfect life. Marty had the wife, the colonial framed by a white picket fence, and two picture-perfect children. Marty was reserved, logical, and in control. Marty was a top earning financial advisor. Marty was awash in money. Unfortunately, Marty also washed money… for a…

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What are your TMF Resolutions?

January 2, 2018

Why do we make resolutions? The idea of starting over with the New Year is an attractive one. After a long year, it’s human nature to detour into bad habits or lose sight of the incremental steps necessary to reach an important goal. But what are the resolutions we all have in common? Since we…

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The Twelve Days of Quality Control (QC)

December 18, 2017

We know the Holidays can be a stressful time of the year. You and your team are doing their best to meet yearend goals while hanging up the lights and fighting mall traffic. We are happy to tell you that you’ve almost reached the finish line – happily, there are fewer than twelve days until…

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