Life as a clinical data analyst at CluePoints is anything but dull – so when I was asked to talk about a typical day, it was something of a challenge.
My primary responsibility is the implementation of data surveillance and risk management projects within the CluePoints Central Monitoring Platform for our clinical research clients.
But as I have become more senior in my role, I have also taken on the responsibility of supporting our clients with Risk-Based Quality Management (RBQM) methodology. I help train our clients’ analysts on best practices, how to use our system, and how to configure analyses, as well as work with clients to find the best RBQM route for them.
Part of what we do is risk consulting. That means understanding the individual study, by reading the protocol and all the documentation, and having a discussion with study team members about what’s important to them. We then use this information to propose the best metrics, and how they should be calculated.
Sharing Knowledge
Part of what I love about my role is the ability to work with different teams and even across different continents.
I work with our customer success team, for example, to ensure our online Knowledge Base meets our client needs, making sure everything is up to date and accurate, any gaps are filled, and questions are answered.
At the other end of things, I also occasionally help out the R&D team, working as a subject matter expert when they need an analyst’s perspective, or collaborating with them on my particular area of interest: machine learning (ML) algorithms.
One such project involved an algorithm which mined, and learned from, risk signals in trial data. My role was to add context to the mined data by helping the R&D team understand how users interact with our platform.
I’ve worked with countless departments, for customers based all over the world, and it’s fantastic to hear the perspective of people working in other roles and other countries.
Some analysts are dedicated to individual projects or clients, meaning they don’t rotate or change as frequently. But while my primary responsibility is supporting our biggest enterprise client, what I do changes on a regular basis. There are weeks when I interact with five or six different protocols, exposing me to different types of studies, data, and analysts, all of which teach me something new.
Job Satisfaction
The things I value most about working at CluePoints are the open atmosphere and the intellectual and professional respect.
Everyone is approachable, and my feedback to the product team is heard and incorporated into software improvements. I’ve even helped put together product specifications that are now live in the platform – that’s really fulfilling.
I love that we have access to professional training, thanks to which I have recently attained my SAS base programming certification, and that I’ve had the opportunity to attend and speak at industry conferences to share my expertise and experience.
Ultimately, no two days in the life of a clinical data analyst are the same. The number of different tasks and projects I work on are so varied that my role is always interesting.
What’s more, the variety of different stakeholders I interact with on a daily basis make me feel like a valued member of the wider research community.
