I wanted to take this moment to talk with you all about recent events. No one was prepared for the severity of COVID-19 and the effect it has on all of our lives. In times of crisis, you want to help each other, but as an individual and as a company, there’s only so much you can do. Some of you will be on the front lines, either doing your job, while others are fighting this disease.
This crisis was unexpected, and yet even in these days of social distancing, it has brought us together.
Working Together
As a company, our priority is to make sure that our team is healthy and able to work in a safe environment. Business continuity is at stake, with a shift in focus to fighting COVID-19 from companies and hospitals, creating a logical reprioritization of clinical research training.
For us, it means that we need to focus on meeting our financial obligations, but at the same time, we also want to help other companies and individuals. So, what can we do? Without risking our company to get in trouble.
There are amazing companies out there giving free training right now to help professionals who are at home. A good example is Studytube, who are offering online training courses for free until the end of April.
I have so much respect for these companies who give these opportunities to professionals who may be at a loose end for the interim. So, I started thinking about what GCP Central could provide?
Discounted Online GCP Training
We also want to do something, but realize that our customers have different priorities right now. Investigators and nurses who spend part of their time on research are now fulltime, either committed to fighting COVID-19 or being retrained in intensive care and as a frontline nurse or doctor. Logically, clinical research is not a priority right now.
For CRO and pharma staff, working from home may allow some time to be freed up for learning and being audit and inspection ready. After the crisis, we know we won’t have time for this as we will need to resume all Q2’s postponed projects. This is where GCP Central will come in.
We’ve been in touch with CastorEDC, who are doing more than an outstanding job in providing their platform to more than 40 COVID-19 trials. We are in awe of their involvement and support in this fight. This also makes us proud to announce the following:
Together with CastorEDC, we want to give back to future researchers, the current, and future PhDs who have this time to get themselves research-ready. That is why we’re providing a 25% discount on any of our online GCP training so that these researchers of the future can use this time wisely, and ensure that we have a trained and ready workforce. Just visit mygcp.nl (Netherlands) or mygcp.world (Global) and use the code: GCPOnline, when purchasing your training. The code will be valid until 1st June 2020.
Rob Konterman, the COO of CastorEDC says:
“During this COVID-19 crisis, your Ph.D. students and researchers are all working from home and cannot work with patients in their trials. Make use of the down-time to get everyone CastorEDC and GCP certified.”
Free Online Webinars
We also will provide a free webinar for these students, and give them the fundamental knowledge they need about GCP, and why they should know about GCP to perform good quality clinical research.
Together with Eric Klaver, our GCP trainer since the very beginning, we have decided to create another free webinar for clinical trial managers, and other staff on how to do a risk inventorization and analysis. This will result in a risk-based approach to the continuity of your current clinical trial.
For more details on these offerings, be sure to watch our LinkedIn page and your emails for updates. We’ll make sure to announce the dates and times early enough for you to mark it in your calendar. Alternatively, you can always sign up, and we’ll send you a replay after.
In these difficult times, we are doing what we can, and training the future workforce is currently our focus. We want to help shape the future of clinical research. We can also help your company rapidly change face-to-face training to online training, webinars, or virtual meetings. Get in touch and let us know how we can help you through this crisis.
Until the next time, please take care of yourselves, and your loved ones, and remember – #thereisabetterway
Marieke Meulemans.
