Why I Joined Lindus Health - Emma Ogburn PhD, VP Clinical Operations

May 4, 2023

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I began working in clinical trials towards the end of my doctoral degree nearly 20 years ago. Since then, I have worked in all phases of trials (I-IV), commercial and academic and across a wide range of therapeutic areas, from studies delivered in ICU to behavioural interventions delivered in a home setting. I was connected with Michael, our Co-Founder, during my time at Oxford University and his work as Special Advisor to the UK Prime Minister on Life Sciences. Here are my top 3 reasons I joined Lindus Health.

To work on innovative trials and accelerate access to treatments

I have always been passionate about using innovative trial designs to make novel drugs available for trial participants. I spent part of my career recruiting from secondary care, and my biggest success was establishing and leading trials within a Trial Acceleration Programme in haemato-oncology. This resulted in patients receiving novel monoclonal antibodies rapidly due to adaptive trial design.

To tackle disparities in research accessibility

During my career, I have seen significant changes in drug advancement in some disease areas but not all. The lack of technology to deliver trials is still clearly evident, and I am so pleased Lindus Health recognised this and was established. I have also been frustrated that research isn’t accessible to everyone and that the Inverse research law (the least evidence from settings where the need is greatest) proposed by Julian Tudor Hart in 1971 is still in play. Most of the population have co-morbidities treated in the community where there are few trials and little infrastructure to deliver research to improve lives and prevent disease progression. Having led one of the most innovative Clinical Trials Units in Europe at the University of Oxford for 8 years, I have a considerable amount of experience in bringing trials to participants in the community, which for me, culminated in leading the Urgent Public Health covid-19 decentralised treatment trials where we pushed trials as far away from the typical trial model as was possible.

To use technology to accelerate studies and work with a motivated team

I joined Lindus Health to continue to use my creativity to keep pushing trials so we advance how we get new treatments to society faster. To bring research to the majority of the population safely and quickly is exciting. Lindus Health uses the latest trial technology, all built in-house, to enable this, delivering a pleasant experience for the participant and Sponsor. I am thrilled we operate this way and enjoy working with such a knowledgeable, motivated and hard-working team. I enjoy giving my input into trial designs and seeing the study through to close-out, knowing the burden on trial participants is as minimal as it can be. I am still amazed that more people don’t realise this is a much more cost-effective way to deliver high-quality trials.

Emma Ogburn (PhD), VP of Clinical Operations

Our team are excited to build the future of healthcare. If you want to join the team, please check out our available roles on our career page here.

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