5 Top Free Resources for Trials Upskill

If you speak to people in clinical research, you will often hear of a difficult situation in "getting to where they are". On one hand, you're competing with many other skilled people in your discipline with similar degrees. Since clinical trials are so tightly regulated, it's often difficult to get on the ladder and get the chance to prove yourself. You might not be skilled or experienced enough, and equally, you can't get the experience without a role in this space in the first place.

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So how do you get the edge? If this is a genuine interest and not 'just a job to pay the bills' then, like many of us, you will be looking to learn, upskill and be a lifelong learner in this area. Speaking to many clinical research specialists, here are just a few useful tools we've compiled that can help you learn more, keep you on top and whether you're new to the area or not, make sure that you're not lagging behind.

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National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) Learn

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NIHR Learn is an extremely useful web tool - the only caveat is that you will need an academic email address to access the content. Once you're logged in, the site regularly updates with content across the whole clinical trials space. Themes include:

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• Good Clinical Practice (GCP) Certification
• Informed Consent (general and specific use cases)
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) in clinical research
• Core principles in Investigational Medicinal Product (IMP) management
• Lots more

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The courses are fun and straight forward and use a variety of media types to keep you engaged. What's more, you can receive a formal PDF of certification once you've completed your course and courses are both created and updated regularly.

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Society of Clinical Research Associates (SOCRA)

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In general, there are mixed feelings about accreditation (such as ACRP and CCRP). Bachelor's and postgraduate degrees seem to be much more essential to a career in clinical research, and there seems to be an even split in opinion between the value of them when you're actually "on the job". Whether you go for accreditation with SOCRA or not, it's an excellent resource for online courses in clinical research.

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Coursera

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Many clinical trials topics and courses are covered here by reputable institutions and lecturers who have worked extensively in the clinical trials space. Coursera has a number of courses that you can carry out on-demand to keep you up-to-date in your field. Some courses are free to carry out, and others are paid. If you want certification, you might have to pay for these, too. Benefits of Coursera courses are that it has a more international feel with courses offered from instituions worldwide. This is particularly useful if you are finding, for example, that you need to learn more about FDA regulations for USA clinical trials, or get up-to-speed with European regulations and good practices.

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For Data Scientists - Datacamp!

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Covering a wide variety of courses in lots of languages (R, python and more), Datacamp offers paid-for web courses in data science. As the power of clinical trials is unlocked more every year with AI, machine learning and more complex statistics, this is a really great tool to learn the fundamentals of data science and coding - great for beginners and advanced users alike. While Datacamp is paid for, they do sometimes offer free access.

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Mixed online media

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These days informal education is proving its power in a big way. We are now more connected than ever and finding the right circles of expertise and people with shared interests and skills is much easier. LinkedIn and LinkedIn Groups/Pages can be a great resource where many people connect and share thoughts and ideas. Podcasts, YouTube and audiobooks can also be incredibly useful, and even online databases for clinical trials registrations can be hugely beneficial. For example, clinicaltrials.gov which holds a whole host of trials information and, sometimes, useful literature and documentation. When documents are publicly shared (often with non-profit organisations and health board trials) on these websites, if you really want to geek-out, you can find studies and read through protocols, results and much more. What better way to learn about clinical trials than to see it described in this way from start to finish?

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As always, do get in touch if you'd like to share anything - particularly if you can recommend more useful resources to help the clinical trials community!