Blogroll! Plus a Sampling of Podcasts

I spend a lot of time hanging around in airports, bored in different hotels, and riding in airplanes since I do travel to work.  My favorite ways to pass the time are to catch up on email, read the news, read books or wikipedia, or dart through online blogs that interest me.  When I am too tired to read, I can have online content delivered right to me with my iPhone and podcasts.  Here are some of my blogs, and podcasts that you may like to check out.  Please email me or leave a comment if there are oher blogs or podcasts you can recommend I check out - I'm always happy to give new content a try.


Blogs: You can read blogs via RSS feed (add them to your myyahoo homepage for example), have them emailed to you in digest format, or have them aggregated into a feedburner or feed reader.  I like reader.google.com.  I access my blogs from multiple devices (PC, iPhone, iPad, etc.) but google keeps track of exactly which ones I have read and allows me to sort and filter the content on the fly.  I even subscribe to the comment feeds for some of my blogs and google keeps that organized, too.  Reading online content at 30,000 feet is an issue if the airplane doesn't offer internet service but I am hoping I can overcome that with a scraper service like readitlater...I just need to be home for more than 20 minutes one day to figure out how it works and get it setup.  Please keep reading my blog and also consider checking these out:


Clinical Research Industry Blogs:

• WQATS: QA Talk - A Quality Assurance auditor and excellent businesswoman.
• Drug Daily Bulletin - A round-up of Pharmaceutical news stories.
• Experiencing The RN Refresher Process - A CRA who finds herself unemployed and decides to return to patient care.

Frequent Traveler Blogs:

• One Mile at a Time - A college student and travel consultant.
• Road Warriorette - A 30-something frequent business traveler with impeccable taste and great style.
• Fly Gracefully - Another female business traveler.
• The Flying Pinto (Flight Attendant)
• Up Up & A Gay: A Flight Attendant Blo

For Fun:

• The Beauty Brains - Dispelling myths and marketing messages about cosmetics with a little but of science.
• Corporette - Geared towards female lawyers but broad enough that I still enjoy my free subscription anyway.
• Krapps.com - Reviews of some off the beaten path (mostly inane) iPhone applications.
• The MUNI Diaries - Tidbits and observations on board public transportation in San Francisco.
• The Richmond District - All about a specific neighborhood in San Francisco.

Podcasts:  You can find podcasts on any topic from cooking, to travel, to comedy, or anything else that interests you.  Plus they are FREE!  There are even video podcasts available.  I listen to way more podcasts than I listen to music and I listen to most of my podcasts on doubletime.  You can speed them up and listen to twice as many plus everyone sounds so funny like a chipmunk, it just never gets old to me!  I even plug my iPhone into the rental car and listen to podcasts when I am stuck in LA traffic or driving long distances.  Theoretically you can listen to podcasts while working out, but I never quite make it to the hotel gym when I am on the road. ;)  Here is a sample of some that I subscribe to:

• Frontline
• 60 Minutes
• CNN: Anderson Cooper
• MedPod 101
• The Dinner Party Download
• How Stuff Works
• Barnes & Noble Studio
• iTunes: Meet the Author
• iTunes Celebrity Playlist
• Upgrd (Airline Travel)
• The Crew Lounge (Flight Attendants)
• Grammar Girl
• Adam Carolla

New Year - New Phone

So I just got the iPhone...I am a gadget geek so I believe I am really going to enjoy this thing. I am not really planning to integrate with my work email (maybe just my contacts) but I definitely think I can use it on the job in other ways. I went to the app store and found a few gems that should actually help me when I am out monitoring.

• Weather - This is a standard app but you can add as many cities as you like so that is super helpful when you are packing for a trip!
• Clock/Timezones - Also a standard app but I have sites in multiple time zones so this will be great for when I am making phone contacts and don't want to call too early or too late.
• Epocrates - Information (and pictures!) of generic and brand name drugs. Although it isn't super relevant to my job, my favorite feature is the 'pill finder' where you choose the color and appearance of a medicine and the app recommends which drug you might be describing.
• Units - easily switch lbs to kgs, etc.
• Google Earth - Plug in all your sites and...well, I don't know if this will help me do my job but it is a fun app!
• Yelp - This user-based community can give you recommendations of great restaurants in most metopolitan areas and help you avoid the bad places.
• SC Zap - this handy app turns your iPhone into a tazer and when you're on-site but your Study Coordinator isn't cranking out the query resolutions fast enough you simply apply positive reinforcement with a little jolt of electricity...Just kidding - you would definitely need some serious Informed Consent for that one!!

So I have my apps and I can't wait to get back on the road again now that I am geared up. How cool will it be to effortlessly have internet access everywhere when I travel and check-in for my flights exactly 24 hours in advance to get the best seats!?!

Shoot me an email or leave a comment here if you are an iCRA and you have found other handy apps to recommend.

Tips for Frequent Travelers

So I have already written to you about travel safety, and now I am going to write about some travel perks; mainly hotel points and airline miles. It is to your benefit when traveling for business to accrue some rewards for yourself. First you will want to obtain and read a copy of your company's travel policy so you know where they can flex and where you will need to flex. For example, my company requires me to book through their travel agent and we have preferred hotels and a preferred rental car company. I must pay for everything with my corporate Amex and then be reimbursed (so other loyalty Credit Cards are not an option) but I can (and do) add Membership Rewards to my Amex account for $75 a year and collect membership rewards points for every dollar of my employer's money I spend on travel to and from sites.

I spend a lot of time on airplanes and
collecting reward miles is a real perk
that I can use to obtain discounted or free
 leisure travel.

In regards to airfares, it is wide open so I can research and communicate to the travel agent which fares I want provided they are within the travel policy guidelines. In this way, I can maximize my reward points and choose to focus my reward accruing efforts on a preferred airline/chain so I can rack up miles/status/points for leisure travel. Be careful of diversifying too much or you will only achieve a low level of status/rewards in many programs whereas it is typically better to have a lot of status/rewards in just a few programs. This is less flexible but in general, you will see greater returns when you focus your efforts.

I was first going to attempt to download all the tidbits I have learned over the years but then decided a list of my favorite web links would be much more effective.


Find the Lowest Airfares

• ita software - Click on the graphic in the lower left called 'Search Fares using QPX'. Be exact with your entry as this system can't really 'guess' at what you want. When your results come up use the third toggle button at the top to 'choose flights (graphical)' Now you can sort and stack and filter or just choose one segment at a time. I love this site! The only airline I have found not listed so far is SW so I just check them separately.

• Kayak.com - Another price aggregator as above.

• FareCast.com - Will the fare be cheaper if you wait until next week to book it? This site tells you!

• Yapta.com - Tag a fare and book it once it is cheaper. If the fare does drop after you already booked (assuming you booked directly through the sirline website) you might be entitled to a refund or future credit thanks to the low fare guarantee).

• Many airlines will give you bonus miles for booking through their site. I can't do this because we are required to use the agency but this is especially powerful when you own and book with their co-branded credit cards. Something to look into...

Booking Hotels

• tripadvisor.com - great reviews and rankings of so many properties

• PointMaven.com - hotel bonuses!
  

• Again, pick one or two chains and accrue status so you get upgraded rooms and executive lounge access, free breakfast, bonuses, etc. Plus, once you are at the higher tiers you typically accrue points faster. This chart is helpful for comparing the different loyalty programs - thanks Starwood Preferred Guest program!

• One more tip here, once you get high level status in one program call competing programs and ask them to 'status match' or to allow you to 'challenge' the high tiers of their loyalty programs. These promotions are usually offered in the first half of the year. Airlines will status match, too -- never hurts to ask, anyway!

Misc

• seatguru.com - Make informed decisions when choosing your seat - make sure your seat fully reclines and that it doesn't have a blocked view of the TV or limited space.
  

• seatcounter.com - How many seats are left in each class of service on a plane. Helpful when you are hoping for operational or status based upgrades to a higher class cabin or if you are looking to get bumped (sometimes you can plan to miss a flight because you will be compensated with a free roundtrip US ticket or a discount voucher for future travel).

• MileMaven.com - Airline bonuses and promotions.

• flyerguide.com/wiki - An ever-changing Wiki that has aggregated information about traveling and loyalty programs. Companion website to flyertalk, see below.

• flyertalk.com - This is an online forum with lots of frequent travelers who share their tips. I subscribe to posts and threads and I get these emailed to me weekly. I download my email to a local client so I can browse through them in digest format while on my frequent flights. I have learned so much here and love this free site.

Tools for Tracking Points and Miles

• Here is an application you can download to have a desktop view of all your mileage/points programs: http://www.usatoday.deskport.biz/

• I prefer a web-based program so I can recommend the following: http://www.mileagemanager.com/ (this site is free to try for 30 days and then $14.95 annually. It has rewards summaries but also lets you know which accounts are about to expire, and my favorite part is the 'Elite status summary' which tells you what you need to earn to get to the next Elite level in any given program.)
  

• http://moneycenter.yodlee.com/ (this site is free and will also manage your personal finances and help you set budget goals or you can just add your reward programs and have it manage those exclusively. Of note, your bank might already subscribe to this service for you as some major financial institutions like Bank of America, Fidelity, and Wachovia do... Check here)
  
  

Shoot me an email or leave me a comment if something important is missing from this post or you have more questions about this topic that I can answer. I would also love to hear your tips and success stories so feel free to leave those comments as well!
Read more about What to Pack in this post.

Home from the Investigator's Meeting

I've been assigned another study and attended a kickoff and Investigator Meeting on the East Coast last week. As I mentioned in my last post, an Investigator's Meeting is basically a chance to get all the doctors and staff together at one venue with the sponsor (usually a fancy hotel or somewhere fun) so that all the details of the study protocol can be reviewed and everyone's questions get answered. Also, because a lot of money is spent at these meetings to woo, wine, and dine the Principal Investigators (PIs), the meeting has the bonus effect of getting everyone psyched up and excited/competitive about enrolling in the study.

For my new study (it is a high cholesterol drug therapy study) I will have 11 sites each of which needs to be visited at least every 4 weeks depending on enrollment. There are 60 PIs total and 4 other CRAs but I am the only one on the West Coast. I am lucky that 7 of my sites are located near one another in LA so I can combine my visits into longer trips and not have to fly so often. I also have 2 sites in Phoenix, a site in Seattle, and a site 1.5 hrs drive East of my house. In any case, this is a heavy site load but luckily it is a straightforward study and the PIs seem to be both experienced and motivated.

An electronic patient diary looks just
like a little PDA and the patient gets
an alarm to remind them it is time
to take their medicine or fill out a
little outcomes summary. This data
gets sent in via the telephone or
loaded into a computer and is used
in the study analysis.

The trial leverages some cool technology such as an electronic data capture system (so CRFs go into the computer in an EDC system rather than on triplicate forms) and the patients all get electronic diaries (little palm pilot devices) so they can capture adverse events and be reminded when it is time to take their medicine, plus the medicine (Investigational Product - IP) comes in blister packs one week at a time, so drug accountability should be a cinch thanks to this clever packaging. This is a proof of concept study so there are 6 different study arms (some patients get placebo, some get the real drug, some get a mix of both...) and only 275 subjects will be enrolled. The subjects take their meds for around 7 weeks. Recruitment is anticipated to end in mid-April so it is a really short enrollment period. The Inclusion exclusion criteria are very tight so a high number of screen failures are expected (up to 800). Luckily, screen failures will not get their own casebooks but just be captured in the Integrated Voice Response System (IVRS) web portal.

In my next post I will tell you more about how to prepare for a CRA interview and what types of questions you can expect to be asked. Then I will post about Routine Monitoring Visits, as promised. Let me know if there are other topics that are of interest to you by emailing me or leaving me a comment here and I will be sure to address them in future posts.