Sunday, October 10, 2010

Career in Clinical Research



Clinical Research branches off into various categories at the entry level. The most common entry-level position is that of a Clinical Research Associate (CRA). The role of a CRA is varied.

  • They are key participants in the design, implementation and monitoring of clinical trials
  • They shoulder the responsibility of planning and implementing all activities required to conduct and monitor complex clinical trials and ensure that Good Clinical Practices are followed.
  • They assist in preparation of presentations and manuscripts of scientific meetings and technical journals and attend scientific/professional meetings and training courses as appropriate.
BIOSTATISTICIAN Are those who,
  • Perform statistical programming, design, and analysis for clinical trial projects. Planning, coordinating and providing statistical analyses, summaries and reports of studies is also a part of their job profile.
  • In addition they are responsible for New Drug Applications and Biological License Applications submissions.
CRM are Clinical Research Managers,They supervise design and writing of protocols, case report forms and informed consent forms for clinical trials. They ensure that Case Report Forms are reviewed in a timely fashion and submitted to the data management group. There are other posts too such as Clinical Research Coordinator, Business Development Manager, Clinical Research Investigator, Clinical Data Manager etc.
Remuneration :
There is high demand for trained professionals in this field; the pay package is impressive at the entry level.
Freshers can expect a pay packet of around three lakhs or more per annum.
  • If you have a master|s degree backing your qualifications, then the amount is almost doubles.
  • Clinical research is an industry where experience counts, thus the longer you are in this field; higher the salary you can expect.
Growth Prospects :
There are various growth opportunities along the way for those willing to learn. For those interested in serious research work, a PhD is the ideal solution. There are post graduate degrees and diploma’s offered by various colleges which come in handy to enhance one’s career prospects. Specialization in branches of pharmacy, life sciences, biochemistry will be useful. Studying further will also help one in bettering their current job profile. For instance doing a masters will enhance the job prospects of a CRA to become a Project Manager. Similarly a PhD in a related discipline is needed to become a Medical Director. According to industry reports, India is the second largest pharmaceutical market in Asia growing by more than nine per cent annually. According to a report, there are more than 50,000 jobs in clinical research in India .Lack of experience is no longer a hindrance, and companies are hiring from other streams too. With the influx of multinationals setting up research facilities here, the industry is poised to grow exponentially.

Where to study?Academy for Clinical Excellence (ACE)
Website : http:// www.aceindia.org
It offers courses like Clinical Research; From Theory to Practice, clinical Research and GCP for investigators, Quality assurance in clinical research etc.
Institute of Clinical Research (ICRI)
Website : http:// www.icriindia.com
It offers the following courses:
  • Two year full time - Masters in Clinical research + MBA
  • Two year full time - MSC in Clinical Research
  • Part-time post graduate diploma in Clinical Research (1 year)
  • PhD in Clinical Research.
Bombay College of Pharmacy :
Website : http:// www.bcpindia.org
Offers Bachelors, Masters, and Doctoral programme of study in Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Cliniminds - Academy for Clinical Research Training & Management
Website : www.cliniminds.com
Institute offers wide range of clinical research courses; diploma programs in Pharmacovigilance; Quality Assurance in Clinical Research; Biostatistics; Investigators; GCP Training; Monitoring and several other programs

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CURRENT AFFAIRS PREPARATION PLAN

“Current Affairs” and “General Knowledge” cover many topics like from economy to sports or education to politics, or even technology to automobiles. In every second some issues are happening around the world in these sectors, and to accumulate the excerpt of some highlighted news, and memorize it is a good plan to prepare current affairs and GK.

Some Important Tips to Follow:

Read Newspapers regularly

We all know that “Old is Gold”, same thing applies here too. We need to make a habit of reading newspapers regularly. I’ll suggest you to read more than one newspaper. It will be better if you read one newspaper of your mother language, and other of English. Some useful newspapers are “The Times of India”, “The Hindu”, “The Telegraph” etc. You need to start this habit at least 6 months before the actual exam that will help you to get access to all the important events of that period of time.

You need to keep an eye on what’s happening around you in your country and world as well. Trust me guys, you will surely find it interesting after several days. We all know that staying updated is always a good idea, as it will stand you apart from the rest.

Read Magazines thoroughly

This is another great option to prepare the subject we are talking about. There are many leading magazines that focus on current affairs and General Knowledge. You need to buy it from your local magazine seller, and start reading it thoroughly. These magazines beautifully categorize the articles with its genres to make it interesting to read on. Some of the useful magazines are Pratiyogita Darpan andManorma.

Try to read some business magazines and sports magazines too along with a general magazine. This will increase your chances of cracking the competitive exams with ease. Some useful business magazines areBusiness Today, Business Line etc.

Follow News Channels

You will need to follow news channels at least once a day. Now most of the leading news channels are active for 24*7. You need to pick up a suitable time for yourself to watch any favorite news channel of yours. You can watch ABP News, NDTV, Times Now, ET Now, Zee News etc. Try to go through all the breaking and highlighted news, and make it a habit.

I know that watching news channels for long will bore you, so I’ll suggest you to allocate only 30 minutes for it in a whole day. All the leading ones shows the glimpses of all important events of the day quite frequently, so 30 minutes will be enough for you to boost up your current affairs and GK knowledge.

Maintain a Diary

My teacher used to tell me that whenever you learn something try to write it down in your diary, as it will help you to memorize it in a better manner. He is so right, as this method helped me a lot to score good marks in every exam that I appeared for. As I already mentioned before that a lot of events are occurring in the country and around the world, so it is easily understandable that it is not easy to remember everything. It’s always a superb idea to maintain a diary of current events.

You need to update this diary on a daily basis with all the events that you consider as important ones. This diary will become quite useful for the revision part, as it will provide you information about all the important events at a place. You should keep revising the diary frequently, as it will help you to memorize important names, dates, awards etc.

Channelize your Preparation Accordingly

All the competitive exams are not same, as all of them have different pattern, even when it comes to the same topic as ‘Current Affairs’ or ‘GK’. For example for civil services exam, you need to give importance on events of National value. On the other scenario, in matter of bank job exam, the focus should be on the news on banking sectors, and economic and business news.

Thus I’ll suggest you to prepare as per the exams you are appearing for, as channelizing your preparation according to the pattern of the exam will accelerate your chance of getting selected.

Use Internet Resources

“Google, YouTube and Wikipedia are my favorite teachers’; one of my friends told me this once. This is quite true indeed, so you should use all the available online resources to study current affairs and GK for exams. For example this blog is all about “Current Affairs”, so you can check this blog regularly by subscribing to us (check the sidebar for subscription options). You can actively take part some forums that are focusing on current events. The good part is you can follow the websites of all leadingnewspapers online if you don’t have enough time to read newspapers.

Use Social Networking Sites for Good

Believe me or not you can surely use social networking sites to your benefits. Especially to prepare current affairs and General knowledge Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and StumbleUpon may help you a lot. You can join some Facebook pages, or follow some twitter accounts that are related to current affairs. You can join our Facebook Page too for this matter, or connect with me at LinkedIn or circle me in Google Plus for all the information on recent happenings to boost up your General Knowledgeability.

Give Priority to your Strength

We usually find difficulties when we try to learn everything at once. In that process basically we study a lot, but remember a little. We need to first select our strength areas for our preparation. Try to givepriority to your strength areas. It may be Sports, economy, Government Affairs or technology. Suppose you are applying for Bank exams, then you should prepare industry related news. Along with that you may pick any 2-3 areas of your strength like sports or technology. You need to prepare these sections to the utmost level. I can assure you that these strategies will help you to score much better in Current Affairs section.

Participate in Online Quizzes

You should participate in some free quizzes that are available online to evaluate yourself. For this matter you can easily access our “Quiz Section”. This will give you proper idea whether you are ready for the big exam day or not. As an added factor it will also provide you confidence i.e. very much essential. You can download Monthly-wise current affairs questions from Here.