Q&A with Monique Carignan: What It Means to Be a Javara Site Leader, Part Two

People, Places, Partnership

In part two of our three-part series exploring what it means to be a Javara site operations leader, we focus on Place, leaning on Senior Manager, Site Operations Monique Carignan to help us understand the intricacies of working with different healthcare partner organizations (HCPs) and physician principal investigators (PIs) to bring clinical trials to the patients they serve.

In this Q&A, we illuminate how a shared physical space and “one-team” mentality enables Javara and our healthcare partners to always keep the patient first. But that’s not all. This close physical collaboration also ensures we’re able to deliver the necessary level of support to our investigators and alleviate any and all unnecessary burden from their already-busy schedules.

Question: Javara’s model is unique. From your perspective, how does our close collaboration with HCPs enable us to reach patients in a way other organizations may not?

Monique Carignan: Javara helps bring clinical trials directly to patients through their trusted providers. We work as a true extension of a patient’s care team. What does that really mean? It means that when patients are referred to a potential study, that referral comes from either their primary care provider, or a known colleague. That is critical. Our model allows us to work together with physicians and deliver #clinicalresearch where trust is already present.

Question: Your site is part of our HCP Privia Health, in Fayetteville, GA. Can you give us a little snapshot of your physical space?

Of course! The Yorktown Medical Office (the formal name of our site location) is a very large, multi-specialty healthcare office building. Javara has two suites within, and relationships with multiple departments including Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Dermatology, and Cardiology, who all trust Javara to bring clinical trial opportunities to their patients.

Question: You work closely with physician investigators on a regular basis. Can you help us understand what your working relationships with PIs and the HCPs look like day to day?

Like many management roles, our days as site leaders consist of a lot of meetings and relationship building. It’s our job to ensure everyone’s needs are met. Sometimes, our focus is on scalability or on-boarding new investigators. Sometimes, we are working to ensure our Clinical Trial Navigators (CTNs) have the resources and support they need to deliver the best patient experience while also meeting sponsor goals and expectations. As site leaders, we are the liaison between Javara and our amazing PIs and HCPs, so our priorities can vary greatly, day to day. Being together in a shared physical space makes our collaboration so much easier. We function as a true team. Removing locational barriers between Javara and our partners helps us focus instead on removing other potential barriers that may be impacting our ability to succeed and best serve our patients.

Question: What about patients? How do you support positives interactions when they are at your site?

Every patient is the most important patient in our eyes; we try to make sure they all have a red-carpet experience. We want to ease their fears and exceed their expectations when they walk through the door. As the manager of the site, I strive to empower my team to do whatever they feel is necessary to support the patient. Whether that means providing snacks, coffee, or Uber rides, making sure stipends are paid promptly, or managing schedules so that wait times are minimal, we aim to make our clinical research space a welcoming, trustworthy environment for all. It is so important to build relationships of trust and integrity to keep patients as returning clinical trial participants, but our focus first and foremost is on treating every patient with the respect and kindness they deserve as individuals.

To learn more about what it means to be a Javara site leader, be sure to check out part one featuring Associate Director, Site Operations Melissa Nolan and stay tuned for part three coming next quarter!