Deploying Streamlined Surveys and Generating Metrics to Assess Vendor-Sponsor Relationships with Linda Sullivan and Keith Dorricott
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EPISODE 12
How can sponsors and CROs assess relationships through the use of streamlined surveys and careful review of results? That’s one of the important issues discussed in Keith Dorricott’s interview with Linda Sullivan, MBA, Executive Director of WCG’s Metric Champion Consortium (MCC). Dorricott is a Lean Sigma Master Black Belt with extensive experience in process improvement at CROs and is a Director at Dorricott Metrics & Process Improvement Ltd in the UK. He leads the MCC Vendor Oversight Metric Work Group which examined the topic in detail and produced a comprehensive and useful guidance document on this issue. The guidance document contains tips and tricks, from what questions to include to how to convert responses into insightful metrics and communicate results. The starting point of surveys, Dorricott says, should not be the questions themselves but the purpose of the survey and what you’re trying to achieve by running it. In the end, Dorricott notes, the group determined that there were a handful of strategic elements to measure. They considered these strategic areas and defined five relationship assessment questions. While additional questions can be asked, smaller surveys, he says, respect the time restrictions of those completing the survey and are likely to have a higher response rate – which is important for the validity of the survey.