ClinChat™ Podcast
Conversations with clinical research leaders on enrollment strategy, site performance, governance, and trial innovation.
Latest Episodes
New episodes released quarterly featuring industry experts and network leaders.
April Coburn
In this ClinChat episode, host Jason Palasota welcomes April Coburn to discuss how sponsors and CROs can better engage clinical research sites—especially in oncology—to drive more successful trials. April shares her journey in clinical research and highlights the importance of communication, transparency, and trust in building strong site partnerships. Together, they explore best practices for site engagement, meaningful KPIs, early PI involvement, conference networking, and navigating today’s complex oncology landscape. The conversation offers practical insights for sites, CROs, and sponsors looking to strengthen collaboration, streamline workflows, and ultimately bring therapies to patients faster.
Jimmy Bechtel
ClinChat host Jason Palasota sits down with Jimmy Bechtel, Chief Site Success Officer at the Society for Clinical Research Sites (SCRS), to discuss the evolving realities of running clinical trials. Jimmy shares his career journey from working at a small research site to leading innovation efforts at a major pharmaceutical company, and how those experiences shaped his perspective on improving site–sponsor collaboration. Together, they explore today’s biggest site challenges—patient recruitment, budgeting, technology burden, and growing protocol complexity—along with the impact on coordinator workload and trial feasibility. The conversation also touches on why clinical research is slow to adopt new technology, how COVID accelerated innovation, and why a new generation of site leaders may drive faster change. They close with thoughts on the need for stronger collaboration across the industry to help sites succeed and bring medicines to patients faster.
Dr. Elliot Shin
In this ClinChat episode, host Jason Palasota speaks with Dr. Elliott Shin, founder of Jubilee Clinical Research, about his journey from family and emergency medicine into clinical research and site ownership. Dr. Shin shares how burnout in traditional healthcare led him to discover clinical research as a more patient-centered way to practice medicine—one with more time for meaningful relationships and fewer barriers from the insurance system. He reflects on how quickly he learned the PI role, the value of diversifying trials through the COVID era, and why public understanding of clinical research still needs major improvement. The conversation also highlights how Dr. Shin’s faith and nonprofit work shape his leadership style, team culture, and mission-driven approach to research—focused on serving people, supporting patients beyond the clinic, and building unity through community service.
Martha Falcon
In this ClinChat episode, host Jason Palasota speaks with Martha K. Falcon, a clinical research operations leader and ACRP Southeast Florida chapter leader, about building high-performing sites in the competitive Miami market. Martha shares how she fell into research, the moment she became passionate after seeing rheumatoid arthritis patients regain quality of life, and how she progressed from CRC into leadership roles. They discuss current site trends—hot indications like obesity and neurology, increasing protocol complexity, frequent trial delays, and tighter budgets—as well as how site selection has shifted away from CRA-driven decisions. Martha explains how sites stand out through quality, organization, strong recruitment, fast data entry, and clear metrics, often supported by a CTMS as studies scale. The episode closes with her leadership advice: start with curiosity, not assumptions.
Want to Be a Guest?
We're always looking for clinical research leaders to share their expertise on ClinChat.