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Back in January 2023, Silvia Hurst joined the James Lind Care team. With a particular interest in cultures, languages, and the medical field, Silvia brings a unique perspective to the team and has spent the last 8 months developing the Partnerships department. In this Q&A you can get to know her and her role in the company!  

After almost 8 months working at James Lind Care. What are your first impressions and insights about the company? 

The people were a big surprise to me. It feels more like a family where everybody has a specific role, but where we all also work together, wear different hats, and have different skills. It’s been a really nice place to work. Everybody is very supportive of each other and despite our small size, we succeed in the same activities as other much larger companies. I really like that we put emphasis on the human factor in what we do. A lot of companies are now focusing on tech and AI, and I believe it removes the “people element” a little bit. At JLC, we’re doing things differently — we’re trying to get closer to the patients.  

We show our human and caring approach through our nurses, but also in the way we work with other companies and in the way we speak frankly and honestly. Whether it’s our employees, our partners, or our patients, we interact with them as human beings, person to person. That’s what sets us apart from other companies. 

Is there something about the company you were drawn to?  

There’s always been this kind of unfulfilled dream of mine to work in the medical field. I have a translation background and I also spent part of my Masters specializing in medical translation. I actually wanted to become a doctor at some point. When I was about 16, I had an incredibly rare tumor, and that sparked my interest in all aspects of the medical field. I like to do a lot of research on diseases. I have always been passionate about it. But I also really love the creative side of languages and cultures, so for me, this is a good combination of the two. I saw the job post, and I was like “bingo”—exactly what I was looking for.  

What is your role at JLC? 

My job is basically talking to strangers and making them… not strangers!  

I’m Head of Partnerships. I’m in charge of identifying, researching, and connecting with possible partners. It can be patient organizations, commercial partners, or research institutes. We try to find a way in which we can help each other achieve our goals within patient enrolment. It’s building bridges, connections, and a network that ultimately makes participating in clinical research easier and more efficient. I have a lot of meetings and I e-mail a lot of strangers. I am also in charge of a few HR activities within the Community team.  

Is there something about the industry, in general, you’d like to change? 

There’s a lot of education that we have to do as James Lind Care to educate people about the necessity of clinical trials, the changes that have happened in the past 20 to 30 years, and the regulations that have been put in place. The term “guinea pig” really doesn’t apply anymore. Patients are very protected and looked after.  

One thing that needs to change is that paying patients for clinical trial participation should become standard practice — being paid to participate and not only having travel costs reimbursed. Patients are giving up their time and are giving access to their bodies and their minds. Being paid for this will not only show greater respect for the invaluable service patients are rendering but could also make clinical trials more inclusive and patient enrolment easier.    

What are your hopes for JLC’s future – any changes or new projects you’d like to see within the company?  

My hopes are that we get more projects and that these projects come from sponsors as well as from the big partners with whom we are in contact. So, seeing projects coming in from a variety of channels. I also hope that we will become known as a company that is really good at innovating when it comes to patient centricity and providing high-quality referrals. Similarly, to be recognized as a company that looks after its patients by providing them with relevant information and support before the trial starts. 

What do you think should be our primary focus for the end of the year? Or in 2024?  

Internally, I think clarity about roles and making certain processes standardized, so we don’t have to start from scratch every time. We also need to agree on how we communicate about JLC externally, for instance with internal glossaries for the company. We have already started to put in place values, new company presentations, and more. So, it’s a matter of continuing along this path and of course securing as many projects as possible. 

Thank you for this nice and insightful interview. To conclude – can you tell us what you do in your life outside of work? 

 I like to spend time with people. At work, I spend time with colleagues and strangers, and outside of work, I like to spend time with friends and family. I like to have dinner parties, and I have a very big passion for dance, specifically bachata and salsa. I try to do that at least once or twice a week. I also love cooking and being in nature! 

Dear all,

I am so proud and happy for all the achievements we atJames Lind Care have accomplished in 2023. This is exemplified by the impressive results we have delivered in the clinical trials Matinee and Endeavor and the results we continue to deliver in Oberon, Resolute and Nimble.

Projects where we have contributed and still are contributing significantly to the overall success of the clinical trials when it comes to randomizing patients and easing the recruitment workload for sites. Based on our efforts with these trials, we have proved to sponsors that we can deliver quality and results like no other company.

At the same time, we are in the process of/have been vendor qualified for GSK and Astra Zeneca which is also a huge achievement and moreover we now have formal partnerships with important organisations like Greenphire, CISCRP and IQVIA.

These impressive results and great performances from the whole JLC team will lay  the foundation of our future success.

More projects
Now we have reached a point where we are ready to bring on new projects.
We want to support new clinical trials for which we can support patient enrolment. I know all of you are eager to get working with more clinical trials. And we all share that eagerness.

This is also why our main focus now is to bring new projects from sponsors onboard.

So what are we actually doing to bring in more projects and clinical trials to James Lind Care?

We have over the last couple of months had promising meetings with several sponsors (among others Pfizer, MSD, Novartis, Bayer) and we are still in dialogue with all of them about possible future projects.

We are feeling quite positive that these meetings will give us some concrete projects and clinical trials to work with and I can say as much that we are having a really advanced talk with Pfizer about a possible formal collaboration.

There is great interest in what we do and especially how we do it, when we meet with the sponsors. They acknowledge our ability to find trial participants and are impressed by our previous results in other trials.

Astra Zeneca and GSK are interested in continuing our partnership about new trials. We are currently in dialogue with them about new trials to start within the next 6 months.

When I look at where we are and what we have achieved, I am sure that we will have a lot of activity in the coming years. Our approach with guiding patients into clinical trials through engaging patient communities and with supportive and experienced research nurses is unique and the sponsors are acknowledging this.

And they can also see that it delivers the results.

I am confident that we have the best team, the correct direction and a strong ship, so when the wind starts blowing in our sails, we will be on our way to explore more of the success we have experienced throughout the past year.

I look forward to experiencing this together with you.

Best regards,
Charlotte