Beyond Transactions: What Site Ambassadorship Really Means

Great.

That's excellent, and it's always good to hear the investment that our partners are making into the site relationship, which is really a lot of what we're here to talk about today and diving into that.

And there's, Kim, a lot of discussion are across the industry around moving beyond this sort of transactional relationship with the site and moving into, like we've said, this concept of site ambassadorship.

So can you share a little bit about what that means to you and why this shift is so important now?

Yeah.

So I think historically and typically, you know, we've always viewed our sites as with an operational lens.

You know, what they can deliver for us, what are their activation timelines, what are their enrollment numbers and overall study abilities.

And it's a transaction.

We give you a study, and they perform.

And while that absolutely matters and is needed, site ambassadorship really begins with recognizing our sites as experts in research delivery, and more than what I kind of am referring to as, like, an execution engine.

So they're care teams who understand the patient populations and build that trust with their patients, and they understand the operational realities with managing complex protocols.

And therefore, they can see some of the barriers to participation and deliveries in a way that we, as outsiders and as our sponsors, can't see.

So for me and, and for Syneos Health, site ambassadorship really means actively hearing their voices, their realities, and their priorities into the decisions we make.

And it's shifting that mindset and serving more as an advocate, a translator, a navigator, and sometimes even a protector on their behalf.

And we need to recognize that every sponsor strategy, every process that we design, and any other operational decisions eventually make their way to their desks.

And if we don't understand what those impacts are, we're not really partnering.

And the reason this matters more now than ever is because we're facing increased sets of challenges, right? We talk about this all the time at meetings, in conversations, in conferences.

Our protocols are more complex.

Our technology is so much more of a focus, and unfortunately, often from site feedback, increases burdens rather than really reducing them.

And our site teams are continuing to experience resource challenges, and our overall expectations for enrollment diversity, patient retention, study quality, et cetera, continue to increase.

And so site ambassadorship really means that we're helping our sites navigate those challenges and complexity and more creating an environment where there's collaborations that help drive the success and not just giving them a study to deliver.

So I don't know about you, Jimmy, but the best relationships I feel I have are ones where I'm valued, right? Whether it's a personal relationship, a work relationship, I wanna be valued, I wanna be respected and understood, even at times when someone might disagree with me, which of course can happen quite often.

But we need to treat and engage our sites kind of in that similar way.

We want them to feel valued, respected, and supported.

And if we do that, I think naturally their performance and engagement will naturally improve.