Introducing Research Confidential_Jo Kim & Saul: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.
Saul Marquez:
Hey everybody! Saul Marquez here and welcome back to the Outcomes Rocket. Today, I’m so excited to be kicking off a brand new podcast with you with an amazing leader in healthcare. His name is Joe Kim. He is the chief marketing officer for ProofPilot and he brings over 23 years of pharmaceutical research expertise to ProofPilot, most recently in a senior leadership role as a senior advisor in Lilly’s digital health office. He brings a wide array of pharmaceutical research industry knowledge, and he utilizes a unique approach that integrates his experience working for other sponsors such as Shire, Merck, CROs, and technology vendors. With the robust combination across all phases of clinical research and well-known history of innovation in the industry, he’s recognized as one of the top 100 individuals on the 2015 MedicineMakers Power List and 20 Innovators Changing the Face of the Clinical Trials Industry. So he’s doing a lot of really great things and we are going to be kicking off a new podcast with him as the host, and it’s called Research Confidential, but today we’re going to let Joe tell you what that’s all about and welcome you to this new and exciting podcast. So, Joe, thank you so much for joining me.
Joseph Kim:
Saul, it’s great to be here. Thanks so much for this collaboration and this opportunity, I’m very excited and actually, I’m going through a little bit of a title change at ProofPilot. You know, we’re a startup and so I’ve grown into a different role called the Chief Strategy Officer.
Saul Marquez:
Nice!
Joseph Kim:
So yeah, this is going to be exciting times and I’m very excited to bring this show to the world. It’s going to be very different and, you know, soul-bearing and provocative and not self-aggrandizing, which a lot of these podcasts can be.
Saul Marquez:
I love that. Yeah, you know, and by the way, I love the strategy piece because marketing is one spoke of many that can drive an organization forward. So I think that’s more fitting for you.
Joseph Kim:
Yeah, and you know, some people confuse marketing with just promotion, but strategy and positioning is definitely part of marketing. It just doesn’t get like the accolades because it’s all sort of behind-the-scenes. So yeah, you hit the nail on the head.
Saul Marquez:
I love it, man. All right. So talk to us about, why you’re doing this podcast and what people should expect from it.
Joseph Kim:
Sure, you know, since the pandemic, … has done a lot of good and bad things. One good thing it’s done is like raise the level of consciousness of research amongst all sorts of people, doctors, patients, the everyday person, government, so on and so forth. What people don’t know is like the sausage-making of what it takes to actually conduct research. I think a lot of people might think about research as like test tubes and people in white lab coats. But when it comes to clinical research, this is the hard business of having human beings come and do something very unusual, and these things are happening in clinics all over the world. And these instructions on how to participate are coming from drug companies and governments and NGOs and advocacy groups. And gosh, the translation, the whisper-down-the-lane happens from the scientists that dream up the research down to the knits and knots, the brass tacks of how to get a human being to sort of follow along with very imperfect instructions, like very imperfect, sometimes contradictory is quite eye-opening. And the heroics that sites have to kind of go through, clinics that are enrolling these patients, it’s kind of like a kitchen confidential right? It’s behind the scenes of what happens in a kitchen, same thing behind the scenes of what happens in a research clinic.
Saul Marquez:
I love that, and you’re right, it is complicated, overly complicated, and it doesn’t have to be. So, talk to us about who your guests are going to be and what are you guys going to be talking about.
Joseph Kim:
Yeah, so, you know, there’s, the research ecosystem is made up of a lot of different kinds of organizations, but I’m going to start with the sites, the clinics first, because they have like I said, they’re actually doing the research. Well, while a drug company may sponsor and design it, the clinical sites are doing it. So I’m going to talk to a couple of thought leaders in that space. We have Jennifer Byrne coming on from Guevara, We have Brad Hightower from Hightower Research who’s making a lot of noise on LinkedIn and just speaking truth to power, you know, Goodham and Eggers as well as, you know, the Rabble-Rousers. So we’re going to start with some clinic staff and then, you know, we’ll give the sponsors a fair shake, too, so we’ll have them as well. And then certainly patients, because there are the actual volunteers, and having been a patient in a couple of research studies myself, I’ve learned a lot and my eyes have been opened as well. So it’s going to be sort of those three kinds of groups, but sites will probably be the main focus early on.
Saul Marquez:
Fun, a lot of fun, and also really useful. Who do you think will benefit most from the podcast, and why should they listen?
Joseph Kim:
Yeah, so I know your audience is a great deal of healthcare providers, so I think for that built-in audience it can be very eye-opening because many of them either have wondered about research, are skeptical of it, or have done it and gotten burned. So you’re going to hear some really good lessons learned, some, hear a lot of war stories, and listen to the scars of people who’ve actually done this successfully, and certainly, it’s not a perfect business yet. Also, pharma companies who might be a little bit out of touch, sorry to say, from like what really happens on the ground. Because, you know, oftentimes the engagement between a drug company or a research sponsor in the sites, they’re a little bit formulaic or canned or, you know, in a professional environment. So I’m letting these sites really speak plainly, and so I think our research sponsors will get a lot out of hearing, you know, candid testimonials.
Saul Marquez:
Wow, well, that’s super valuable, Joe, and certainly, I’m excited to tune in to some of these learnings. How often are you guys going to be posting and what should people be keeping in mind here as they listen?
Joseph Kim:
Yeah, we’ll probably start off maybe twice a month. As a startup, I’m wearing a ton of hats, so that’s all the time I have for right now, but we’d like to start getting to weekly episodes and we welcome people to come on and tell their stories. So we’re not you know, we have a very, an open orientation to the guests we’ll have. People should be hearing some surprising things like how the very smallest, a very small missing piece of information can derail an entire study for how time and time again, sponsors are doing a very simple thing incorrectly, and if they just listened or if they just stopped doing one specific thing, maybe things would go smoother. And I think the most interesting thing is, with all of the hype around what they’re calling decentralized clinical trials or remote clinical trials, how much of that is really hype? How much of that have we already been doing? How much of it probably never will happen? So really unpacking that, I think because it’s a hot topic, and making sure people really go into that with their eyes wide open, it will be an interesting perennial topic for each guest.
Saul Marquez:
You literally read my mind. That’s what I was going to ask you. Do you have superpowers? I’m like, are we going to talk about decentralized trials and transformation and remote access? So this is awesome, and this is where the ball is going or maybe it’s already there. But at the end of the day, Joe is going to help us better understand this space with his expertise, many, many years of expertise. And by the way, folks, Joe used to also run a podcast when he was at Lilly’s. So you want to talk about that?
Joseph Kim:
Sure, yeah, I was the inaugural host of Lilly’s podcast called The Elixir Factor. It’s still going on with some other hosts, after three seasons, it’s been great. I had a lot of learnings there, which I’m going to bring over to this and it’s, I’m so proud that it continues on without me because it means it was a good idea. So I cheer them on from the sidelines for sure.
Saul Marquez:
That’s beautiful, and then and then the other cool thing that I learned about Joe is that he used to be a math teacher.
Joseph Kim:
Science teacher! Yes.
Saul Marquez:
Was it science?
Joseph Kim:
Yeah, chemistry and biology, which I didn’t do so well, to be honest, in high school chem. I just couldn’t deal with the math. But when I taught it, I certainly learned it very well. So that’s why I went to molecular biology, a little less chemistry, a little more systems thinking, really loved it. But yeah, hopefully, one day I’ll go back to teaching in some capacity.
Saul Marquez:
That’s awesome, Joe. Well, look, man, I appreciate and love what you do, folks. You’re going to have so much fun with Joe and the topics that he covers on Research Confidential, so brace yourselves. Joe, any calls to action? And then also where can people reach out to you to, you know, make requests on show topics, or maybe they want to be on the show?
Joseph Kim:
Sure, you can find me on our website, ProofPilot.com. I’m very active on LinkedIn, so find me there, pretty, pretty easy to find. My face is there. It’s, my whole resume is there, lots of other content. Twitter? Not so much, but my handle is JoPeKim, Jo Pe Kim, but certainly on our website and LinkedIn, or just email me, joseph@proofpilot.com.
Saul Marquez:
Beautiful. Folks, we will leave all of these contact points for Joe on the show notes of today’s episode. Next episode you’ll be hearing with Joe will be him as the host of this amazing podcast, Research Confidential, brought to you by ProofPilot. So Joe, thank you and looking forward to doing this with you.
Joseph Kim:
Thanks, Saul. Thanks for the opportunity. It’s going to be fun.
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