Educating Patients and Non-Research Physicians on Navigating Clinical Research to Improve Access and Patient Satisfaction

Lora Black is Executive Director of the Clinical Research Department at Sanford Health, which serves as the centralized Clinical Trial Office for the organization. In this role, Ms Black has oversight for enterprise-wide clinical research strategy and operational support for over 300 open clinical trials across six performance sites. She has been a nurse for nearly 20 years, starting at the bedside in medical oncology and transitioning to the field of Clinical Research 16 years ago. Ms Black is Co-Director for the Clinical Research Resources and Facilities Core for the DaCCoTA Clinical Translational Research grant and serves on multiple national committees. She obtained a master’s degree in Public Health at Creighton University. Ms Black is an Oncology Certified Nurse, Certified Clinical Research Professional and is an Assistant Professor at USD Sanford School of Medicine.

Irfan Khan, MD, Founder and CEO of Circuit Clinical®, is a cardiologist who has served as a principal investigator on both therapeutic and device clinical trials for more than a decade. Delivering on his company’s mission, Dr Khan is passionate about improving access, diversity, and equity in clinical trials, increasing community engagement, and fostering the patient experience through education and empowerment.  Over the last six years, he has overseen Circuit Clinical’s growth to reach more than 2.5 million potential participants across 60+ active research sites, which include multi-specialty physician practices, Accountable Care Organizations, and Federally Qualified Health Centers. His work at Circuit Clinical has also included the creation of TrialJourney™, the first-ever ratings and reviews platform for clinical trial participants and people seeking clinical research as a care option. 

Robert Loll is the SVP of Business Development & Strategic Planning at Praxis, a full service patient recruitment & retention agency that specializes in optimizing study enrollment for research studies with award-winning creative and superior execution.Designing and deploying effective patient recruitment campaign strategies since 2004, Mr Loll’s clinical background includes 15 years providing patient care for top collegiate, Olympic and disabled athletes around the world and working for outpatient rehabilitation companies including Baxter, Caremark and NovaCare.Mr Loll received a BA from the University of Iowa and completed the Athletic Training Curriculum Program within the Department of Exercise Science and Physical Education. Post-graduate courses include exercise science and Clinical Pharmacology, Drug Development, and Regulation with the Center for the Study of Drug Development at Tufts University.Mr Loll is an Advisory Board member for The Center for Information and Study on Clinical Research Participation (CISCRP) an independent non-profit organization dedicated to educating and informing the public and patients about clinical research.