Toni Kay Mangskau graduated from Winona State University with a degree in social work. She has worked at Mayo Clinic for the past 28 years. Her current position of clinical trials referral coordinator for the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center was created in 2005 after a need was identified for providing clinical trial information and resources to internal and external patients, family members, and referring healthcare providers. Mangskau oversees the clinical trials referral office for the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center’s sites in Arizona, Florida, and Minnesota. Nationally, Mangskau has served as a steering committee member for the Summit Series on Cancer Clinical Trials, and was co-chair of the infrastructure/funding subcommittee to develop a nationwide training program for research staff on communicating with patients about clinical trials. (From http://blog.aacr.org/a-simple-act-increasing-clinical-trial-participation/)
key insights
The amount of time competitors should need to implement and measure their project largely depends on their ideas.
Quantifying impact of projects may be difficult for some ideas. If a competitor wants to test their idea at a few sites, competitors may find that different sites have wildly varying accrual processes and clinical trial setups.
Accrual to clinical trials outside the United States may be impacted by an entirely different host of problems than accrual within the United States. Different insurance models and incentive structures play a key role in accrual, so both judges and participants must be aware that there are unique challenges and opportunities to increasing accrual rates abroad.
