With decades of experience across all areas of life sciences, our global team understands your challenges. United by our passion for innovation, which drives the success of our revolutionary clinical trial technology, we’re on a mission to break down barriers to participation in medical research and make clinical trials accessible to everyone.
Our diversity in backgrounds and experience is our strength, in this article, we introduce you to some of the Skyelarke team so you can get to know what drives the people behind our products and services.
Business Strategy
We are led by our chief strategy officer, Philip Staines. With over a decade of experience in the tech industry, he is passionate about improving the quality of information available to patients around clinical trial opportunities and education:
“There just isn’t enough education out there around the huge positive impact that clinical trials can have. Unless we change the perception of clinical trials, recruitment will only become more and more challenging, reducing the chances of getting patients onboard. Education is therefore key”.
Philip is driven by making trials more patient-centric and believes that trials should be designed with patients’ needs and preferences in mind:
“It’s our job at Skyelarke to ensure that our solutions enhance trial experiences and do not add another distraction that takes the focus away from the patient.”
Supporting Philip in the smooth running of the Skyelarke business is a team of expert web developers, business administration staff, and marketers.
Client Relationships
Our client relationships are nurtured by Chris Gulick, director of global sales, Allison McNair-Walsh, client services director, and Tori Godina, our project manager. They tell us why they are passionate about working at Skyelarke.
With more than seven years of experience in the industry, Chris understands how important ensuring diversity of patient recruitment is to global health equity. However, recruitment is just the first hurdle to efficacious results:
“Keeping our patients engaged throughout the trial is just as important as recruiting a diverse patient population in the first place. The more we can relieve our Sites from the administrative burden of managing patient payments, the more time they can actively spend on patient care, which will, in turn, boost patient engagement.”
Allison continues:
“Recruitment and retention is such a huge challenge to the trials industry; I’m proud to be a part of the team that has built a tech platform that takes some of that pain away. I love working with Sites, CROs, and Sponsors on our process that makes onboarding patients as smooth and easy as possible.”
Our project manager, Tori Godina is the other vital cog in our client relationships machine. Tori tells us:
“Another factor in patient recruitment and engagement is cost: patients are daunted by the costs associated with participating. Transportation to and from a clinical site, loss of wages for their time, and auxiliary costs associated with participating in a clinical trial all cost money. While patients may be reimbursed, it is not always clear when they will receive that money back, making participation stressful. Skyelarke focuses on minimizing the time between a participant being onsite for a visit and being paid for their participation. Not only does this positively impact the patient experience, but also allows better and more diverse access to clinical trials.”
Allison concludes:
“By making patient payments easy, dropouts are reduced, and that all-important patient retention is increased.”
Marketing
Skyelarke’s marketing is headed up by Alex Cheesman, our Marketing Manager. With over 6 years of experience, he has a varied background across many sectors within tech. Alex is motivated by technological solutions being a force for good in the world and improving the lives of people.
“I was really inspired by Skyelarkes mission, removing the barriers to clinical trials and making them more accessible to everyone is a wonderful aim. I think there needs to be more awareness and education around clinical trials and the positive impact they bring – not only to participants, who can take control of their health, but also for medical advancement and the greater good of the world we live in.”
Alex wants to make sure that we are always communicating all the great things we are doing at Skyelarke.
“SkyePay is a big step forward in patient payments, we have really listened to the market and developed a product that addresses the most common issues people involved in clinical trials face. All whilst keeping the most important aspect of any trial, patients, front of mind.”
Design
Our design team is comprised of Jan Shipston, our Design Manager with 30 years of experience in design, the last 8 being in the clinical trial industry. As well as Fatima Ibrahim, our UX Designer with over 6 years of experience in the tech industry.
Jan is passionate about good design and creating a strong brand that reinforces the companies aims and capabilities.
“It’s great that Skyelarke is a start-up company, so anything seems possible. I love designing the branding and being part of the Skyelarke journey and how it presents itself to the industry.”
Fatima loves the ability to make a meaningful impact on how people interact with and experience technology.
“Navigating complex regulatory requirements while delivering user-centric solutions is the biggest and most rewarding part of my role. The best thing about working at Skyelarke is the friendly work environment and a shared passion for innovation.”
Technology
Skyelarke is, first and foremost, a technology company. Our outstanding team has nearly 100 years of combined experience in the technology industry.
Our flagship patient payment platform, SkyePay, anticipates and meets the growing needs of the clinical research industry. Establishing its very own sweet spot between flexible clinical trial technology and exceptional user experience.
Paul McCabe is our senior director of product development, and with more than 10 years of experience in the clinical industry, believes that the key to building better tech experiences is listening to each other.
“By really listening to those who are in the trial, to those running the trial, and to all those with a CRO, commercial, or Sponsor remit, we can develop amazing things that work for us all. We all must be open to listening and understanding each other more.”
Martin Miletic is our head of technology and is the driving force behind our relentless innovation. His expertise focuses on finding solutions that make clinical trials more accessible to patients.
Paul and Martin are supported by an incredible team of developers, product developers, UX experts, and QA engineers who have together created the most intuitive, comprehensive, and affordable system for automated patient payments available.
That development engine consists of Duncan Moore, our Lead Developer, our Senior Developer, Paul Hibbert, Ahmad Issa, Senior Backend Developer and Mohammad Ahmed, our Web Developer. As well as our Product Owner, Michael Barnes, who keeps our product engine running. Lastly, we have Lukman Araby, our Manual QA Engineer, who makes sure everything works as it should and maintains a high standard for our product.
All the developers agreed on why they like working at Skyelarke:
“The best part about working at Skyelarke is our tight-knit, supportive team, and our dedication to adopting cutting-edge technologies. This commitment ensures a dynamic and fulfilling place to work.”
Paul McCabe concludes:
“We are proud to be the start of what we hope is a revolution in clinical research technology and are working towards establishing what we want to be the norm: systems with seamless integration and transparent reporting, that are so easy and intuitive to work with, that they require almost no training at all.”
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