How to Start a Site Management Organization
A business plan provides a blueprint for developing the practice as a group so everyone benefits. Siri Stafford/Photodisc/Getty Images Site management organizations (SMOs) specialize in running clinical research sites. If you decide to start an SMO, you will work for medical research companies to find a suitable facility for holding clinical research trials. Your company's duties may also include recruiting patients, drawing up budgets for trials, hiring investigators to conduct the testing, preparing budgets, and drafting and submitting the clinical study. The SMO profession is a growing field that generated $3 billion in.
annual revenue in 2011. 1. Read federal guidelines for conducting clinical trials. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has extensive regulations detailing how to conduct medical research and report the results of drug trials and other tests. Your company must know and comply with the regulations if the FDA is to approve your clients' new products or treatments. 2. Contact hospitals and clinics -- most research sites are established medical facilities -- and ask about their experience in conducting clinical trials. Talk to their researchers and administrators about the sort of research the institution has participated in, what the patient population is like -age, ethnicity, health -- and which clinical investigators work with them. 3. Develop a database of different facilities that includes their specialties, patient populations and their willingness to serve as clinical sites. Medical companies may have detailed requirements -- for example, a patient population that recently suffered a flu epidemic -- so the more diverse your list of potential sites is, the better. 4. Write up a presentation showing the advantages of doing business with your company. Contact biomedical firms and clinical research organizations, offer your services and make them aware of