CIRU Marketing Manager, Beth Mathis
Prior to my current position at EDGE, I worked in a few different research-based roles where I was first introduced to EDGE and, in fact, became a user of the system myself.
My research journey began in 2012 when I joined University Hospitals Southampton NHS Foundation Trust as a Pharmacy Support Worker in Clinical Trials. My main tasks included dispensing clinical trial medication, setting up trial folders and receipting trial drugs. I soon progressed to Senior Pharmacy Support Worker and later to Clinical Trials Coordinator, where I worked on mostly Oncology studies.
It was during these roles that I was introduced to EDGE, and it quickly became a helpful tool in my day-to-day work. I used it to help identify trial patients when prescriptions came into the pharmacy. It was also useful for gathering additional information that a Pharmacist might need, particularly when working in the main Oncology pharmacy, where clinical trials was just a small part of the medication dispensed in the dispensary and produced in the clean rooms.
My roles within Pharmacy involved a lot of paperwork including the upkeep of drug accountability logs, staff logs, drug destruction logs, and delegation logs. One thing I clearly remember was the amount of effort it could take to get, in particular, a delegation log completed. I was often hunting down a nurse or Principal Investigator (PI) for their paper signature, or trying to track down the paper log that had been left in a tray somewhere waiting to be returned. This certainly gave me an insight into the challenges and hassle that come with maintaining paper documentation for clinical trials.
After nearly three years in Pharmacy, I moved up to the Trust’s R&D department. This meant a small pay rise, but also a significant increase in the number of steps I did each day, walking all the way up to E Level! My role as a Research Assistant was heavily administrative and meant I worked with EDGE much more regularly. My main responsibilities included adding studies to the system and transferring information from both electronic and paper documentation.
I stayed within R&D for just over six months before discovering a vacancy within the EDGE team, which was based at UHS. I applied, had an interview, and soon became a Knowledge Support Analyst for the EDGE team. In this role, I supported the Knowledge Officers with implementations and support queries, while also beginning to work on new functionality for EDGE.
I was assigned specifications for new patient SAE functionality and, yes, you guessed it, a new electronic delegation log! I worked alongside our dedicated development team and other Knowledge team members to help design and build these new features. It was a great opportunity to take my experience as an EDGE user and use it to help shape the system itself.
A couple of years later, I moved into a brand-new role in Marketing and Communications, progressing to my current role as CIRU Marketing Manager. Today, I contribute to the direction of marketing and communications for our department, build on our user communication strategy and develop a number of EDGE Community channels. These channels help our user base enhance their EDGE skills, share knowledge, and connect members together to find better ways of working.
I do believe that having both the user experience and the ‘on-the-ground’ experience of working in clinical trials has really helped me in my role at EDGE. It has given me a valuable perspective when it comes to system development and communicating with our community.
Most importantly, it has helped me think like a user and understand the importance of putting the user at the heart of what we do — because once, I was an EDGE user too.