“If you don’t know where you are going, you might not get there.”  

-Yogi Berra

 

 

At Pro-ficiency, we are scaling the business to meet and exceed the expectations of our customers.  A key part of that is having great execution across our organization aligned to True North for our customers and our company.

To operate Pro-ficiency, we utilize a variation of the Toyota Lean Management System.   John Doerr, one of the leading venture capital investors in Silicon Valley, wrote about this approach in his book Measure What Matters.  From an early stage, Google built their business around this model.

“OKR’s have helped lead us to 10X growth, many times over. They helped make our crazily bold mission of “organizing the world’s information” achievable.  They’ve kept me and the rest of the company on time and on track when it mattered most”.

– Larry Page, Google Co-Founder

This management system can apply to any industry as witnessed by the successful deployment by Intel, Bono (the entertainer), Zume Pizza and the Gates Foundation just to name a few.  

As John Doerr relates in his book, the definition of “OKRs” is “Objectives and Key Results.” It is a collaborative goal-setting tool used by teams and individuals to set challenging, ambitious goals with measurable results. OKRs are how you track progress, create alignment, and encourage engagement around measurable goals.

Our capital partner, NovaQuest Capital, uses a similar model with each of their portfolio companies.

At Pro-ficiency, Wes Stewart (our CFO) and I have worked with the management team to implement a series of Tracking Sheets for each functional area (currently 12 tracking sheets).  Each functional area has 5-8 measurable goals that are aligned to the other functional areas across the company.   Each month we measure each result as either red or green.  There is no yellow.

We had our first Operating Committee Meeting with the new management team this past month.  We were able to accomplish a deep review of the business in less than 2 hours and focused the team on the critical performance issues.

If a measure on a Tracking Sheet is red, we create a detailed corrective action plan on a single sheet of paper.  This allows us to quickly align on a cross functional plan for getting us back on track.

We are scaling rapidly as a business to meet the market demands for our products.  The Management System allows us to quickly assimilate new talent into the organization and quickly align around a shared vision for our future.

We know where we are going.  At Pro-ficiency, we want to enable every clinical investigator, in every clinical trial, to operate at their peak performance through our immersive simulation experience.   Join us on this noble mission.

Pro-ficiency is a Focus Differentiated Company

 

Michael Porter, a Harvard Business Professor, analyzed 1000’s of successful companies and determined that the most successful companies were either a focus-differentiated or cost-differentiated company.  A good example of a cost-differentiated company would be Costco.  They have built their brand on price.  Costco’s mission is to “to continually provide members with quality goods and services at the lowest possible prices.”   Whole Foods would be an example of a focus-differentiated company.  They found a sizable niche of the consumer market interested in organic food products. Pro-ficiency is a focus-differentiated company.  We win today based upon the uniqueness of our offering and our performance.   We have defined and will continue to lead the clinical trial simulation-based training market segment.   We “help” create differentiation by positioning the creation of our simulation training experiences as analogous to making a movie.  Rather than Project Managers, a generic term from the clinical trial industry, we have Producers.  Apple did not name their support operations in their stores as the help desk, but rather the Genius Bar.  The Apple Store is now the world’s most lucrative per-foot-retailer based upon the anchor of the Genius Bar in their stores. Here is the back story on the Genius Bar at Apple.

Arguably the centerpiece of what became the Apple Store is the Genius Bar, one of Johnson’s ideas. Customers can take private lessons in how to use their new Apple products, or take existing products in for tech support and repairs.

Jobs hated the idea.

“I remember the day I came in and told Steve about the Genius Bar idea and he says, ‘That’s so idiotic! It’ll never work!’” Johnson said. “He said, ‘Ron, you might have the right idea, but here’s the big gap: I’ve never met someone who knows technology who knows how to connect with people. They’re all geeks! You can call it the Geek Bar.’”

“And I said, ‘Steve, kids who are in their 20s today grew up in a very different world. They all know technology, and that’s who’s going to work in the store.’”

The next day, Steve called Apple’s general counsel to trademark the phrase “Genius Bar.”

Pro-ficiency creates simulation experiences that clinical trial investigators rank as best in the world.  In a recent survey of 1352 site investigators, 85.5% rated Pro-ficiency as a superior on-line training experience with 87.2% indicating that the Pro-ficiency simulation experience helped them avoid a protocol deviation.  Think of us as your “Simulation Safety Net”.  While it may not be as clever as “Genius Bar”, we’re confident that our simulation approach is a genius way to approach investigative site training. Don’t settle for inferior education solutions.  Partner with the best.  Pro-ficiency.

Honesty.  

We must acknowledge as an industry that we have an unacceptable waste in the operations of clinical trials.

The Critical Role of Learning.

The root cause of many clinical trial deviations can be traced directly back to ineffective training.

Embrace the Opportunity to Innovate

COVID has permanently changed business practices across every industry.  Great leaders have embraced the opportunity to innovate!

Research the Power of Simulation

Go online.  Explore how simulation training has transformed other industries.  According to Arnold Barnett, a professor of statistics at M.I.T., flying is now so safe that a traveler could fly every day for an average of 123,000 years before experiencing a fatal crash. 

Schedule a Demonstration of Pro-ficiency

Go to www.proficiency3.wpengine.com and click on the button to schedule a demonstration.  See how Pro-ficiency combines the power of Science and Film Production to create simulations that engage clinical investigative teams and elevate their performance.

Experience the Difference

Experience the ability to monitor in real-time the global investigator engagement in your clinical trial new education experience.  Have a fact-based approach with the Pro-ficiency analytics engine to assess the readiness to start enrolling patients in your clinical trial.  

 

“Learning is an experience.  Everything else is just information”

 

 

–Albert Einstein

Pro-ficiency is poised to play a key role in improving the execution of clinical trials through our immersive learning platform.   Simulation is proven as a learning approach by engaging clinical investigators in real-world situations.  As Einstein said, learning is an experience.  

Fatimah Lateef, from Singapore General Hospital, has proven that simulation is the most effective way to develop health professionals’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes, while protecting patients from unnecessary risks.  He also points out in his article, Simulation-based learning: Just like the real thing, that healthcare should embrace simulation training tools just like the fields of aviation and military.

We all watched in amazement as Captain Chelsey Sullenburger flawlessly landed the Airbus A320-214 on the Hudson River after experiencing total engine failure on takeoff from LaGuardia Airport.  Captain Sullenburger attributed his ability to execute in this life-or-death situation to having performed this maneuver many times in a flight simulator.  He had the ability to fail and learn before needing to execute flawlessly in real-time.

The following month, there was a more tragic end to the same scenario in a flight approach to the Buffalo Niagara International Airport.   Captain Marvin Renslow reacted to an impending stall by pulling up the nose of the airplane.   The result was a pivot toward the ground, crashing into a house, killing an occupant and everyone on board.  Captain Renslow received his training in a classroom session and did not have access to a flight simulator.

A recognized specialist in instructional design and technical training, Dr. Ruth Colvin Clark, suggested (Clark 2010) that although Captain Marvin Renslow’s didactic training may have resulted in knowledge transfer, it did not result in an improvement in skill. Although information was learned, appropriate procedures and actions were not retrievable in a crisis situation. Clark states, “Simulator training would have more effectively implanted performance relevant retrieval cues and enough simulator training would have led to automaticity of response”. (Clark 2010) Appropriate simulation training may have allowed the pilot to respond automatically with the correct, albeit, counterintuitive response of nosing down when the plane was about to stall rather than pulling up. 

Just as Einstein noted years before, learning is an experience.  Everything else is just information.

Let’s empower clinical trial investigators to operate at their peak efficiency via the simulation experience with Pro-ficiency in your next trial.

Pro-ficiency Simulation Training

Pro-ficiency is a simulation-based training platform and site-performance management system. Pro-ficiency mirrors site challenges through simulations of potential subjects to ensure sites are fully trained on the mission-critical aspects of protocols. Throughout the training, Pro-ficiency measures site knowledge, skill and engagement. When skill gaps are detected, Pro-ficiency launches a corrective action.

What is Pro-ficiency?

• Turnkey online platform for all site training
• Simulations of potential subjects mirrors real life site challenges
• Captures real-time performance metrics on site readiness, engagement and capability
• Choose your own adventure-style experience consisting of 100+ 10 to 30 second videos.
• Skill gaps identified and corrective actions implemented automatically

Pro-ficiency Data dashboards provide real-time reporting on site readiness, strengths and weaknesses, and identifies your site heroes.

The Pro-ficiency Online Platform will transform your training from a burdensome cost center into a powerful human performance management system.

Turnkey Solution:

• Simulation-based training promotes activated and “deep” learning
• FDA CFR 21 820/11 and ICH/GCP compliant system and content
• Can replace or augment traditional Investigator Meetings
• Training available at any time for any site user (and new site staff)
• “Real-world,” simulated clinical challenges keep sites engaged and demonstrates their understanding
• Easily identify engaged sites and Site Heroes
• Analytics predict errors, engagement, and capability
• Training audit trail and smart-certificates (auto expiration and renewal)
• GCP, PV, EDC, Disease State, IP, SOP, Policy, Placebo Effect modules
• Makes complex amendment management simple
• Manage site staff turnover through simple dashboards
• Subtitles in multiple languages available as needed