
Perspectives on Enquiry & Evidence
Cytel's blog featuring the latest industry insights.

November 17, 2023
Cytel’s Functional Service Provision (FSP) teams work on exciting projects with biotech and pharmaceutical companies as...
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September 20, 2023
FSP Behind the Scenes with Anwaya Joshi, Programming Senior Team Lead
Cytel’s Functional Service Provision (FSP) teams work on exciting projects with biotech and pharmaceutical companies as...
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August 30, 2023
FSP Behind the Scenes with Jeff Thompson, R Senior Statistical Programmer
Cytel’s Functional Service Provision (FSP) teams work on exciting projects with biotech and pharmaceutical companies as...
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October 14, 2022
Career Perspectives: A Conversation with Nicolas Rouillé
In this edition of the Career Perspectives series, I interview Nicolas Rouillé, Senior Director, Statistical...
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June 28, 2022
Career Perspectives: Reflecting at 10 Years in Cytel FSP
Founded in 1987 by Cyrus Mehta and Nitin Patel, research scientists at Harvard University and MIT respectively and...
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June 15, 2022
Raising the Awareness for Additional FDA Data Submission Recommendations (Part I)
For years CDISC data standards implementers have struggled to find good implementation examples and use cases beside...
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July 20, 2021
Career Perspectives: Interview with Anil Golla, Vice President, FSP
Anil Golla is Vice President, Functional Service Provision (FSP) at Cytel. After 17 years of working at pharmaceutical...
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January 13, 2021
How to Create a High-Quality Globally Distributed Biometrics Team?
Effective use of the right outsourcing solution can enable sponsors to respond to market needs and change course where...
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September 1, 2020
FSP Navigator – Building the Team that Brings Success
In this blog, Cytel's SVP Corey Dunham’s talks about our Functional Services teams and the qualities we seek in new...
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August 26, 2020
Career Perspectives: Interview with Yannis Jemiai, Chief Scientific Officer
As Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Yannis Jemiai plays a pivotal role in maintaining Cytel’s well-established reputation...
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August 18, 2020
Career Perspectives: Interview with Mrudula Joshi, Associate Director, Statistical Programming Services
Mrudula Joshi joined Cytel in July 2005 as a young SAS programmer. Last month, she celebrated her 15th year work...
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August 12, 2020
Virtual Careers Open Day at Cytel
Cytel’s Biostatistics and Statistical Programming team provides integrated solutions, by blending the expertise of...
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April 7, 2020
Career Perspectives: Interview with Marc Lefebvre-Gouy, Statistical Programmer
Cytel has industry-leading experts in Statistical Programming with years of SAS® Programming expertise and in-depth...
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April 2, 2020
Remote Working Arrangement – How to get it right?
On March 16, the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in his media...
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December 18, 2019
Year-End Roundup: Your Favorite Blog Posts of 2019
With only two weeks left for this fabulous year to end, we would like to thank all our blog subscribers and new readers...
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October 23, 2019
The Good Data Submission Doctor - New ADaM Implementation Guidance
October 3, 2019 was an important day for the ADaM team as it marked the release of the ADaM Implementation Guidance...
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August 7, 2019
Career Perspectives: Jayshree Garade
In this blog, from our career perspectives series, we talk with Jayshree Garade Associate Director, Statistical...
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January 30, 2019
Career Perspectives: Interview with Tina Checchio, Associate Director, Quantitative Pharmacology & Pharmacometrics
QPP remains at the heart of model based drug development. Short for Quantitative Pharmacology & Pharmacometrics, it...
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October 23, 2018
Career Perspectives: Interview with Munshi Imran Hossain, Senior Data Scientist
Cytel data scientists apply advanced statistical techniques including predictive modeling of biological processes and...
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October 1, 2018
Details Matter When Submitting CDISC Packages to Authorities
One of my wife’s favorite TV shows is ‘Quattro Ristoranti’ (Four Restaurants). In each episode of the show, 4...
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September 20, 2018
Career Perspectives: Interview with Adam Hamm, Director of Biostatistics
At Cytel we believe that expert statistical input has the power to shape the future of clinical development: de-risking...
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August 23, 2018
Career Perspectives: Interview with Meredith Alm, Manager, QA Compliance
Cytel has grown significantly over the last 30 years, with operations across North America, Europe, and India. All of...
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August 21, 2018
How Does a CRO Programming Career Stack Up?
After having spent 15 years in the pharmaceutical industry, in May of 2018, I decided to explore new horizons and took...
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July 24, 2018
Career Perspectives: Interview with Sam Hsiao, Associate Director, Strategic Consulting
At Cytel our strategic consulting team works on a wide range of projects including: Identifying the best clinical trial...
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July 16, 2018
Case Study:Creating an Effective Functional Services Partnership
In this blog we share a case study of how we established and ramped up a functional service outsourcing partnership for...
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April 18, 2018
Developing the Next Generation of Skills for Statistical Programmers
Our recent Clinical Biometrics Survey explored the views of respondents from across the statistical programming,...
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March 16, 2018
Career Perspectives: Interview with Benjamin Esterni, Principal Biostatistician
At Cytel we believe that expert statistical input has the power to shape the future of clinical development: de-risking...
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March 14, 2018
What makes a Successful FSP Partnership Tick?
Photo by Agê Barros on Unsplash by Natalie Fforde, Senior Director of FSP Services at Cytel With effective use of...
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February 21, 2018
Developing efficient tools for ADaM dataset creation
By Diganta Bose, Statistical Programming Team Lead at Cytel Editor's note: This blog is based on work presented at...
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February 13, 2018
Career Perspectives: Interview with Ursula Garczarek, Associate Director - Strategic Consulting
Our strategic consulting team work on projects such as: Identifying the best clinical trial design, implementing...
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February 6, 2018
Life in Programming: Interview With Ajay Sathe
We were excited to learn recently that Ajay Sathe, the CEO of our India Operations, was awarded lifetime honorary...
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January 9, 2018
Career Perspectives: Interview with Lisa Goldberg, Associate Director of Statistical Programming
Our Career Perspectives' series is back! Cytel has industry-leading experts in statistical programming with years of...
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November 22, 2017
Career Perspectives: Interview with Makarand Deshmukh, Senior Clinical Data Analyst
Cytel offers a full range of clinical data management services and the team of experts is spread across the globe. In...
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September 29, 2017
Career Perspectives: Interview with Namrata Deshpande, Senior Team Lead
Namrata Deshpande, Senior Team Lead will be participating in a round table discussion at the Women in Statistics event...
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August 2, 2017
Case Study: Cross-study Efficiencies in Biometrics Outsourcing
As a biometrics -focused CRO, Cytel regularly works across a program of studies, providing data consistency, and...
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July 19, 2017
Case Study: Seamless Independent Data Monitoring Committee Support
With adaptive and innovative trial designs on the rise, operational implementation of interim analyses, including...
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July 13, 2017
Creating Data Visualizations with R and Shiny
By Tejasweeni Rajput It’s been known for centuries that a picture can tell a thousand words. In an era of new...
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June 28, 2017
Under wraps: the importance of patient privacy
About the Author: Manjusha Gode has over 28 years' IT experience spanning delivery Management, quality management,...
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May 26, 2017
Cytel statistical programmer gains recognition at PharmaSUG 2017
PharmaSUG 2017 proved to be an inspirational and informative event. With over 200 paper presentations, posters, and...
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May 17, 2017
Case Study: From Trial Design to CDISC Submission
This new case study shares how Cytel supported a specialist biopharmaceutical company from Phase 2 trial design through...
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April 5, 2017
Better Management and Outputs in Statistical Programming
Statistical programmers at all levels can make a significant impact on streamlining delivery, improving efficiency, and...
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February 21, 2017
Syntax and Variables in R: A Primer
In a previous blog, we provided an overview of basic data structures in R. In this follow up piece, we will provide a...
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February 6, 2017
The Making of a CDISC Trainer
CDISC is a global, nonprofit charitable organization whose mission is ‘to inform patient care and safety through higher...
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January 30, 2017
Accelerating development with combined SAD/MAD approach
Single ascending dose (SAD) and multiple ascending dose (MAD) studies are typically the first in human studies. They...
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January 19, 2017
Data Structures in R: A Primer
R is on the rise in biopharma, and as we have previously discussed on the blog, it is now time for SAS programmers to...
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November 14, 2016
Infographic: 9 Do's and Don'ts to Ensure Independence of QC
In our last blog, we shared some of Angelo Tinazzi and Cedric Marchand's recommendations on how to ensure independence...
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November 11, 2016
How to ensure independence of QC in statistical programming
A solid and robust QC process is one vital component of ensuring quality programming delivery. Angelo Tinazzi and...
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October 25, 2016
R Beyond Statistics
Use of R is a hot topic among statisticians and programmers in the pharmaceutical industry. At the recent PhUSE...
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October 13, 2016
The evolving role of the modern statistical programmer
Statistical programmers play a key role in turning the data from clinical trials into knowledge and supporting the...
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August 2, 2016
The CRO role in Data Standards Governance
Editor's note( this blog was refreshed in April 2018) As CDISC compliant submissions become increasingly expected,...
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July 25, 2016
5 trends a statistical programmer needs to follow
Statistical programmers are in high demand within the biopharmaceutical industry, and within the dynamic world of...
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July 7, 2016
Wild Horses: How StatXact is helping conservation project in Mongolia
Why do we do what we do? At Cytel we have always been driven to deliver benefits in the service of human health, and...
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July 5, 2016
PROC MCPMod in Bronchodilator Case Study
At a recent PhUSE SDE, Cytel’s Chitra Tirodkar presented how East PROC MCPMod could be used to help solve the problem...
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June 21, 2016
Sharpening your Advanced SAS Skills: Interview with Sunil Gupta
Sunil is an Associate Director of Statistical Programming at Cytel and has over twenty-five years of experience in the...
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June 14, 2016
Managing DMC analysis- an innovative programming solution
At Cytel, we are very often asked to get involved in DMCs ( Data Monitoring Committees) in a variety of capacities. Our...
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May 17, 2016
Scrambled Data – A Population PK/PD Programming Solution
Cytel participated at PharmaSUG 2016 in Denver recently. A key event on the statistical programming global calendar,...
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May 12, 2016
Lost in Traceability- From SDTM to ADaM
Once upon a time Hansel and Gretel laid a trail of breadcrumbs which they followed to find their way back home. Their...
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March 8, 2016
Mind the Gap! How to prepare for SDTM migrations.
Data standardization is critical to ensure successful regulatory submissions. While many sponsors now choose to create...
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October 8, 2015
Being a Statistician: An Art, a Science or Just Job?
A recent American Statistical Association conference featured a town hall meeting to discuss the role of the...
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October 21, 2014
Clinical Impact Beyond 'Time to First' Analyses
Every year, the East Users Group Meeting brings together notable experts from industry and academia to discuss the...
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September 25, 2014
Part II: The Philosophy Behind a Software Package
A few weeks ago, we posted a synopsis of an event held at ISCB Vienna in which statisticians from Cytel, SAS and Stata...
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