Dear SCDM Friends,

As 2025 reaches its midpoint, we’re thrilled by the significant momentum building within our industry and the SCDM volunteer network. We’re actively implementing our 2025 plan while shaping our vision for 2030 and beyond. Key initiatives, including the Certified Clinical Data Scientist program, up-lift and expand our GCDMP chapters, and our learning experience platform are all progressing rapidly. Additionally, we’ve successfully held a multi-day event in EMEA and single-day events in China, and India.

Upcoming events around the globe

Three conferences into our 2025 events calendar, we have had an exciting start to the year!  Next up:

• SCDM 2025 South Africa Single Day Event | 22 August 2025 | Bloemfontein
• SCDM 2025 Annual Conference – Festival of Opportunity | Sept. 27-30, 2025 | Baltimore, Maryland.
• SCDM 2025 Latin America Single Day Event | November 21, 2025 | Bogota, Colombia
• SCDM 2025 India Annual Conference | 4-6 December 2025 | Hyderabad, India.

Reliving the moment of the start of our 2025 global tour

SCDM 2025 EMEA Conference

This year’s EMEA event in Brussels featured several significant additions.  The week commenced with a board meeting where we reaffirmed our current objectives and established an ambitious roadmap for advancing our profession further and to adapt to this new industry inflection point. As we look towards 2030, our vision will be centered on four key areas:

• ‘Clinical Research 2.0,‘
• End-to-End Data Flow,
• Intelligent Technologies, and
• Patient’s Choice.

While some are not new, the evolution of regulations, the growing potential of intelligent technologies, the evolving geopolitical landscape and the complexification of the data flows require ALL OF US to take action and further adapt our strategies. So, SCDM Executive Board engaged in extensive strategic discussions on how SCDM can enable YOU to grasp those opportunities to reshape our future in the years ahead.

Following these crucial planning activities, we conducted an academic outreach program at KU Leuven University, sharing insights into the Clinical Data Management industry and our personal career journeys with dozens of students in attendance. This was a particularly special moment for Ward Lemaire (Vice Chair, SCDM) as he spent many hours studying on the campus as a student.

The following day was our inaugural SCDM industry summit, where we convened with key industry leaders and regulators to discuss AI governance and Decentralized Clinical Trials (DCTs).  We plan to publish a white paper on these topics and continue the discussion at the upcoming annual conference in Baltimore.  Additionally, the event included a Leadership forum and several pre-conference workshops held prior to the official opening the following day.

Both of our keynote addresses were captivating and highly inspiring.

Rik Vera’s opening keynote focused on the ‘Net Curiosity Score,’ emphasizing the critical role of curiosity within our industry.  He used a powerful analogy of beach chairs versus surfers: while companies preoccupied with daily routines on the beach are swept away by an unforeseen tsunami, curious individuals, like surfers, anticipate and prepare for the coming wave of change—whether it’s a new technology like smartphones or, more recently, AI—and ultimately transform it into a new opportunity. This underscores the need to balance present operations with an awareness and curiosity about future developments on the horizon.

Our closing keynote, Stefan Gijssels, is a cancer survivor, previous Vice-President of Communication & Public affairs in the industry, Chair of the Patient Expert Center (PEC) and co-founder and former CEO of Digestive Cancers Europe.  His address shared his personal journey, highlighting the significant patient advocacy required throughout. He revealed striking differences in patient survival rates based on the specific hospital or clinic attended, with some exhibiting drastically lower outcomes. Interestingly, he also pointed out how quickly patients forget information shared during visits, with up to half of it not retained after the initial consultation. Simple factors, such as dietary choices, were shown to have profound impacts on treatment effectiveness and recovery.

Achieving a record 350 attendees, this year’s EMEA conference was a tremendous success.  We extend a special thank you to J&J for hosting this year’s conference and to all of the vendors and speakers who supported the event!   A key highlight was the regulatory session, which provided insights into ICH E6 R3 roll out and international regulators’ perspectives on country-specific adoption. I was particularly engaged by the CDISC 360i initiative presented by its CEO, Chris Decker, which envisions the future of Digital Data Flow.  CDISC and SCDM Board members engaged in a panel discussion on how this shift could be enabling standards-driven automation from protocol design to study results and incorporating auto-generated data review solutions. I also enjoyed a session with Sas Maheswaran on disaster recovery, where participants debated which SCDM  CDM Competency Framework element would be most critical during a rolling blackout. Ultimately, ‘Clinical Data Competencies & Cross-Functional Interactions’ emerged as the leading competency, underscoring the vital role of knowledgeable and inclusive communication in crisis situations.

SCDM 2025 India Single Day Event

Our other local events included the India SCDM India Single Day Event, 7 June 2025, in Kochi, hosted by IQVIA, and humming with networking energy.  This event was themed around the integrated data review model and collaboration with stakeholders to unlock the true potential of data.  Data acquisition was also highlighted as data collection shifts from an EDC focus to a multi-modal focus.  ICH E6 R3 regulation updates were also shared during the regulatory panel.

SCDM 2025 China Conference

China also had their annual conference 5-7June 2025 in Shanghai, with focus topics on regulations, compliance, future data trends of eCOA and the application of GenAI in clinical trials. Local voices came together with a global dialogue and shared commitment to clinical data excellence.

Education & Certification

The  Global Academic Council is set to record the CDM 101 webinar for launch this summer, completing the trio of the CDA, CDM, CDS certification journey for our members. In addition, the CCDS beta test is aimed to launch this summer and certification-aligned GCDMP chapters continue to progress.

But wait, there’s more! The  Journal of the Society for Clinical Data Management | Issue: Issue: 2(5) Spring 2025 (2025) is also available for your review, including a letter from our SCDM chair, Carol Schaffer speaking to our 2030 vision and a special note to our next generation from Meredith Zozus on insights on being a data manager in our changing clinical trial industry.  There are also papers on ethical & Responsible AI integration in Health & life Sciences, EDC study enrolment use case and surveys, enhancing medicine information services. Last but not least, the release of the twenty-three page CGDMP chapter on Guidance for eCOA Development in Clinical Trials is now available and well worth the read.

If you have been thinking about writing a journal article, connect with the Content Alignment Committee on what is needed for a submission.

We are also well underway with our learning experience platform pilot with hundreds of volunteers taking part and providing valuable feedback.  We are on target for a Q3 launch.  Having had a chance to experience the new platform myself, I know you will find it a significant enhancement as we leap from linear learning to a learning journey with interactive, bite sized content, community engagement and an AI agent to dig deeper into questions of interest.

Volunteer

As you know and have witnessed through our collective achievements, our volunteers are truly the lifeblood of our society, transforming our discussions and inspirations into tangible progress If you are interested in taking part, please check out this link!   This year presents abundant and varied opportunities to volunteer. If you are unsure where to begin, our current volunteers and board members are eager to help with ideas.  As always, our sincere thanks to our volunteers and the entire SCDM community for your ongoing collaboration and inspiration.  I’d like to conclude with an inspiring quote from one of our longest-tenured volunteers, Jonathan Andrus, SCDM Executive Treasurer.

“Together, we will build a future where SCDM leads the digital transformation of clinical data management, powered by technology and enriched by the collective wisdom of our community.”

Cheers, Stephen

Stephen Cameron

Secretary, SCDM Board of Trustees