Bruce Neal is the Scientific Director for George Clinical in Sydney Australia and a Senior Director in the George Institute for Global at the University of Sydney in Australia. He is responsible for the conception, design and delivery of large-scale Phase III and IV studies in the cardiovascular field. Bruce works across industry and academia trying to marry the academic inspiration of free-thinking researchers with the operational excellence of Big Pharma and the clinical research business.

What are you looking forward to explaining to the audience?

The potential for novel methodological approaches to fundamentally change the way we do trials. Technology and new research findings are opening up opportunities that didn’t exist a few years ago. Many are starting to work their way into the marketplace but few are main stream. I hope to highlight a couple of practical opportunities that might be applied more broadly in the near future.

Why did you decide to do a webinar with Business Review Webinars?

I’ve been working in research for a fair few years now. It’s clear that business and regulatory factors can be a real constraint to innovation – it’s almost always easier to just sit back and do what you know how to do, the way it’s always been done. I see this as a great opportunity to connect with an audience that is looking to push the envelope in practical and achievable ways.

What has been the best moment in your career?

A few years ago I established a Food Policy research group at the Institute. The idea being to move across some of the methods we use in the clinical space to try and strengthen the evidence base for action on food quality. As part of this we launched a gimmicky smartphone application (FoodSwitch) to empower consumers’ food choices – it became ridiculously popular and an amazing advocacy tool. The success was completely unexpected and reminded me that whole new avenues of work can spring form the most unlikely of places.

What’s the best book you’ve ever read and would recommend?

I read a lot. Nothing business, nothing motivational, mostly just high quality fiction. Each year I work my way through the Booker Prize short list and if time permits, the long list. I’m rarely disappointed. Of course what I’d really rather be doing is sitting out back on a surfboard…..

What motivates you?

I like to figure things out but most of all I like to make things happen. We already know so much about what we should do, but so often struggle to get the necessary changes into clinical practice, research operations or government policies. I see a real opportunity there.

To register for the George Clinical webinar featuring Professor Bruce Neal click here