The 3 Steps to Becoming a TMF Expert
On Thursday, June 16th, Ben Rogers, Manager of TMF Education & Employee Development at LMK Clinical Research Consulting, shared LMK’s most powerful tool for aspiring TMF experts. We are, of course, talking about TMF University. Check out the recording here TMF University Town Hall, where Ben will answer your questions about LMK’s TMF University, the first and only internationally recognized and accredited certification program for working TMF professionals.
But why should you—whether an aspiring TMF professional or TMF veteran—sign up for TMF university? Because TMF University allows TMF professionals of all backgrounds to access real-time and asynchronous remote TMF learning courses tailored to meet you at your level of expertise. Each course is competency based and supported with real-world case studies using high-quality simulated regulatory documents. Topics span from TMF fundamentals, such as the basics of document QC and indexing, to the advanced, including TMF regulation and TMF metrics and reporting.
As you work through each course and build your individual portfolio demonstrating your TMF knowledge, you’ll be continually supported by industry-leading instructors and equally motivated peers. After graduation, you’ll remain connected with this network of likeminded TMF professionals and receive a certification credential that sends employers the clear message that you are a qualified and confident steward of any TMF. More simply put, LMK’s TMF University accelerates your journey to becoming the TMF expert you’ve always wanted to be.
Still not sure if TMF University is right for you? Below are the three steps TMF University will help you achieve on your personal journey to become a TMF expert.
- Build Your Skills
Lead by example and show the life sciences community that TMF professionals are much more than administrators. Today’s TMF professionals must have advanced skills in project management and clinical operations oversight to meet the ever-increasing expectations of regulators. These skills are also necessary to overcome widespread TMF hurdles, such as inadequate functional area collaboration, incomplete expected document lists, and lack of TMF contemporaneousness. TMF University will help you build these skills beginning with the fundamentals. Learners will then leverage their strong fundamentals to explore more complex topics, like industry best practices related to TMF inspection readiness, regulatory intelligence, lifecycle management, metrics, analytics, and reporting. TMF University graduates possess a holistic understanding of TMF health, giving them the ability to proactively shape a TMF to meet the overall regulatory goals of a clinical trial and its clinical program.
- Engage With the Community
TMF University is not just about acquiring skills. At each remote learning session, TMF University learners engage with a wider community of TMF professionals. You’ll share your professional TMF challenges, success, and lessons learned with your classmates. Your peers may be new to the field, have decades of experience, work in familiar functional areas, or in roles you might not realize engage with the TMF. In this positive, inclusive environment, new TMF professionals acquire hard-won insights and experienced learners reengage the basics from a fresh perspective. Learners also benefit from discussing TMF challenges and successes with professionals from a wide array of functional groups and disciplines, gaining cross-functional communication strategies they can bring back to the workplace. Engaging with this community begins with your registration, but for many, the connections made at TMF university are an asset long after graduation.
- Find Your ‘Why’
At a recent conference about the future of TMF training, Rogers noted that a large part of closing the life science industry TMF skills gap could be achieved by addressing the ‘Why?’ of TMF stakeholders. When TMF professionals understand the regulatory or operational basis for routine TMF tasks, like document quality and indexing, for example, they gain greater perspective of how their individual contributions impact overall TMF health. This holistic perspective provided by TMF University, therefore, is of critical importance to TMF professionals seeking to use the TMF as a trial management and oversight tool.
But more than helping you understand the regulatory basis and far-reaching implications of TMF health, TMF University can help you cultivate your own ‘Why’. This ‘Why’ is your personal motivation for seeking to become a TMF expert through life-long learning. For many, this purpose comes from a better understanding of the power of the narrative within the TMF, a full awareness of the role of the TMF in protecting data legitimacy and patient safety, or a heightened understanding of the limited resources available for clinical research. Ultimately, though, finding your unique purpose as a TMF professional is up to you, and depends on your individual experience, objectives, and goals—but you don’t have to go it alone. TMF University is here to support you every step of the way.