COVID-19 Business Continuity Planning Pulse - Week of 13 avril 2020

Customer Colleagues,

At Syneos Health, our priorities continue to be protecting our employees’ health and safety, and partnering with our customers, sponsors and investigators to deliver life-saving medicines to patients worldwide. As part of our commitment to continuous communication, following our initial Business Continuity Planning (BCP) update, we’re sharing this week’s BCP PULSE to keep you aware of our efforts. 

ACTIVATING AND SUSTAINING HEALTHCARE STAKEHOLDERS

Across Syneos Health, we have 24,000 healthcare stakeholders – medical professionals, patients, caregivers and healthcare decision-makers – activating in a variety of ways. From detailing the evolution of the pandemic curve, to sharing perspectives on podcasts, to medically-qualified staff volunteering in local communities, Syneos Health is supporting employees as we navigate this pandemic together.

We’re also supporting our external healthcare professionals by conducting in-depth research with key stakeholders such as HCPs, payers and sites. Listening to the needs of each of these groups helps us remain responsive in this dynamic environment. This active listening approach also allows us to continue to aggregate and synthesize guidance, updating regulations and restrictions so our Business Continuity Transition Management Office (TMO) can provide direction to our employees on when – or when not – to pivot and/or activate.

Beyond Business Continuity Planning, we’re updating you on our perspectives and public health actions to address this pandemic:

• Critical Commercial Pivot Points During COVID-19 – Sign up for our April 17^th webinar, “Life Sciences Commercialization in the COVID-19 Era: Critical Pivot Points to Mitigate Risk,” to reimagine commercialization tactics, keep momentum and thrive in the new future. We’ll cover four identified critical pivot points that biopharmaceutical companies should consider when planning for the short-term, mid-term and eventual restart reality.
• Activating Clinically-Qualified Healthcare Professionals – In early April, Syneos Health announced a volunteer program to enable clinically-qualified employees to address the UK government’s call for volunteers to support COVID-19 testing.  We joined the effort, supported by the Association of Clinical Research Organizations (ACRO), to help the UK identify 2,000 clinically-qualified volunteers to administer throat and nasal swab tests at COVID-19 testing centers being established throughout the country.
• Syneos Health Ventilator Initiative – Efforts continue to support public education around use of intubated bi-level positive air pressure (BiPAP) machines to provide safe breathing support for COVID-19 patients, with the HHS and the U.S. Surgeon General issuing an open letter to the healthcare community stressing the need to aggressively implement measures to optimize ventilator use during the pandemic, stating “BiPAP may be used for invasive measures.” Listen to the latest interview with Dr. Keith Robinson on Health Professional Radio.

BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING UPDATE

Our Business Continuity Planning Transition Management Office (TMO), in alignment with FDA, CDC, WHO and other local and international health authority guidance, includes numerous workstreams. Each week, we’re including select workstream updates to keep you aware of our learnings and efforts.

• Regional/Country Assessment
  • Ongoing, standardized assessment of risk indicators and other multi-factorial inputs on a regional and country level, enabling rapid guidance and updates related to working from home, site visit policies, and travel limitations/restrictions. 
  • Custom-built interactive map displaying operational status of all Syneos Health office locations globally overlaid with COVID-19 reports via John Hopkins University to provide a “near real-time” assessment of our capacity to operate through this crisis.

• Business Technology
  • Around-the-clock monitoring to ensure our IT infrastructure remains resilient and is able to support remote work (e.g., increase in use of video and teleconferencing services) and any added load to customer-facing or service delivery technology.
  • Custom-built, shared trackers and dashboards help visualize status of key indicators and enable us to focus on areas of concern in near real-time.

• Corporate Communications
  • Rapid and real-time internal and external communications planning designed to ensure updates and changes can be communicated swiftly to multiple audiences who need to know specific information. 
  • Weekly BCP Pulse distribution and real-time COVID-19 Resource Center updates including Corporate, Clinical Monitoring, and Commercial Virtual Field Team learnings, in addition to Subject Matter Expert podcasts, to ensure you have access to our latest actions.

• Clinique
  • Tracking and recording of any Planned Deviation to ensure project teams have the agility to amend processes to respond to this new operating environment.
  • Additional functionality to CTMS and new dashboards to provide project-wide views and monitor site restrictions and flag potential enrollment delays.

• Commercialisation
  • Ongoing evaluation of remote field teams to identify best practices and, where appropriate, to have this information inform our post-COVID offerings and activities.
  • Rapid survey deployment to healthcare stakeholders – HCPs, payers, clinical sites – to gain data and insights into COVID-19 response, impact and needs.

• Human Resources
  • Global, regional and local management and guidance surrounding the health and well-being of our people, their families and the communities where we work and serve, in line with public health practices, and local labor and employment requirements.
  • Rapid and real-time COVID-19 potential exposure and positive identification self-reporting measures and protocols aligned with local guidance and contact tracing.
  • Compilation of company-wide FAQ repository managed by the TMO where employee questions are logged, assigned and tracked to ensure a timely response.

REAL-TIME RESOURCES

We’re regularly updating our COVID-19 Resource Center with capabilities and perspectives to navigate, deliver and learn together. We’re looking to exchange your learnings and experiences too.  Should you have ideas, comments or concerns, please contact us.

Thank you for your partnership