THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

Checklists. Some people hate them; some people love them. There have been whole books written about them. Some checklist fans say they live by their checklists. Cynics may see checklists as long, tedious, ineffective, bothersome, or just plain wrong. And, well, that’s sometimes true.

So what makes a good and effective checklist?

I can actually say that I have been working in the Clinical Trials industry since the last century.  I started as a database programmer, part of data management in a large (now huge) CRO.  In those days we used paper CRFs, entered by hand into a database platform that was built and maintained inhouse.  We had our own naming conventions for variables and could pretty much build whatever we wanted and group the data however it made sense to us.  Prior to deliverables, we printed out the entire database so data managers could review it. All the files were burned to floppy discs and we’d pop them in the mail to the sponsor.  With the amount of data we collect, and the requirement to do more, faster, can you even imagine doing that now?