Meet Furat Shawki: Senior Director, Clinical Trial Operations and Product at NuvoAir

Why did you decide to join NuvoAir?

Before I joined NuvoAir I spent nearly 15 years working in clinical trials technology across all sectors. I started my journey as an application developer in an environment where data collection shifted from paper to digital. I had the opportunity to make an impact on this digital transformation and shortly after moved towards an operations director role where I had overall responsibility of project delivery. I then moved my focus to a commercial role, educating the clinical trial industry on why a shift to digital was paramount to success.

After working within clinical trials technology, I spent several years at a pharmaceutical company focusing on respiratory, patient engagement, gamification, electronic clinical outcome assessments (eCOA) and other innovative solutions. As part of this experience, I came across NuvoAir - a young, vibrant and up-and-coming respiratory technology company with a unique product.

I had the opportunity to conduct a study with NuvoAir who were heavily invested in the success of the project from day one. Everybody from the clinical team, the site staff and even the patients wanted to continue to work with NuvoAir. It was fantastic! After assessing the respiratory market, it was clear to me that NuvoAir was on a positive trajectory with its nimble yet market-disrupting clinical trial solution.

I have always had an interest in how we can take technology to the next level. There was no doubt in my mind that NuvoAir was the place to be to bring a paradigm shift in the way respiratory data is collected in clinical trials.

What is the Clinical Trials team up to this year and how will these initiatives help the company grow?

We have a very exciting year ahead of us both in terms of growth and product features. We have developed a clinical trials organization designed for scale. Dedicated departments have been established including operations, product, engineering, data and quality to enable organic growth across functional teams. We have also grown our client relationship team to build a closer affinity to our customers to better support their needs.

On the product side, we have a highly relevant roadmap which includes new products, new biomarkers, technology validation and of course feature enhancements. With our dedicated clinical trials engineering team, we can easily configure our studies to the customers needs within weeks.

All of our teams, decisions and solutions are focused on collecting high quality data through comfort of use, for both patients and site staff.

What can candidates expect during the interview process & what do you look for?

We are always looking for new and exciting talent to join our clinical trials team. We aim to create an environment geared around the strengths and interests of our team members. Ideally, our candidates will have clinical trial experience that they can bring to the team. However, this can depend on the role, and sometimes, being a go-getter can trump everything else.

Our team has a can-do attitude and we strive to grow the team with like-minded individuals that like to have fun while getting the job done. Candidates can expect positive conversations, a lively team atmosphere and being part of a growing team.

What do you enjoy most about working for NuvoAir?

The atmosphere here is upbeat and I can feel the excitement that my colleagues have about the company's future. We have a young-at-heart environment with a strong focus on doing right by the patients we serve.

We discover new challenges everyday and collaboratively set out paths to overcome these and go beyond. It’s rare to find a company where new ideas are encouraged at the rate that they are at NuvoAir. I can see the impact of my work and how the things I do directly affect our sites, patients and customers.

The dream is to work for a company where I can learn something new everyday and feel like my ideas are nurtured by the team. NuvoAir is the place where that happens!