Guardian Research Network® Appoints Clinical Trial and Healthcare Industry Executive Shirley Trainor-Thomas as Vice President, Network Partners

Cancer Survivor, Founder of Phase Up Research, and Former Strategist at GuideStar and Huron to Advance Strategic Expansion of Hospital Networks and Grow Their Role in Achieving the Nonprofit’s Goal of Accelerating Cures for Cancer

Spartanburg, SC, November 4, 2020 – Guardian Research Network, Inc. announced Shirley Trainor-Thomas, a clinical research and healthcare industry executive, joined as Vice President, Network Partners, effective immediately. Trainor-Thomas, a cancer survivor herself, will be progressing the nonprofit’s vision to expand and support its network of cancer care hospitals.

“We see untapped opportunities to address the needs of patients and hospitals, including fit-for-purpose community-based clinical trials, precision medicine trials and next-generation trials involving real world data. A responsive network of like-minded hospital partners is essential to moving diagnosis and treatment from laboratories to local hospitals and clinical settings where 85% of cancer patients receive treatment today,” said Mark Watson, MD, chief operating officer, Guardian Research Network (GRN).

“Shirley has dedicated her career to enabling research for the community patient,” continued Watson. “She deeply understands the issues of hospital staff and cancer patients. We are fortunate to have her join us and are excited to see the next phase of network growth.”

As Vice President, Network Partners, Trainor-Thomas will work to expand GRN’s network, provide partner hospitals with sophisticated data analytic tools, and offer expert clinical insights for a “no-patient-left-behind” approach to trial enrollment.

“I’m here today because physicians and patients participated in cancer trials which paved the way for my treatments. I personally know how critical it is for community healthcare providers to offer options to participate in trials, including novel therapies, as a care choice,” said Trainor-Thomas. “Guardian is at the forefront of making deep, real world data available for cancer research. I’m passionate about contributing to GRN’s vision of building a cooperative network of physicians and hospitals to democratize trial access and cancer care.”

Most recently at Huron, a consulting firm servicing healthcare and life sciences, Trainor-Thomas worked with providers to develop strategies focused on optimizing clinical research operations.

She co-founded Phase-up Research, focused on clinical research infrastructures in healthcare organizations. As chief strategy officer at GuideStar, she built national recognition in the clinical research and healthcare industries, and served as an executive consultant to hospitals, health systems and academic medical centers.

About the Guardian Research Network (GRN)

A nationwide hospital consortium, Guardian Research is focused on accelerating cures for cancer by bringing clinical trials to under-served local communities. Through our secure HIPAA-compliant data warehouse and analytics tools, GRN speeds patient enrollment, optimizes study design, and expands the understanding of real-world trends in oncology care. Guardian’s experienced clinical team provides hospital networks and biopharma clients with artificial intelligence to derive cancer insights from millions of records. Our proprietary platform allows GRN to optimize clinical and diagnostic studies, customized synthetic controls and novel trial enrollment. For more on this 501(c)(3) nonprofit headquartered in Spartanburg, South Carolina, visit www.guardianresearch.org.

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