Wilma van Riel is Clinical Trials Quality Manager within the College of Medical and Dental Sciences.
Wilma’s main role is to set up mechanisms that will help to ensure the University maintains an appropriate level of oversight of clinical trials, allowing it to fulfil its role as a trial ‘Sponsor’. Much of her time is spent developing a quality management system that is easy to use, but nonetheless guarantee high quality and adherence to the extensive national and international regulations that govern clinical trials.
Wilma is supported by the Clinical Research Compliance Team and also works closely with staff across the University involved in clinical trials, such as senior staff members within the Clinical Trials Units and the Research Support Office.
After graduating, Wilma took up a position in clinical research because she was keen to utilise the medical knowledge she built up during her degree in order to directly impact on improving health care.
Wilma worked initially as a Clinical Research Associate for Kendle, a Contract Research Organisation, and thereafter for Janssen-Cilag (Johnson & Johnson) both in the Netherlands and in the UK. During this time she developed a keen interest in the area of ‘quality’ and the regulatory infrastructure that governs clinical trial activity.
In 2005 she moved to Birmingham to take up the position as the first Quality Assurance Manager within the Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit (CRCTU), where she was responsible for setting up a Quality Management System and a Monitoring Team. Outside the CRCTU she was involved in national and international committees, such as European Clinical Research Infrastructures Network (ECRIN) and the MRC/DH/MHRA Risk-Stratification Sub-Group.
Wilma stayed with the CRCTU for 7 years, and helped the University as a Sponsor and the CRCTU through two MHRA inspections, before moving to take up her current role as Clinical Trials Quality Manager within the College of Medical and Dental Sciences.