In this installment of our “Meet the Team” blog series, we talk to Soma Sekhar Koramatla, Associate Manager, Statistical Programming, Biometrics about his background, cross-functional responsibilities, and how his career has advanced while at Veranex.
TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR BACKGROUND.
My education at Sathyabama University, where I earned a Bachelor of Technology (BTech) in Bioinformatics, provided the foundation for my current career. During my many years in the clinical research industry, I have worked for some very well-respected organizations. I began as an intern at IQVIA in statistical programming, worked my way up to technician, and eventually became an associate statistical programmer. I left IQVIA to join the Veranex team as a statistical programmer and have served as Statistical Programmer II, Senior Statistical Programmer, and Team Lead for the Statistical Programming department. Today, I am the Associate Manager of Statistical Programming.
WHAT’S THE MOST INTERESTING ASPECT ABOUT YOUR POSITION AT VERANEX RIGHT NOW?
Veranex has truly supported my professional growth — I started as a programmer and am now an associate manager! Today, I enjoy the cross-functionality of my role, particularly performing managerial duties, providing advanced technical expertise and support to the programming team, applying my CDISC expertise, ensuring adherence to SDTM and ADaM standards, mentoring junior employees, and leading studies in tandem. One area that I find compelling is the process improvement work that I do. It isn’t necessarily the first responsibility that comes to mind when you think about statistical programming, but it is heavily standards-based. I find that overlap interesting.
HAS THERE BEEN AN INTERESTING PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE THAT’S STOOD OUT FOR YOU?
I’ve had the opportunity to take a deep dive into CDISC standards and data exchange, gaining additional knowledge and expertise. It’s helped me realize how critical data standards are to ensuring that clinical trial systems can exchange data easily and accurately between them.
I’ve also presented Veranex Statistical Programming work at several national and international conferences, including:
- “Methods of Creating Define.xml and Challenges Faced” at the 2015 Indian Association of Statistics in Clinical Trials (IASCT) Conference for Statistics and Programming in Clinical Research (ConSPIC)
- “A Practical Approach to create Define.xml and Define.PDF” at the 2016 IASCT ConSPIC
- “Why CDISC’s CDASH and SDTM Standards should be followed” at the 2017 IASCT ConSPIC
- “Effective Process of CDISC – SDTM Data Migration” at the 2017 CDISC International Interchange
- “Study Data and Electronic Submission Formats” at the PHUSE SDE Bangalore 2017
WHAT INTRIGUES YOU THE MOST ABOUT SUPPORTING CLINICAL RESEARCH?
Being a part of a clinical research organization has been incredibly fulfilling. I know that the work we do every day is helping to advance research and improve health outcomes for people all over the world.
WHAT VACATION DESTINATION ARE YOU DREAMING OF?
Traveling across India! I want to explore Indian culture and learn as much as I can.