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Staff spotlight: Gavin Peacock

A head and shoulders image of Gavin Peacock

Name: Gavin Peacock
Job title: CTU Information Systems Manager
Year started at BSMS: 2025

Tell us a bit about your background.

Before starting at the Brighton and Sussex Clinical Trials Unit (CTU) in January 2025 I had spent almost 30 years working in data management and programming roles in the pharmaceutical industry. Initially at pharma companies Novartis and Schering Health Care (now part of Bayer) and then at a couple of contract research organisations (CRO). Working for CROs meant working on studies for multiple pharma companies across many therapeutic areas and geographical regions, including COVID vaccines. Over those 30 years I saw many technological advances in database systems and developments in data collection and cleaning. The role I had immediately prior to joining the CTU was creating and managing a global specialist team dedicated to creating database specifications and system testing.

What’s the day-to-day of your role like?

Very varied, from overseeing the BSMS installations of REDCap, writing database development and data management process documents and SOPs, reviewing grant applications, helping build and test databases and managing the CTU data team. This year there are extensive updates to UK clinical trial regulations which means that currently a lot of time is spent investigating how they impact our processes and how we might need to change them.

What aspect of your role do you enjoy the most?

My roles in CROs for the previous 20 years were all very data-centric and tended to be involved in studies during initial set-up only and then move on to the next, often being involved one way or another in 40 or 50 studies a year, entirely commercial drug trials. After decades working in segmented teams in large organisations, I like the fact that I know everyone in the CTU. Also, being a small team there’s more overlap and understanding of each other’s roles and day to day tasks. It’s all a bit more hands on, and there’s more collaboration. I get to see things from initial research proposal right through to the end. I feel a bit closer to everything rather than a cog in a very large machine.

How have you developed your skills professionally since joining BSMS?

The first thing I had to do was learn a new database system, REDCap, which I’d not used before. This was through a mix of training methods, predominantly learning from the expertise of our data team, but also training videos and messing around building dummy databases where I could figure stuff out without breaking anything! I also did a Stata (statistical software) programming course last summer. Having been a PLSQL and Python programmer in the distant past and dabbled in SAS it was good to refresh those skills and realise a lot of the basics were still embedded in my brain somewhere.

BACKGROUND IMAGE FOR PANEL

Tell me something about you that most people don’t know about you.

In the mid-90s I rode a Vespa 2000 miles to Italy and back. It led to a lifelong love of travelling on two wheels but these days under my own effort by bicycle. I’ve cycled across Europe from France to Bulgaria and the shores of the Black Sea. A few years ago I cycled from Newhaven to Nyhavn in Copenhagen, six countries in six days, simply because both place names are essentially the same. It seemed as good a reason for a long bike ride as any. I also do audaxing which is long distance cycling against the clock, but it’s not racing. It’s more akin to orienteering with check points to get to within time windows rather than a fixed route.

What are your other interests / hobbies?

My background is not in computers or science, I did a degree in Fine Art, and I have always maintained an art practice alongside my pharmaceutical career - which I fell into by accident when I returned from riding the Vespa to Italy, temping as a data entry clerk. Currently on the days I’m not working for BSMS I can usually be found in one of two print studios in Brighton making letterpress and screen prints, as well as handmade books and zines. I regularly exhibit and sell work at print and zine fairs, and in the next few months I’ll be at events in Brighton and Glasgow.