Our Story

Link Clinical was built from the work of filling hard trials - not from a marketing deck

How the firm started

In 1996, Cheryl Patterson Leon, RN, BSN, was recruited by the University of Tennessee as lead patient recruitment manager for the Women’s Health Initiative - an NIH.NHLBI study of heart disease, cancer, and osteoporotic fractures in postmenopausal women. WHI enrolled 161,808 women ages 50 - 79.

That assignment is where the enrollment problem became the work.

After that work, demand for in-depth screening outgrew one contractor. Link Clinical opened in 2018.

Since then the firm has screened thousands of patients for medical device and pharmaceutical studies, including firs-of-kind therapies. It remains a boutique Secondary Screening shop: medically trained screeners, protocol ready handoffs, and sponsor-level reporting.

Proof Case 2009 device trial

An endogastric device study had enrolled 8 treated patients after two years. The trial was also the evidence path for a Level 1 CPT code.

Cheryl, the sponsor team, and a recruitment partner rebuilt the process. In 12 months, 88 patients were enrolled and treated. the study closed 5 months early and saved $5.2 million in budgeted trial costs. The CPT code followed in 2014.

That gap - raw leads vs. patients who can actually randomize - is why Secondary Screening exists.

After that work, demand for in-depth screening outgrew one contractor. Link Clinical opened in 2018.

Since then the firm has screened thousands of patients for medical device and pharmaceutical studies, including first-of-kind therapies. It remains a boutique Secondary Screening shop: medically trained screeners, protocol ready handoffs, and sponsor-level reporting.