In 1996 Cheryl Patterson Leon RN, BSN was recruited to work for the University of Tennessee as the lead patient recruitment manager for The Women's Health Initiative (WHI). WHI was a long-term national health study that focused on strategies for preventing the major causes of death, disability, and frailty in older women, specifically heart disease, cancer, and osteoporotic fractures. 

  • This multi-million dollar, 20+ year project, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), originally enrolled 161,808 women aged 50-79 between 1993 and 1998. The WHI was one of the most definitive, far-reaching clinical trials of post-menopausal women's health ever undertaken in the US. 

  • In 1998 at the conclusion of UT’s study and for 10 years thereafter Cheryl became a full time mother of 3.  However, in 2009 an endogastric medical device company, having invested $100M+ bringing a transoral fundoplication device to market, was having some difficulty identifying and enrolling patients into a highly selective medical device clinical trial.  After 2 years, the trial, to that date, had only successfully enrolled and treated 8 patients. 

  • This trial, if successful, could be the evidence necessary to secure support for a Level 1 CPT CODE.  After a thorough review of the patient recruitment procedures, Cheryl, the company’s internal team and a robust patient recruitment marketing firm executed a plan.  In 12 months 88 patients had been enrolled and treated, the study was closed and the company exceeded the study deadline by 5 months, saving $5.2M in budgeted trial costs.  In 2014 the company received a Level 1 CPT CODE. 

At that time, Cheryl began to see a need for Secondary Screening services in the clinical trial arena and began working as an independent contractor for other companies. Each successful venture lead to the next client. Soon, word of mouth had Cheryl receiving more prospects for business than one person could handle. Link Clinical opened its doors in 2018.  Since that time and as of Q1 2024, Link Clinical has worked with some of the most respected medical device and pharmaceutical companies and recruited thousands of patients for novel, first of it’s kind therapies and devices. Link Clinical is one of the most sought after clinical trial enrollment strategy firms and the first and only firm that uses a proprietary Secondary Screening™ process.