About Optimyze

At Optimyze Research, LLC, we strive to optimize your performance.  Our team of expert consultants have a passion for providing confidential support, innovative planning, training, and risk mitigation for those in the field of clinical research.  As the regulatory and clinical environments continue to increase in complexity, our goal is to simplify requirements into actionable, compliant, and sustainable operations.

Whether you are just launching your research operations or if your seasoned staff requires refresher training or improvement planning, the Optimyze team will partner with key stakeholders to develop a streamlined work plan to meet your specific timeline, budget, and needs.    

Thank you for visiting Optimyze Research, LLC, where our priority is to complete each and every engagement with your research operations OPTIMYZED! 

Kimberly Rusk, President

Biography

Kimberly Rusk, EdD, MSHS, BSN, RN

Kim focused the early part of her career on bedside nursing and the implementation of clinical trials for patients undergoing autologous bone marrow re-infusions.  As an outpatient research nurse, she gained more perspective and expertise in managing the complex care of an outpatient oncology patient in a clinical study.  Eventually, she began to champion for the clinical and administrative issues involved in caring for study patients and became the nurse manager at the University Of Chicago Section Of Hematology/Oncology.  Several years later, Kim was asked to join the Department of Medicine at the University of Chicago, where she founded the Clinical Research Support Office, a dedicated administrative unit created to support the rigorous administrative processes involved in conducting a clinical research protocol.  She successfully developed and integrated supportive systems, networking, training, and regulatory processing for all adult medicine subspecialty areas in the organization, resulting in an increased number of trials, trial participants, and regulatory and clinical support staff.  After many achievements in the CRSO, Kim was asked to join the Division of Biological Sciences at the University of Chicago as the Director of the Office of Clinical Research, where she had administrative oversight of many of the policies and procedures governing the conduct of human subject research.   After leaving the Office of Clinical Research, Kim became a senior consultant for the University of Chicago Medical Center, helping to build partnerships in the community, assisting in operational preparations as the organization opened a free-standing, community-based cancer center in the southwest suburbs of Chicagoland, and supported efforts implementing a centralized ambulatory scheduling call center. 

Today, Kim consults with a variety of academic and community-based researchers, biotech companies, and those who are interested in learning more about the clinical research process.  

She received her Doctorate from Vanderbilt University, Master of Science in Health Sciences from George Washington University with a focus on Food and Drug Administration Regulations and organizational culture, and Bachelor in Nursing from the University of Illinois at Chicago.