Anna Titkova
Clinical Research Site Network Leader, Pratia | MD, PhD, MBA
Anna Titkova, MD, PhD, MBA, leads Pratia’s clinical research site network, overseeing operations across multiple European countries. A clinician and scientist by training, she previously built and led clinical research operations in Ukraine, and is a recognized voice on patient-centric clinical research and crisis management.
On Open Door Salon, Titkova drew on her experience running clinical operations in Ukraine when the 2022 invasion began. She described how trial shipments stopped almost overnight, leaving patients who depended on clinical research for their treatment without care, and how her team worked to transfer patients to sites outside the country that were never set up to receive them. She returned often to a single case, a young woman with Hodgkin lymphoma whose trial treatment was halted by the war, to make the point that the people inside clinical trials are the reason the work exists.
Her central argument is that the industry faces a choice during instability: build a global research ecosystem that stays inclusive, or retreat toward only the safest and easiest locations. Genetic diversity in trial arms and data drawn from many different health systems, she argues, matter both for equity and for the science itself. For displaced patients, she keeps returning to the most basic need, simply knowing where and how to find care, and she makes the case that health systems have to be built to adapt to whatever disruption comes next.
She frames leadership in a crisis not as having all of the answers, but as making the best decisions possible with imperfect information while keeping some humanity in the work.
Frequently Asked Questions About Anna Titkova
Who is Anna Titkova?
Anna Titkova is a clinical research leader who holds an MD, a PhD and an MBA. She leads Pratia’s clinical research site network, overseeing operations across multiple European countries. A clinician and scientist by training, she previously built and led clinical research operations in Ukraine. Her work covers patient-centric clinical research and crisis management.
What did Anna Titkova do in Ukraine?
Anna Titkova built and led clinical research operations in Ukraine earlier in her career. On Open Door Salon she described what happened to that work when the 2022 invasion began: trial shipments stopped almost overnight, leaving patients who depended on clinical research for their treatment without care. Her team worked to transfer patients to sites outside the country that were never set up to receive them.
What does Anna Titkova argue about clinical research during instability?
Anna Titkova frames the industry’s response to instability as a choice. She asked the question directly on Open Door Salon: “Are we building a global research ecosystem that remains inclusive during these times of instability, or we're just retreating towards only the safest and easiest locations where it's easy to operate?”
What does Anna Titkova say about equity and access in clinical research?
Anna Titkova argues that genetic diversity in trial arms and data drawn from many different health systems matter both for equity and for the science itself. On access, she treats the most basic need of displaced patients as simply knowing where and how to find care, and she makes the case that health systems have to be built to adapt to whatever disruption comes next.
How does Anna Titkova describe leadership in a crisis?
Anna Titkova frames leadership in a crisis around what a leader does with incomplete information. On Open Door Salon she said: “Leadership during the crisis is not about having all of the answers. It's about making the best decisions possible with imperfect information, but keeping at least some humanity inside yourself, inside your business, and inside your communication.”
On Open Door Salon
“When War Stops a Patient's Treatment”
Anna Titkova & Prashant Yadav · July 2026
Episode page & show notes on Open Door Salon
In this episode
- Two wars, a pandemic, and a system under strain
- Clinical trials under fire: lessons from Ukraine
- Why supply chains push vulnerable patients to the back of the queue
- Inclusive research, or retreat to the safest places?
- Regulatory instability and the eroding confidence in the FDA
- Is the global community actually coming together?
- Ukraine's healthcare supply chains and Europe's response
- The patients the market cannot see
- Can China fill the void? A different model
- Making care findable for displaced patients
- Entrepreneurs, young people, and reforming global health
- Reform is not the same as dismantling
- The hardest decisions, and what drives them
Topics
Watch on Open Door Salon
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