Shishir Khetan, MD has always been interested in science and how the body works. His mother was an OB-GYN and, while she never practiced in the U.S., would talk about medicine here and there — a discourse that helped influence his own interest.
“My first real interaction with anything medical was volunteering at a local hospital,” he remembers. He found himself doing the small, practical jobs: guiding patients, helping with meals, sitting with people while they waited. It was work that felt as though it mattered.
“Seeing the smiles on people’s faces as you help them out, it was overwhelming to see that expression,” he says. “To understand how important even small acts are in that setting. That hooked me.”
From Independent Site to Integrated Network
When he joined his practice, there were a handful of trials running. “Like most physicians, I hadn’t thought much about clinical research up until that point.”
He started as a sub-investigator, then took on a couple of studies as PI. But as an independent clinic, without the backing of wider infrastructure, it was hard for the practice to build momentum. “We were running everything ourselves,” Dr. Khetan remembers. “Trying to get trials was extremely difficult.”
They had capable coordinators, but little visibility in the industry. Studies were sporadic. Enrollment was often slow. Over time, the effort became harder to justify, and the program quietly wound down. A chance meeting in a hallway with a research partner from a group now part of Velocity reopened the conversation around clinical research. The appeal was undeniable. As part of an integrated site network, the practice would have support sourcing trials. Regulatory processes, contracts, and operational support would sit behind the site. Recruitment would not rely solely on local effort.
Dr. Khetan was one of the voices within the practice who advocated for joining that network. “They’re going to get us trials, they’re going to do everything else for us and take care of all the paperwork to get us enrolling,” he recalls thinking at the time. “We have to devote our time, and we have to help recruit patients — but that’s really our main cost.”
They joined the network just in time to play a meaningful role in a generational event.
“We were one of the highest enrolling sites for the Moderna COVID-19 study,” he notes. Dr. Khetan’s practice enrolled 504 patients, and his contribution earned him a co-authorship on the landmark New England Journal of Medicine publication that followed. He mentions it almost in passing — but the weight behind the words is unmistakable.
“To play a small role in helping us get out of the pandemic — that’s the most amazing feeling you can have.”
An Increased Focus on Research
While Dr. Khetan still sees patients at his practice three days a week, his role within Velocity has grown significantly. He now serves as a Regional Medical Director, supporting multiple sites across Rockville, Washington DC, Annapolis, and sites in Virginia and Georgia. The work involves oversight, quality alignment, and ensuring that standards are applied consistently across locations.
He is also a member of the Cardiometabolic CARE Council, working under William Cromwell, MD, focused on strengthening Velocity’s capabilities in that therapeutic area.
The CARE Council’s work is practical and collaborative. It includes reviewing protocols before wider rollout, advising on feasibility, and ensuring studies are matched to the right sites based on performance, patient population, and operational strengths.
“We’re constantly evaluating which sites are most successful, and how we can take learnings from there to support the rest of the network,” he explains. “If there’s a specific screening method certain sites are using successfully, for example, we can help other sites adopt it and develop their own referral networks.”
It is not about comparison. It is about alignment — understanding where a trial will work best and ensuring Velocity presents sponsors with a coordinated, capable network rather than a collection of individual sites.
Branching Out
His role means Dr. Khetan works across a broad mix of studies. Vaccines remain part of his work, but he has steadily expanded into trials for active disease states as well.
He notes the differences between the two. Healthy volunteer trials rely heavily on central recruitment and community outreach. Disease-specific trials require careful identification, strict inclusion criteria, and thoughtful conversations with patients already managing complex conditions.
“A lot of people think they qualify automatically,” he says. “But when you get into the criteria, many don’t.”
Being embedded in clinical practice is an advantage here. Dr. Khetan knows his patient population. He understands who might meet the inclusion criteria and who likely will not. That reduces screen failures and improves trial efficiency. At the DC site, African American participants make up a significant proportion of enrollment — something he sees as long overdue. Representation, he says, is not optional if we want medicines that work for everyone.
The Future of Medicine
And, for Dr. Khetan, that’s the driver. An extension of the instinct that first drew him into hospital corridors as a volunteer — the need to help as many people as he can.
His daughter is seventeen and already talking about a career in medicine. She has grown up hearing about trials as often as she has about clinical practice. “Most people don’t even know research is an option,” he says. “I would absolutely recommend it.”
For him, that is part of the progress, too. Not just better therapies or stronger networks, but a generation of physicians who see research not as a separate world, but as a natural extension of patient care.
