Entitled ‘Designing and Delivering an eClinical Product Suite,’ the survey was taken during a recent webinar conducted by the Parexel subsidiary. It polled a range of industry professionals from clinical, data management and IT functions about their views on various eClinical suite attributes and the associated value to sites and sponsors.
Commenting on the survey results, Bill Byrom, senior director of product strategy at Perceptive Informatics, said: “I believe that the biopharmaceutical industry is increasingly recognising that an eClinical suite can help to improve data quality, streamline workflow and enhance user experience.”
Integration
The results revealed that more than half of the respondents see integration as the most important attribute of an eClinical suite, with the same respondents indicating that data exchange between applications to prevent duplication of activities, and the need for database reconciliation, are both critical.
A further 29 per cent believe an eClinical suite should help simplify the workflow for users, with a smaller group – 18 per cent – of the opinion that most important is an eClinical suite’s ability to receive consolidated data, allowing process improvements and more accurate clinical trial data.
Case study examples
During the webinar, Byrom and senior director of enterprise at Perceptive Informatics, Andy Harrod, presented case study examples and approaches for implementing eClinical suites intended to improve workflows and help manage clinical trials.
“We are applying the concept of convergence to our eClinical Suite, which goes beyond what the term ‘integration’ implies,” said Byrom.
“Integration typically requires and additional technical solution to facilitate communication between systems, whereas convergence involves truly interoperable systems that have a greater level of connectedness to facilitate real-time data interchange.”
The experts also discussed how eClinical solutions can be delivered in a scalable manner, as well as the importance of robust foundations and operational architecture to enable an eClinical suite.