The firm, part of India’s Veeda group, has extended its offering to include a ‘virtual research management’ service that will advise participating practices on issues ranging from financial planning to operational support.
Sharon Jameson, Veeda Oncology’s VP of clinical development and operations, told Outsourcing-pharma.com the conducting clinical research can be a challenge for community practices which lack specialist management resources.
“The primary challenges are meeting accrual goals while maintaining economic stability of the research program,” she suggested, also citing the increasing complexity of cancer trials as another issue.
Bespoke service
Jameson explained that under the service the initial assessment is conducted at no cost to the practice, after which Veeda will submit a proposal outlining the current situation and recommending what needs to be done to enhance the research program.
“Along with this proposal, there is a cost estimate which is based on needs of the practice, and number of hours needed to accomplish the restructuring or suggested improvements. The practice then has the choice of how to proceed. The services are billed monthly based on hours expended.”
She added that: “We would be interested in working with practices within our existing network as well as other community-based practices anywhere in the US.”
The contract research organisation (CRO) has tested the approach in a number of cancer practices, one of which said Jameson, was able to enroll four times the number of patients and earn double the revenue than it had done previously.
And, while this is only one example, the potential to accelerate enrollment, particularly in oncology trials where finding patients is always problematic, is likely to be of interest for both clinics involved in research and Veeda’s customer base according to Jameson.
“This new service will allow Veeda to understand the operating structure for our network practices in even more detail than we currently do and allow us to project accrual numbers for the practices, set goals, and establish mechanisms to enhance accrual in practices, with more timely oversight which will in turn improve the revenues to the practices, as well as Veeda.”
Outsourcing-pharma.com will hold OncologyTrialsOutsourcing, a virtual conference on outsourcing in cancer drug trials, on July 12.
The even will bring together experts from contract research organisations and Big Pharma companies to share their thoughts on the role outsourcing can play in cancer drug trials and to highlight the emerging trends.
Our experts will also field your questions on the subject.
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