During the SCOPE Summit clinical operations conference in Orlando, Florida, the two companies announced integration of Florence Healthcare’s eBinders electronic investigator site file (eISF) platform with the Cognizant Shared Investigator Platform (SIP).
According to Florence, the integration of the technologies enables sites to keep control of documents and data within Florence eBinders. At the same time, the integrated platform can activate exchanges with sponsors on the SIP via a single click.
Improved site communication
According to Ryan Jones, CEO of Florence, the successful exchange of requests and documents between the two systems marks the first successful step in the collaboration, which will enhance connectivity between clinical trial sites and their sponsors.
Jones told Outsourcing-Pharma that the company aims to “give research teams their day back” and save paperwork through use of electronic solutions.
“To fulfill this mission, we need to connect to the other tools that are important in the clinical research market,” he said. “SIP is one of those players, and we found the team to be open minded and excited to help site teams by connecting.”
Jones added that the SIP partnership enables industry sponsors to connect directly to Florence’s network of more than 6,300 research sites, so that they can more easily exchange documents and data.
Freeing the flow of data
Jones explained to us that the flow of documents and data between research sites and sponsors historically gets ‘stuck’ in binders, emails and portals. While other providers are noticing an opportunity to improve the process by creating solutions, he claimed, the Florence-Cognizant partnership is unique.
“Some pharmas are picking platforms that force the whole industry to pick one product that only meets pharma's needs,” he said. “Our philosophy is that the sites should pick the eISF that works best for them, the sponsors should pick the site management tool that works best for them, and then the two should integrate.”
Larissa Comis, SIP product lead at Cognizant, said many users of the platform are already familiar with Florence’s technology.
“As sponsors began to encounter Florence eBinders at a majority of their sites, we realized that integration was key to increasing efficiency and accelerating timelines,” she said.
The partnership is the latest move in a series by Florence to increase site-sponsor connectivity. In October 2019, Florence announced raising $7.1m (€6.5m) to build out a ‘sponsor portal.’