Sudeep Pattnaik, CEO of ThoughtSphere, told Outsourcing-Pharma the awarding of the patent from the US Patent and Trademark Office signifies to the clinical trial industry that the solution the company offers is novel, differentiating it from other technology providers.
“ThoughtSphere has used its data science and clinical R&D expertise to address the core and heart of some of the biggest problems facing more of the R&D and pharma companies and CROs,” he said. “We hope to make a true and meaningful difference to their operation.”
The data management solution is designed to adapt to whatever data structure it is used in, allowing customers to convert data to a standardized format. Further, Pattnaik told us, it is designed to be easily integrated by sponsors and CROs.”
“They can get started quickly and get to see the benefits very quick,” he said.
Pattnaik explained when CROs are dealing with ever-advanced clinical trials, they face the challenge of having to process a lot of data rapidly.
“Our approach changes the way data are collected, allowing sponsors and CROs to understand the effects of a new therapy and yield insights into the operational performance of studies more rapidly and at a lower cost,” he said.
Clinical trials generate data from a broad range of sources, including electronic data capture (EDC) and electronic medical record (EMR) systems, central laboratories, wearables, patient-recorded outcomes and more. Trial teams must take in, aggregate and standardize such data, and they are charged with making the process effective, productive and cost-efficient.
Another obstacle is lack of standardization between one clinical trial and the next. This, according to Pattnaik, prevents sponsors and CROs simplifying things by applying the same template to all studies.
Pankaj Manon, CTO, said the ThoughtSphere technology has shown favorable results in helping trials overcome such obstacles.
“We knew a different approach was needed to tackle today’s clinical trial challenges and created a data platform that learns the data ontology over time using statistical and machine learning methods and smart mapping for rapid transformation,” he said. “Our clients are realizing the benefits of our innovation cutting costs by 30% and saving 50% of their time in mapping highly complex studies.”
According to Pattnaik, introducing improvements to overall clinical trial processes is especially important in the face of the COVID-19. With teams looking for ways to prevent and minimize interruption, remote monitoring is a hot topic of conversation.
“This is an area in which we’ve brought a lot of value to the table,” he told us. “ThoughtSphere has built a significant solution to promote a remote monitoring solution.”
Pattnaiok added the company is offering the ThoughtSphere technology free of charge to studies focused on COVID-19 treatments. The offer is extended through the end of 2020.