'In The Boat' With Acurian
September 05, 2008
Gaps in patient recruitment are a bit like the U.S. shortage of engineers. Both are chronic, perennial problems that appear insoluble.
Year after year, many clinical trials lurch forward with iffy recruitment. Some trials, late in the day, are beneficiaries of additional funds to meet their recruitment targets. But on an industry-wide level, it’s not exactly a…more...
Reality-Based Budgeting
August 05, 2008
Want to get depressed? The Tufts Center For the Study of Drug Development has analyzed the length of clinical trials during two time periods: 1999-2002 and 2003-2006. The median number of days from first to last patient visit has doubled, to 598. Nineteen months.
Can anyone think of any industry that takes twice as long to do…more...
Veeda Picks ClinPhone CTMS
June 17, 2008
For the contract research organization (CRO) serving multiple clients, it can be tough to stay abreast of multiple projects all over the world. In many ways, the technology advances of the past few years have made this more onerous, not less. The sheer number of systems with vital data continues to grow.
Veeda Oncology is hoping to…more...
No Laptop Required
June 04, 2008
We were looking around for how many USB, or “thumb” drives are sold every year. Alas, we could locate no statistics. We can report some companies are giving the data storage devices away as promotional devices. Other novelty firms sell plastic thumbs, padlocks, jewelry and poker chips with USB drives inside. For oenophiles, a tiny bottle-shaped USB…more...
Fewer Features & Faster Setup
March 26, 2008
It had been a while. Years, actually. But Bruce Schatzman, president and CEO of Advanced Clinical Software (ACS) seems to be doing even better than we expected. He started the firm back in 1993. In our last conversation, published here a long time ago, he wasn’t too worried about Oracle. That proved correct.
ACS never needed money…more...
Expert Author
December 05, 2007
During a recent presentation at a conference, I described clinical trial management systems (CTMS) as “data hungry beasts.” The nods and smiles of agreement from the audience were nearly unanimous.
At the same conference, an investigator was present. He described his general surprise at how often sponsor companies act as though they do not have information that…more...
A Tale Of Two CROs
November 27, 2007
Our notebook still has a few gems from IIR’s Clinical Technology (“CTECH”) conference, held last month in Philadelphia, which was where we heard Jane Clarke from Wyeth speak.
One highlight is a presentation by Pfizer’s Mike Collins. A VP of development operations, he was the subject of this February story on our site. Collins’ talk in October…more...
Laminated Cards For Sites
November 16, 2007
Do large pharmaceutical companies need to go back to the drawing board on matters like basic respect in their relationships with clinical sites?
Kim Oliver of Sanofi Aventis thinks of it this way: “The pharmaceutical industry is under a lot of pressure to do things faster, and with less money and fewer resources. And it’s the same…more...
January 8, 2009
Laminated Cards For Sites
In the third part of our series, a softer approach to win the hearts of clinician-investigators.
Master Service Agreements
In the second segment of our series on investigator relationship management, Lilly discusses plans to zero in on high-performing sites.
Goal: Improve Investigator Ties
Sponsors are abuzz about site relationship management (SRM). In the first installment of our series, Wyeth describes its efforts to become the sponsor of choice.
Exclusive Interview
Why Phase Forward bought Green Mountain Logic, a specialist in Phase I and management of laboratory samples and data.
Real-Time Lab Data
Green Mountain Logic is prospering by helping Phase I clinical sites with labs, scheduling and recruitment. Some predictions about the CRO industry usage of the software.
Appeal In Biotech, CRO Sectors
Some customers invest in a clinical trial management system for better visibility into a trial. Others like owning their data for future projects.
