At all large technology companies, innovation dies. Intel, Microsoft, Nokia, Intuit may claim to invent. But year after year, their ostensibly new products are indistinguishable from older ones. Could any ordinary human differentiate between phones or PCs from 2005 and 2010? Which are more glaring: the engineered security holes in Adobe's Flash plugin, or the file synchronization…more...

Way, way back in 2004, your correspondent covered a small Tennessee software company, SiteWorks Solutions. Oracle bought it and, uncharacteristically for Oracle, wanted to discuss the purchase. We interviewed executives at Oracle and SiteWorks. It seemed like a sound strategy. In the years afterward, we would periodically ask Oracle how that deal had worked out. Were Oracle…more...

Investigator sites accept the need for technology like electronic data capture (EDC). But they remain puzzled about why some problematic EDC solutions are selected by clinical trial sponsor firms that seem indifferent to the operational problems created by such systems. “Sponsors and CROs really need to think about this,” says Christine Pierre, CEO of the 16-year-old site…more...

Electronic data capture (EDC) systems allow sponsors to gather data electronically. In theory, that should be cheaper and faster. After a decade of gradual acceptance of the technology, all sponsors have used EDC systems and some rely on it heavily. Contract research organizations have followed suit. But what about clinical sites? Individual EDC vendors often claim that…more...