What are appropriate turnaround times as images pass through the different stages of a clinical trial? Is the pharmaceutical industry applying outmoded thinking? Here's the context for such questions. A few weeks back, we ran an article on benchmarks in imaging. In brief, Perceptive Informatics, a division of Parexel, had adopted some standards in consultation with a…more...

Honestly? The word has tormented us. We are talking about “eclinical.” The once-technical term is now routinely being referenced on calls with Wall Street analysts. Google has zillions of links to it. We finally decided to wrestle with it in our own way. To facilitate a serious journalistic contemplation of “eclinical,” we purchased an 80 oz. (5…more...

For years, we’ve been mocking it. There have been unkind remarks. Words like antique, prehistoric, pre-computer, Elizabethan. “Dickensian” is our favorite. We’re talking about ... paper. Then we found ourselves on the phone with a gentleman who makes a good argument for paper. “We provide immediate information for the sponsor or CRO. But we keep it very…more...

Should the life sciences be in a self-congratulatory mood about moving away from paper and toward electronic data capture (EDC)? Nope. For Ron Waife, president of Waife & Associates, it may be premature to ask John Williams to compose a symphony to celebrate the shift. Waife is simply not sure EDC’s full potential is being, well, captured.…more...