Earlier this month, we ran a two-part series about electronic data from the perspective of clinical sites. (The stories can be found here and here.) The frustration at sites is real. It’s deep. Given that industry urgently needs both EDC and clinical sites, the distress is likely to continue. None of the design constraints—on sponsors or on…more...

With myriad industry efforts to accelerate study start-up times, one might think the process of hammering out contracts at the site level would now be speedier than, say, three years ago. Wrong. The trends are worsening. According to a new study by consulting, benchmarking and analytics firm KMR Group, the time it takes to get a site…more...

Another Encorium deal has bitten the dust. The beleaguered contract research organization (CRO) recently announced that its recent attempt to sell its Finnish subsidiary Encorium OY to an unnamed CRO in the U.S. is scuttled. In a release, the company stated that, on the heels of $8.7 million in new business contract wins thanks to its selection…more...

Is electronic data capture (EDC) creating inefficiencies? That's one conclusion to be drawn from the interim results of an eClinical Forum survey. Surprisingly, the survey suggests that the use of paper case report forms (CRF) is rising even amid growing adoption of EDC. While most sponsors are committed to EDC, site staff believe it is forcing them…more...