Outsource, outsource, outsource. It seems to be a mantra that has hit even clinical trials these days. The list of companies with significant data management outsourcing seems to keep growing. Wyeth, Eli-Lilly, AstraZeneca, Pfizer, to name a few. How is it that this situation has arisen? From a variety of factors. When I first joined the ranks of data management, more years ago than I care to count, the staff was almost exclusively young recent college grads, everything was done on paper, and what standards existed came from the simple fact that it is easier to copy and modify from a prior study than to build everything from scratch. Broadening Your View All of that has changed. Data management organizations have matured, in both senses of the word. The average age of the staff is older, and the processes have matured as well. Technology and standardization have allowed much of data…more...