How do you pay the participants in your clinical trials?

In an article at ClinPage recently, they look at how Greenphire is speeding up the process of paying those involved in the clinical trial process. They believe that by making payments available through prepaid cards which are also electronic payments, a lot of confusion can be saved as well as those trial participants involved who are underbanked have a way to receive payments. Read the full article here.

Bio-Imiging Technologies and Phoenix Data Systems combining

In a recent article at ClinPage, they disclose that Bio-Imaging Technologies and Phoenix Data Systems will be merging to form BioClinic. This will be a new solution to track and manage clinical data.

Mark Weinstein, president and CEO of Bioclinica had this to say about the combined divisions. “The speed and accuracy of this combination helps to mend the current broken clinical trial process. We look forward to extending our imaging core lab leadership with comprehensive EDC services, and helping life science companies to manage their clinical trials with greater efficiency, quality and improved data visibility.”

Read the full story here.

Kendle expands in India

According to a ClinPage, Kendle has opened a second office in western India. The new office in Ahmedabad continues its expansion in this area that is growing rapidly with CROs. They've operated in an office out of New Delhi since 2004.

Brazil is critical base for PPD's CROs efforts

ClinPage recently featured some of the CROs that are dominant in the Brazil market. With over 300 employees in the region and at any given time 150 trials running, PPD, a Wilmington, North Carolina-basd company, dominates the region. They entered Brazil in 1995 when they bought Q&Q Suporte a Pesquisa Clinica, the first established CRO in Brazil. From there, PPD grew organically and spread through other countries in Latin America such as Mexico, Argentina, Chile and Peru.

For more on PPD, read the article here.

Guidelines to choosing your CRO

In a recent article at ClinPage, Jodi Andrews goes over a few key factors that should go into choosing a CRO.

Experience -- Look at things such as: How many projects do they have at once? Average experience of staff members working on YOUR trial.

Flexibility -- What's the speed of communication with your CRO? Are staff members able to deviate from the company plan to modify the trial to your specific needs?

Cost considerations -- Do the company's CEOs have an eye on some of the projects? Is there enough oversight on the trial they'll perform? Is there a process for quality oversight? Is the big too low?

These are all things to consider when you're looking to outsource your clinical trial. From the amount of experience your CRO has to the involvement of their management, its important to find the right balance for your needs.

Do you have any other considerations not listed above that you look at when choosing a CRO?

Days for patients in clinical trials increasing

In this article at ClinPage, they discuss a recent study that found clinical trial time periods had significantly increased between studies done ranging from 1999 to 2002 and from 2003 to 2006. The study found that the median number of days in clinical trials had doubled and stood now at 598 days, or 19 months. The article goes on to explain that the reason for the increase in time spent on clinical trials was the goal to achieve more accurate data recording throughout the clinical trail process. Medidata is trying to record all data collected in clinical trials, along with detailed efforts to integrate electronic data capture into the process. Better data collection will also allow for better comparison of data between similar trials.