ePRO providers are leveraging experience and customer feedback to improve processes, enhance operational efficiency, and increase configurability. In addition to fast, clean data, clients — from emerging biotech to big pharma — stand to gain greater operational speed and efficiency with Lunexis™ ePRO+.
Data capture technology that empowers sites and patients with an easier, more positive clinical trial experience and delivers cleaner data for more confident decisions will enable clients to transition from protocol to a simplified, patient-centric solution in less time. Here are some new developments that can help streamline your clinical trial.
Mixed-Modality Lunexis ePRO+ Deployment Facilitates a Wide Variety of Clinical Trial Types
The shortcomings of technology should not limit a sponsor's options for how a study is deployed in support of the clinical trial protocol. That said, until now, data collection technology has constrained the options for data collection and review. Consider the following current, positive developments:
Leaving the rigid past behind
One of the long-standing issues with data collection has been that the entry modality — whether it's a smartphone, a tablet, or a PC — is predetermined and fixed. If the trial began with patients using smartphones to enter their at-home ePRO data, that's all they could use. If clinicians used provisioned tablets to enter ClinRO data from the exam room, they also had to use tablets to enter other data from their offices — they couldn't switch to their PC, even though that might be more convenient. Sponsors had to specify modalities ahead of time, and the ePRO and ClinRO platforms, once deployed, were unable to handle any variation.
This limitation is understandable, because building a single platform to unify multiple data capture modalities isn't easy. To achieve a more flexible, patient-driven design requires a system that is more powerful and adaptable, with the support services to apply it to best advantage.
Greater convenience through greater utility
The latest data capture platform enhancements seek out a solution to this problem, a way to unify data entered via any modality, regardless of trial design. So now, with a single deployment, patients and site personnel using Lunexis ePRO+, ClinRO, eConsent, or other direct data capture (DDC) tools may be able to select whichever data capture device is most convenient. Suppose a patient is at home on the couch, answering a questionnaire on their smartphone, but is interrupted and then has to leave for work. Rather than abandoning the task for the day, this patient can switch modalities and finish later on an office PC.
The same goes for a clinician who might need to use a tablet for mobility at times but prefers to use an office PC whenever possible. This flexibility is important to many people who know they are much more productive using one modality over another.
With 81% of Americans owning their own smartphones, bring-your-own-device (BYOD) options can afford patients the ultimate convenience and flexibility. Advantages include:
- Time savings
- Lower costs
- Convenience for patients and sites
- Better adherence
Entering data freely from multiple locations
Newer eSource platforms may also be able to handle data being entered from variable locations — an especially important feature now, with so many reasons for patients to stay at home. For instance, what if a patient can't come to the office but is due to complete an ePRO questionnaire that would normally be presented to them on a tablet? With a newer, flexible platform, they can still complete that questionnaire at home on their choice of device, and no data points will be missed. This kind of optionality is also ideally suited to virtual and hybrid trials.
Agile, knowledgeable, and comprehensive customer service
It takes years of trial experience and client, patient, investigator, and other industry feedback to fine-tune ePRO, along with eCOA, ClinRO, DDC, and eConsent. Even then, optimizing these fit-for-purpose solutions within a given application requires comprehensive assistance on the part of the eSource provider. Subject matter expertise in areas as diverse as patient engagement, design, implementation, translation, licensing, and global project management may all come to bear for the optimal ePRO deployment.
Choose Wisely for Streamlined ePRO Deployment and a Positive Clinical Trial Experience
The time when electronic data collection technology controlled how and where patients and clinicians could input data is over. Now, with Clinical Ink's Lunexis platform, mixed-modality-capable eSource technology exists that can support any trial design with maximal patient and clinician optionality. When outsourcing electronic data capture and integration, it's well worth considering how well available technologies, their capabilities, and the level of service provided will drive efficiencies within your intended application.