Academic research centres aim to improve clinical studies

A number of academic research organisations are altering the way that clinical research is carried out through their work in the Research Resonance Network.

Forte's Research Systems has announced the availability of a new online home for the group alongside a suite of tools for improving processes in clinical research.

Registration is now open to access the Site Metrics Registry, which is the culmination of seven years of efforts driven by 20 leading academic medical centres, such as the Yale Centre for Clinical Investigation and Indiana University Simon Cancer Centre.

Srini Kalluri, Forte's founder, president and chief customer officer, said: "A cursory glance at the current drug development landscape reveals ever-increasing unhealthy trends. Protocols are getting more complicated, study startup is labour intensive and inefficient, and centres face challenges in everything from compliance to financial viability.

"By allowing centres to share, compare, and take action based on their data, the Research Resonance Network helps centres work together to find better solutions."

Using sophisticated security mechanisms, the registry enables centres to contribute their data and compare their own performance to data collected from other organisations in the industry.

Thomas J. Lynch , director of the Yale Cancer Centre, said: "Being able to benefit from the knowledge gained at comparable institutions will be an asset to our entire research enterprise at Yale and to the Yale Cancer Centre.

"The ability to access data anytime we need it and compare our institution to other cancer centres, CTSA sites, or academic medical centres is a great way to establish our own goals and will be a necessity if we want to better our performance."

Pre-registration for the Research and Resonance Network has now opened, with live data expected to begin in April.

The National Cancer Institute and the National Centre for Advancing Translational Sciences have carried out major efforts for process improvement as they find avenues for speeding up new therapy developments.

Posted by Ben Evans