Y-Prime aims to simplify clinical trial management with new confusion-free platform

08-Mar-2012 - Last updated on 12-Mar-2012 at 12:41 GMT

Y-Prime Technologies has launched new clinical trial management software in a bid to answer what it says is an industry outcry for simpler tech.

The eClinical specialist’s new Prime eMVR program is geared towards monitoring visit reports.

The firm’s CEO Shawn Blackburn told Outsourcing-Pharma the program is aimed at simplifying the “overly complex technologies” already on the industry, therefore reducing time spent on projects, and as a result saving money for CROs (contract research organisations).

He said: “We’ve worked in clinical operations for a number of years now and I know that companies invest thousands in developing and implementing specialist and integrated software platforms for researchers running multi-national clinical trials.”

The firm also released an interactive voice response system (IVRS) Prime IxR, which allows patients to provide answers to surveys over the phone, therefore improving patient randomization.

Better the devil you know

Blackburn told us that, in his experience, companies invest thousands on developing and integrating trial management platforms only to find staff prefer to use well-known programs like Microsoft’s Excel.

He said that by basing its eMVR software on simpler technologies, Y-Prime believes it can reduce confusion.

“The problem is, these systems the firms are installing are overly complex and everyone ends up using Excel or any other Microsoft software anyway,” he said. “But Excel is not connected to the study, and the back end data, which allows the information to be aggregated and links the projects in the system.

“How many times a day to people use Excel? Everyone knows how to use it, it doesn’t require training and it’s simple. So we looked at the features of Excel and based our software on it.”

Now after conducting research with one of its customers, the company believes it can boost productivity by up to 40 per cent.

“We’re currently working with one of our customers to take the number of hours worked on a project with the normal software, and the number of hours worked with our technology,” he said.

“With the initial results we believe that we can provide as much as a 40 per cent increase in productivity. This is based on just a few months of study.”