Based in Atlanta, GA-based, Florence Healthcare has raised $7.1m in a Series B financing round led by Fulcrum Equity Partners with participation from Atrium Health and Bee Partners.
Over the last five years, the company has built a network of more than 5,000 clinical trial sites that are managing studies on its platform.
The funds will be used to support the company as it works to connect these sites with contract research organizations (CROs) and sponsors to enable study document and data exchange.
“Sponsors and CROs are needing the ability to exchange documents in real-time with research sites [and] we don’t believe site portals are the answer to collecting documents from sites,” said Blake Adams, head of marketing at Florence.
Instead, the company ‘flips the script’ and has developed a central platform for sites – a ‘sponsor portal’ that provides sponsors with integrated access through the ‘Florence eHub.’
“What differentiates us from some others out there, is that we are a site-centric organization,” added Adams. “Our platforms are designed for the enterprise research site. Each research site can set up the platform in a way that matches their workflows and needs, and then they are able to standardize that across their organization.”
For sponsors, Adams said this typically drives down start-up time by 43-44%. The platform also enables remote monitoring, with around 48% of its usage on a monthly basis being monitors and CRAs logging in to remotely monitor and access those research sites, he explained.
Additionally, Adams stressed Florence’s focus on the customer experience – the ‘post-purchase point’ and what the company calls its ‘white-glove service.’
“We help sites build out SOPs, training and workflows, and really hold their hand through anywhere from three months to eight months because we believe technology is change management play,” said Adams. “Just handing the keys to software doesn’t work – It really requires that organizational change management strategy.”
