Clinical trial sponsors and CROs who combine their operational data with clinical trial analytics are likely to get their therapies to market faster. Yet, some sponsors and CROs remain apprehensive about investing in analytics platforms due to cost constraints and concerns over which tools will best serve their needs.
Today, however, the benefits of using analytics platforms outweigh the risks. Some reasons to invest in such tools include:
- Cost savings: Analytics platforms, equipped with AI for example, can aid in analysis and trial modelling. Such efficiencies can reduce the workload of study teams and also help them to apply actionable insights and identify issues earlier, making clinical trial processes more efficient and less costly.
- Improved data management: Analytics platforms can help to organize and manage large amounts of information, making it easier to access, analyze, and interpret clinical trial data.
- Increased efficiency: Analytics platforms can automate and streamline many data analysis tasks that are typically done manually, and, as such, reduce the time and resources required to perform such activities.
- Better decision making: Analytics platforms can provide insights that are not immediately obvious from the raw clinical trial data, helping to identify patterns, trends, and relationships that can inform important decisions.
- Early identification of potential issues: Analytics platforms can help to identify potential issues early on in the clinical trial process, allowing for corrective action to be taken before it’s too late or too costly.
- Improved collaboration: Analytics platforms incorporate data from a wide range of sources, including third parties. Access to a flexible analytical environment makes it easier for research teams in departments across both sponsor organizations and CROs to collaborate, allowing for better communication and more efficient use of resources.
- Increased transparency: Analytics platforms collate data from multiple sources and provide that otherwise would only be available during analysis, making it easier to understand a study’s results and providing more insight into the trial’s outcome.
- Better understanding of patient outcomes: Analytics platforms can help to identify patterns and trends in patient outcomes, allowing for more targeted and effective treatments.
- Enhanced risk-based monitoring processes: Analytics platforms can help study sponsors and their CRO partners monitor clinical trial data in real-time, enabling early detection of potential risks and the ability to proactively mitigate them.
Overall, using analytics tools can help pharmaceutical companies make more informed decisions, improve the efficiency of the clinical trial process, and ultimately increase the chances of success in bringing new treatments to market. Still, choosing the right analytics platform to support sponsors and CRO needs is critical. A number of factors should be taken into consideration when evaluating the capabilities of such solutions, including:
- Data: The analytics platform should be able to handle the data it will be working with, whether it’s structured or unstructured. Additionally, the platform should accommodate different types of data such as text, numbers, and dates, for example.
- User requirements: The analytics platform should be designed to meet the specific needs of the users in both sponsor organizations and CROs who will be using it. This includes understanding what type of data all users need to see and the way they interact with it.
- Interactivity: The analytics platform should be interactive and allow users to explore the data in different ways, such as filtering, drilling down, and zooming in and out.
- Visualization: The analytics platform should use appropriate visualization techniques to make the data easy to understand and interpret, whether it is presented in charts, graphs, maps, or any other format.
- Scalability: The analytics platform should be able to handle large amounts of data and be able to scale as the volume of data grows.
- Security: The analytics platform should be designed with security in mind, to protect sensitive data, blinded data (when applicable) and privacy (GDPR compliant).
- User interface: The analytics platform should have a user-friendly interface that is easy to navigate and understand.
- Flexibility: The analytics platform should be flexible so that it can be adapted to different use cases, data sources, and user needs.
- Integration: The analytics platform should be able to integrate with other systems and tools in order to provide a complete solution.
- Technical Ease of Use: The analytics platform should be designed so that it’s intuitive for all users, so that it can be used by people with limited technical experience.
- Maintenance: The analytics platform should be designed so that it’s easy to maintain, such that it can be updated and modified as needed, and troubleshooting issues is a straightforward, painless process.
Once all of these factors have been considered, clinical trial sponsors and CROs can select the analytics platform that best suits their needs. With the ability to analyze study data in real time, research teams can make informed decisions that help to improve trial efficiency, lower overall costs, accelerate timelines, and, most important, potentially improve patient outcomes.