Atlantic Research Group (ARG) is a contract research organization (CRO) that specializes in providing a full range of clinical research services for sponsors in the oncology, neurology and immunology spaces. With several active studies underway, ARG needed an electronic data capture (EDC) platform that was easy to use, had the flexibility to span multiple therapeutic areas and would help them build the most attractive CRO offering possible for their customers.
“We’re a smaller CRO that is very technology forward,” said Alychia Price Deming, Associate Director, Data Management at ARG. “Because we like to use a lot of different pieces of software and technology to help our customers, we need our software to speak to each other effectively and efficiently. Medrio’s EDC integrates well with the rest of our tools and helps unlock new efficiencies and value that we can pass on to our clients.”
The Ability to Start Fast
To serve its customers, ARG always strives for quick starts to studies. From the moment they receive the final and approved protocol to the go-live data, ARG’s goal is to kick things off within eight weeks. As a result, they needed a partner that could get the team up and running on its platform quickly. Medrio helped ARG’s team get comfortable with its EDC platform fast, due largely in part to the system’s intuitive user interface and its ability to easily build and retain libraries of useful study materials.
“ARG likes to keep within an eight-week timeline for our study builds. This can be challenging, particularly when there are a lot of people involved, but Medrio makes it easy for us to make changes and keep iterating,” Deming said. “We also love that we can link form completion guidelines to the form itself. With the ability to update forms and completion guidelines together in real time, Medrio is helping us to finalize and publish both within our eight-week target window.”
Skipping Out on Busy Work
By using Medrio’s EDC platform, ARG has been able to eliminate redundancy in documentation. According to Deming, this has helped her team to actually get ahead of schedule in many cases. She credits the platform’s Skip Logic functionality with the ability to save time and reduce the data management burden for study sites, all while ensuring accuracy and quality of data.
“We love the Skip Logic function. Previously, we would offer our customers a large number of edit checks as a standard. Skip Logic automation has eliminated as much as 50% of the edits needed by walking users through the process of entering data correctly the first time,” Deming said. “The ability to significantly reduce the number of necessary edit checks improves efficiency, leaving more time for us to focus on what’s really important for the study and allowing us to be an even stronger partner for them.”
Proving What Seems Unbelievable
Some sponsors have been so accustomed to the need for a large number of edit checks that some actually challenged ARG’s claims, thinking the reduced number must be an error.
“We had a customer come back to us following our proposal and they thought our relatively low number of edit checks was impossible,” Deming said. “We met with them and walked them through the processes and the capabilities of the Medrio EDC platform and they were convinced. They actually apologized for challenging us and are delighted by how efficiently the system works.”
This has led to ARG highlighting the reduction in edit checks and resulting cost efficiencies as a key differentiator when speaking to existing and potential customers. This is helping them stand out among the competition, including larger CROs. This, along with ARG’s proven expertise in oncology, neurology and immunology, have led to a growing competitive advantage.
The Cleaner the Better
When technology helps to reduce labor and time burdens it can lead to questions about quality. Will the reduced time truly produce the same or better quality of data? This was a key concern for ARG, as keeping clean data over the course of a study has always been a top priority. Whatever technology they adopt, sacrificing data quality was not an option.
“Clean data is critical for us, and we like to clean as we go, so to speak,” Deming said. “Medrio’s EDC gives us the ability to do this easily. We can confirm that the data is good to go and freeze it. This prevents anything happening to the clean data, meaning we don’t have to go back and check it again. This leads to less burden for sites and CRAs and greatly speeds the time to database lock.”
The process allows ARG to deliver database lock within two weeks from the resolution of the last data query, representing additional cost savings for customers.
A Partner to Rely On
In addition to the useful features of the Medrio EDC and the cost savings it allows ARG to pass on to customers, Deming values the support and service Medrio has provided. For example, Medrio’s protocol review process has helped to ensure that studies are positioned for success before they begin.
“Medrio has worked very hard to make sure we understand and take advantage of all the benefits of our partnership. The training is thorough without being overly technical. Their system is in a great sweet spot between plug-and-play and more code-intensive while keeping setup so easy and fast,” Deming said. “The Medrio team is incredibly collaborative. They are truly invested in our success.”
Learn more about Medrio’s EDC and capabilities.
