It was great to attend a professional meeting in person again! Greenphire was doubly fortunate to have our booth next to Daniel Coe, Founder of Black Women in Clinical Research, who we partnered with on several activities over the past two pandemic years since BWICR’s inception. Such an inspirational organization!
Many topics were covered by presenters at the ACRP conference in Orlando, but two I wanted to highlight:
- The digital transformation of clinical research; and
- a term I hadn’t heard of, the Digi-Verse (though of course, I have heard of Facebook and the Metaverse)
Digital transformation is foundational to the Greenphire mission and the innovation we bring to the clinical research industry through our suite of products, as well as our new offerings. By definition, digital transformation for a research organization involves the willingness to first adopt a comprehensive technology strategy, followed by transforming entire business processes digitally. Specifically, elimination of paper, manual work, and redundant tasks, especially data entry. Digital transformation requires a fundamental shift in an organization’s culture to ensure that every stakeholder can access and benefit from the new system to improve operations. Siloed groups must come along and be willing to adopt innovation across the organization.
Many of the digital transformation technologies, such as those offered by Greenphire to support financial automation, are elements of systems that will contribute to the end-to-end holistic experience of patients. That is, the evolving clinical research technology platforms and all the associated “Es” – eConsent, ePro, eCOA, ePayments, eWearables, support patient centricity and provide a more holistic experience for clinical research participants who, more and more, can control their own clinical research experience.
These technologies, when combined with the dashboard information in a patient’s digital EMR form the basis for the digi-verse, integration of clinical research into the comprehensive health care journey of patients and their overall care. These eSystems in the digi-verse automate a rapidly emerging trend in clinical research: patient feedback that is provided seamlessly, immediately, and digitally.
Finally, given the explosion of innovative technology, there was much discussion at the conference of the future clinical research workforce, noting that younger, incoming clinical research professionals are uniquely comfortable and ready to embrace the technology and the ample career opportunities that lie ahead for clinical research.
These are exciting times to be in the digital world of clinical research, the digi-verse is here! Hang on for the ride!
