Expediting Clinical Research
TeleForm software as a high volume content capture solution has dramatically improved the speed and accuracy of data collected from global health studies and drug trials conducted by the Preventive Sciences Group (PSG) at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF). Digital Documents, a Verity partner, integrated the solution into the existing business systems infrastructure at UCSF, say Verity, provider of enterprise software that enables organizations to maximize the return on their intellectual capital investment.
The PSG at UCSF is involved currently in nearly 40 different health studies being conducted in more than 50 remote sites around the globe, particularly dealing with women’s health issues and sexually transmitted diseases. Each study involves thousands of participants. About 3,000 forms completed by the studies’ clinicians and participants are sent every day by fax, digital sender, or email to UCSF. Forms often are faxed in the wrong page order and, on occasion, multiple times. The Verity TeleForm content capture solution avoids the confusion this can create by gathering and organizing the data so that it is properly placed in a Microsoft SQL Server database for analysis of study progress and results. The PSG has been using Verity TeleForm since 1997.
“Before Verity TeleForm, the PSG gathered data from studies using an arduous key entry process with periodic data transfers, which meant the potential for key-stroke errors was great,” said Alaric Battle, the PSG’s network administrator. “Removable discs were even moved point to point using snail mail.” Because the studies are conducted in truly remote venues, such as villages in Uganda, fax continues to be the most common and dependable mode of getting the data to UCSF as the study forms are typically completed on-site.
“Verity TeleForm was a huge improvement over the slow, inaccurate and inelegant method we had in place,” Battle said. “Every study meant development and implementation of a custom application and unique forms, usually complicated and multiple pages. TeleForm allowed us to standardize, use a single program to quickly and accurately capture all the incoming data. It also meant we could standardize on form design, speeding and simplifying the process. Most important, the Verity software allowed us to easily handle more studies, with a smaller commitment of personnel.” Before Verity TeleForm, the PSG would assign three programmers to just one study. Now it has six handling 30 studies or more. In addition, because of the intuitive user interface of the TeleForm Designer, non-technical staffers often design forms.
Today, using the technology, the PSG can field a study, with linkage to the database, in a matter of weeks once the form design and content have been approved.
“The studies handled for health science organizations and pharmaceutical companies by UCSF’s Preventive Sciences Group deal with some of the most critical medical and wellness issues,” said Anthony J. Bettencourt, Verity’s president and chief executive officer. “It is satisfying to know that the speed, accuracy, and efficiency of Verity TeleForm content capture software play an important role in the successful management of those studies.”
By replacing costly manual data entry with efficient paper-to-digital processing, Verity TeleForm enables organizations like UCSF to reduce operational costs and increase productivity. Built on an open architecture, Verity TeleForm works seamlessly with scanners, fax servers, digital senders, multi function peripherals (MFPs) and the
The Prevention Sciences Group (PSG) was created in November 1988 with the opening of the downtown San Francisco offices that brought together faculty and staff from several UCSF departments. PSG is a confederation of health scientists conducting research on the prevention of AIDS, osteoporotic fractures, cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, health and aging, and other global health projects. The PSG consists of approximately 350 faculty and staff from the UCSF Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and the UCSF Department of Medicine with strong ties to the San Francisco Department of Public Health.
www.d-docs.com
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Magnoliacom
Newsvine
Furl
Google
Yahoo
Technorati
Comments
Post new comment