Greenphire Contracts With The University Of Kansas To Automate Clinical Payment And Communication Processes
Greenphire, the leading provider of payment and communication technology solutions for clinical research studies, has contracted with the University of Kansas (KU) to implement Greenphire's patent-pending ClinCard System. KU is using the system at its Medical Center and Lawrence campuses to execute patient stipend and reimbursement payments and to deliver critical patient communication across more than 100 clinical trials per year.
The relationship with KU extends Greenphire's involvement with major research universities, and builds upon the recent success of the ClinCard System at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, the Tufts Medical Center, and the University of Southern California's Health Research Association. Use of the ClinCard System improves operational efficiency, reducescosts, mitigates regulatory risks, increases subject retention, promotes protocol compliance, and produces quantifiable results for clients.
Gregory S. Kopf, Ph.D., Associate Vice Chancellor of Research Administration at the KU Medical Center and Executive Director of the KUMC Research Institute, stated "Our use of the ClinCard System will enhance our clinical research enterprise, not only from a financial perspective, but more importantly from a patient and physician satisfaction perspective. We look forward to working with Greenphire on this very important initiative."
An analysis by KUMC estimated that the ClinCard System would decrease the direct cost of patient payments by nearly 50%. The general administrative costs associated with processing and handling patient payments would also be greatly reduced. Participants in a clinical trial are now paid in the form of a debit card, eliminating paper checks and cash transactions while ensuring greater security and accountability.
Linda Sadler, Chief Financial Officer for the KU Center for Research, noted that the system works equally well for human subject research studies at the Lawrence campus. "The first study to use the system here generated 700 cards," she said. "That's 700 small checks this office didn't have to produce. Plus the subjects' personal information is all controlled at the researcher level. We don't have to deal with Social Security numbers and tax reporting at all during the payment process. At year-end, we then have access to detailed information to generate any appropriate tax reporting, while maintaining the security of the data."
KUMC recently received a $20M Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Kopf believes the ClinCard System will increase patient retention and satisfaction, helping to solidify the university's position as a leading clinical research institution for new sponsored studies and government grants.
Greenphire CEO Sam Whitaker expressed enthusiasm about the new KU agreement, commenting that "Taking a patient-centric and site-centric approach to improving clinical research is a philosophy that is near and dear to Greenphire's heart. We are thrilled to be able to launch our ClinCard System for Kansas' studies, introducing economic efficiencies for our client while implementing a solution that will also directly benefit the clinical patients and site personnel."
About Greenphire:
Greenphire's clinical payment and communication solutions take a patient-centric and site-centric approach to driving data integrity and data completeness for sponsor, CRO, research university, and clinical research site clients. Greenphire's web-based technologies are designed to improve the clinical experience for patients and sites, drive positive patient behavior, increase patient retention and compliance, and significantly reduce site and study team administration associated with patient payments and communication. Greenphire's strategy is driven by the philosophy that empowered, satisfied patients and sites will deliver more consistent and better quality clinical data, which will in turn benefit both site coordinators and study teams. For more information, visit www.greenphire.com.
About the University of Kansas:
The University of Kansas is a member of the Association of American Universities and one of the top 50 public research universities in the country. The KU Medical Center encompasses the School of Medicine, School of Nursing, School of Allied Health, and a number of research centers and institutes statewide. It has campuses in Kansas City, Wichita, and Salina.
KU's Lawrence campus hosts a comprehensive array of undergraduate and graduate degree programs, and is a research leader in such areas as renewable energy, special education, information technology, and drug discovery and delivery. KU is embarked on a bi-campus initiative aimed at achieving designation by the National Cancer Institute as a comprehensive cancer center. Other bi-campus programs include the KU Center for Technology Commercialization. For more information, visit www.ku.edu and www.kumc.edu.
SOURCE: Greenphire