Keeping Clinical Sites In Mind During eCOA Implementation

By Aubrey Llanes Verna, eCOA Product Director, YPrime

The use of patient-centric technology, such as electronic clinical outcome assessment (eCOA) tools, are an important building block for collecting more reliable endpoint data. Although the benefits of technology-driven tools are clear—enhancing clinical trial efficiency, protecting data integrity, and helping to bring new therapies to market faster—introducing new technology to already busy sites can create additional challenges.

Challenges to implementing eCOA at the site level can be minimized if anticipated and addressed early in the study planning process. One crucial element to improving the clinical research experience is by anticipating, developing, and implementing comprehensive end-user support that will be needed throughout the study. We often think of end-user support as a 24/7 helpdesk, however, by taking a more wholistic approach to end-user education and support, we can help minimize disruptions and significantly reduce frustration among sites implementing new technology—frustration that could jeopardize data quality, site satisfaction, patient compliance, patient retention, and, ultimately, on-time completion of the study.