Six Best Practices To Factor Into Effective Data Migration Planning

No clinical trial sponsor intentionally plans a study migration. Sometimes the decision to migrate data from one database (or data collection platform) to another just can’t be avoided. Once considered a rarity, more and more sponsors are finding the need to switch vendors in the midst of a study. There are a host of reasons for such “rescue” or transition studies, but the decision to initiate one generally stems from issues with the data capture system or a vendor’s inability to meet – or continue meeting – a sponsor’s requirements for a specific clinical trial.

However, making the decision to move forward with a data migration isn’t one sponsors take lightly. The decision typically follows numerous manual workarounds and other internal efforts, which usually incur significant effort, time and costs.