A YPrime blog by:
Ryan Ridge
Vice President, IRT Operations, YPrime
Interactive Response Technology (IRT) has made significant strides since its industry adoption about 30 years ago. Innovations in IRT have emerged as a valuable tool for managing clinical trials, streamlining participant randomization, drug dispensation, and data management. Despite this progression, clinical professionals face novel challenges posed by the ever-evolving demands of modern clinical trials.
While underlying technologies continue to advance, opening new possibilities for IRT, it is critical to analyze the current perspectives of clinical professionals and learn from them what challenges cause the most pain. By addressing these challenges, we can help accelerate clinical research.
YPrime recently surveyed 100 professionals at pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies who are very or extremely familiar with IRT. Here are the top-5 messages related to IRT challenges that came through from their responses.
Interactive Response Technology (IRT) Trends survey report.
- Adhering to timelines and ensuring data integrity are among the top concerns of clinical professionals.
Timelines/delays and data quality emerge as the major concerns of clinical research professionals as they look at their studies overall. Solving for these pervasive challenges is critical to the management of successful clinical trials. - Clinical professionals who focus on IRT point to timelines, delays, and lack of tech flexibility as primary issues.
Within the realm of IRT platforms, respondents express apprehension about timelines/delays, lack of tech flexibility, and trust in their IRT provider. These concerns underscore the pivotal role of IRT in influencing the flow and success of clinical trials. - Study start-up and protocol amendments are primary hindrances in adhering to timelines.
The survey delves into operational aspects, revealing that study start-up can take over a month for more than half of the respondents, and protocol amendments also consume a significant amount of time, impacting the overall efficiency of clinical trials. - Research professionals seek an IRT provider who delivers data quality assurances as well as tech flexibility and ease-of-use.
The attributes deemed most important when selecting an IRT provider include the ability to ensure data quality, user interface/ease of use, and the capability to handle changes quickly. These criteria reflect the industry’s emphasis on safeguarding the integrity of data and accelerating research. - IRT innovation adoption requires trust in advanced technologies and provider.
Technology can only truly benefit clinical trials when leveraged fully and correctly. The most innovative IRT solutions today utilize microservices architecture for improved efficiency and is optimally implemented with a trustworthy IRT provider who can help navigate complex aspects such as compliance, regulations, and data management.
As clinical research becomes increasingly complex, utilizing the most innovative technologies is crucial for sponsors and CROs to accelerate the development of therapies. By leveraging flexible and scalable IRT architectures, clinical trial timelines can be accelerated by launching trials faster and implementing protocol amendments more efficiently.
To learn more, please download Interactive Response Technology (IRT) Trends, a full survey report including detailed findings and analysis.
For information on YPrime’s next generation IRT platform, please visit the IRT section of our website or email: marketing@yprime.com.