Clinical trials are often done between private companies, the academe, and government health agencies. This critical and time-consuming collaboration often aims to discover new ways of treating a disease or improving the diagnostic and preventive capacities of the medical sector.
Moreover, with the use of new technologies, clinical trials can validate a breakthrough product’s safety, efficacy, or inefficacy in preventing widespread health issues like a pandemic.
Collaboration makes the workflows more efficient and with fewer problems. This streamlined approach benefits not only the public but also all stakeholders. But how can organizations involved in clinical trials improve their collaborative efforts? Below are some of the tips to consider.
- Automate Processes To Ensure Data Integrity
Clinical trials often involve repetitive tasks and overlapping workflows. Unfortunately, manual processes usually take too much time and effort to complete. It can be prone to human errors too, unlike digital methods. Mistakes could compromise the clinical trial results. Thus, research teams often use automation processes to streamline workflows and address issues and bottlenecks.
Take a look at Formedix.com and similar companies to address these challenges. Medical software firms create customized software for all stages of clinical trials, including designing, mapping, and managing. Additionally, cloud-based platforms provide excellent accessibility to those who need to access clinical files and data while giving you the security and protection you need.
- Set Clear And Unified Goals
In a collaborative effort, groups may have different motives and end goals—especially if a private sponsor is involved. While some clinical trials are designed to improve the funder’s business, it’s also vital to consider public health, among other considerations. Groups collaborating for the prosecution must strike a healthy balance between all the critical factors involved to achieve unified goals and a shared vision.
- Establish Clear Work Flows
Alongside clear goals, the team involved in the clinical trial must have transparent workflows and responsibilities. Team members should understand their roles and tasks for smoother processes. If a person knows what is expected of them and what they must do to achieve the trial’s goals, the team will experience fewer snags. Additionally, transparent workflows help maintain accountability.
- Address Expectations
In a collaborative activity, it’s understandable for different organizations and individual members to have varying expectations. After shared goals are established, the team must agree on regular meeting schedules to discuss expectations and address them early on. Discussions can also focus on contentious issues to prevent misunderstanding.
Talks must be transparent enough to facilitate open discussions, so expectations are clear for all parties. Is the funding fixed or flexible? Providing the answers to these questions is crucial in setting the expectations of clinical research organizations. Resource limitations must be established as well, so members know if they’ll have access to state-of-the-art products, such as new coating technology that’s ideal for medical testing.
- Put Everything In Writing
When groups collaborate for clinical trials, it’s necessary to put everything in writing. Keep minutes of the meeting, especially the most critical points discussed and the solutions that the entire team has arrived at. These documents can be beneficial if the clinical research team has difficulties moving forward.
Additionally, the team leader must be identified even before the activity. Without clear instructions on who takes the lead, the entire undertaking may cause further delays, misunderstandings, or disagreements. As the team is required to publish their research findings, it’s best to identify the project author.
- Communicate Frequently
In creating workflows, the group should focus on communication protocols. This holds if the trial covers issues of public interest, for instance, a new vaccine against COVID-19. To establish communication rules, explicitly identifying a spokesperson is essential. This is so that the media, government agencies, and other organizations will only need to contact one person in several stages of a clinical trial.
Work must start internally, though. Schedule meetings regularly to discuss anything, including small wins and significant challenges or vice versa. Document the minutes of the discussions and send them to all who need to know. Clinical research organizations must report to their sponsor regularly to let them see the progress of the activity.
- Set Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
With workflow processes set and expectations addressed, the team must measure the program’s success by identifying key performance indicators for every identified deliverable. Again, deliverables must be mutually determined by stakeholders, the research group, and the other organizations involved. Then agree on how to monitor them and who measures these KPIs. Finally, discuss how to address KPI shortages.
Final Thoughts
A clinical trial collaboration must not be fraught with misunderstandings and disagreements. Groups must arrive at specific findings in line with their research objectives and shared goals, whether they have similar or dissimilar responsibilities.
There are several reasons why a smooth collaboration is crucial in clinical research, one of which is to ensure the entire research activity’s integrity. Without this, a clinical trial may fail to be considered trustworthy and valuable, putting precious human and medical resources to waste.
