What is CTMS software?

A clinical trials management system assists hospitals, pharmacies, or research sites manage clinical trials. The software system handles patient data, financing, scheduling, reporting, and research operations.

Clinical trial management software also helps with regulatory compliance by keeping the health and financial data of the clinical researchers. Other features can include patient enrollment and recruitment, study planning, etc.

However, a CTMS solution must not be mistaken for an Electronic data capture (EDC). The EDC is focused primarily on collecting patient data, while clinical trials management software focuses on the project management side of clinical research.

Why need clinical trials
management software?

Before the development of clinical research CTMS, the industry had to use several different tools with overlapping features. Researchers stored the same study data in several places, often with some discrepancies. All of these solutions led to errors, inefficient and complicated work, and a lot of wasted time.

By comparison, clinical trial systems combine all of these solutions in one
easy-to-use software and as a result, achieve the following benefits:

Increased efficiency

Clinical trial management tools automate many manual tasks and centralize the data, enhancing the effectiveness of the clinical trial. The central database removes the need to enter data manually into different locations and then compare the information. All of this means a CTMS research trial is less likely to lose documentation or miscompute information.
Improved data management

Trials naturally come with large quantities of data. Clinical trial management software provides a cloud-based for data collection, access, and storage. This ensures researchers always have access to the clinical trial data, such as documents, patient data, etc. The CTMS systems for clinical trials can provide reports on the progress or status of trials, with high data quality, increasing efficiency.
Enhanced collaboration

Clinical CTMS can facilitate the connection between sponsors, researchers, trial coordinators, and other people engaged in the clinical trial. It produces a centralized platform for communication and cooperation from individuals all around the world. As well as reducing delays and involving everyone in the conversation, this means that researchers can recruit talent from anywhere in the world.

These benefits for a clinical researcher arise in several fields because the clinical trial management service combines several types of software.

Which software is used in
clinical trials?

It is impossible to list every clinical trial solution as the types of CTMS features vary between each developer.

However, the key features of today’s clinical trials are:

Clinical trial recruitment
software
Streamlined financial
management
Regulation compliance

Clinical trial recruitment software

The CTMS solution is responsible for screening potential participants and creating a database of existing participants. The software can then suggest new candidates and help recruit them for a trial. As much of the selection process can be automated, this leaves researchers with a final choice of selected candidates. All of which ensures both greater participation and more qualified participants.

Streamlined financial management

Such software may have a financial management module that tracks invoices and payments. The CTMS can create detailed study calendars and track the costs related to the trial. This ensures a consistent stable financial activity of the research organization.

Regulation compliance

Each region has its own laws for protecting and ensuring the security of patient data, medical information, etc. The software can help researchers manage the complicated legal fields in each country for example by handling audits, electronic signatures, and ensuring transparency. All of these are vital for a business's operation.

Yet, despite all of the features of the clinical trial software, some concerns still arise related to the technology.
For that reason, the article will look at some key issues.

Problem areas

In common with any software, especially in the healthcare field, some of the common concerns are:

Security: Not only are hackers constantly trying to find exploits in the system to gain patient data, but many legislations such as HIPAA require up-to-date protection and maintenance of every application. To combat this, many healthcare facilities turn to companies specializing in healthcare software which specialize in the constant upkeep of applications. So far, this solution has proved effective in combating the ever-evolving threats
Initial costs: Many clinics rely on on-premise clinical trial management systems. However, they can be quite expensive to implement and hard to scale. This can be especially problematic for small clinical trials, without access to such equipment

To combat this issue, companies have started offering CTMS on a software-as-a-service (SAS) basis. For a small monthly fee, clinical researchers have access to all of the up-to-date software, without the need to invest in on-premise equipment.

Conclusion

Clinical trial software has established itself as a key element of clinical trials. The software proposes to bring increased efficiency, reduced costs, and greater communication between research teams. Yet, we
must also keep in mind the potential risks associated with using any
software

To that end, a trusted partner is a must for every healthcare institution. When it comes to medical software, a trusted IT partner is essential for upkeeping the software. In that field, BGO Software is among the leading healthcare software companies.

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Clinical Trial Software

What is CTMS software?

Why need clinical trials management software?

Increased efficiency

Improved data management

Enhanced collaboration

Which software is used in clinical trials?