Perth clinical research company using electronic trial data capture

Perth-based research company Linear Clinical Research is using cloud-based technology to record data on its patients and participants involved in a clinical trial.

“Perth is at the forefront of health data analysis which will deliver a range of benefits to both patients and providers,” said CEO Dr Michael Winlo. The company is part of the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research. “We are the first clinical research centre in Australia providing this kind of technology to major international pharmaceutical and biotech companies sponsoring medical trials,” he said.

“We are using a unique, cloud-based system that was devised by a US-based company called Medrio, who have so far assisted 2500 clinical trials around the globe.”

“Trials are getting larger and more complicated and there is more competition among drug companies who want to bring their therapies to market faster than ever before. This technology can speed up the whole process,” said Mike Novotny, founder and CEO of Medrio.

“Moving to an electronic data capture platform is the future of clinical trials and will deliver better outcomes for patients at Linear by making trials more efficient, higher quality and enabling new medicines to be accessed by patients faster.”

CEO of Linear Clinical Research Michael Winlo emphasised the potential value in capturing data electronically: “Today, with paper-based systems, so much potentially valuable information is trapped and unavailable for analysis. Yet, this is the standard for clinical trials and for much of our health system. With electronic data capture, we can start to analyse clinical data immediately and with more powerful tools determine if a medication is working or, whether we need to change the dosage or stop altogether.

“Electronic data capture is so important — that’s why we are fully supportive of a National Digital Health Strategy which paves the way for health information to eventually be integrated into one electronic data system. This will provide potentially life-saving access to reports about medication, allergies, laboratory tests and chronic conditions.”

According to Winlo, the benefits of electronic data capture include: quickens the process of drug development — by inputting and analysing data faster we can speed up the possibility of patients receiving new treatments; reduce the risk of harm or illness to a participant or patient on a trial as it will highlight any adverse events at an earlier stage; patients can track trial data themselves — image recognition can detect if people involved in home-based trials are in fact swallowing the drugs as prescribed. Participants and patients will feel more comfortable disclosing information by imputing it directly onto a device; it is also said to allow for better accuracy — logging information manually on paper is more open to errors, paperwork can get lost or patients and participants may forget about symptoms which occurred. It can also be a tedious process. 

Dr Winlo explained that there’s a common misconception that there are too many barriers to electronic data capture with concerns over cost, resistance to change and lack of technical knowledge. But he’s quick to highlight the huge benefits which outweigh any concerns, notably time reduction, better data quality and long-term cost-effectiveness.