My last blog discussed enhancing slow recruitment with robotic process automation. This installment explains how robotic process automation (RPA) can assist updating outdated contact details.
At first glance, having outdated contact information for sites might seem like a relatively minor issue. But when it results in delays related to required documents, monitoring visits, or clinical supplies, the issue quickly becomes more serious.
It is easy to keep a sponsor or CRO in the loop when a shipping or mailing address changes or when a site coordinator goes out on maternity leave and the interim coordinator should now receive all phone calls and emails. But it is usually not top-of mind for sites, which can lead to a lot of frustration and rework for the sponsor/CRO.
This strain on the site relationship can be avoided by:
- Empowering sites to see the contact information on file for them at all times
- Providing sites with self-service tools to update their contact information
- Periodically prompting site personnel to verify their contact information on file
Implementing this kind of solution is simple and effective.
Every six months, the site coordinator receives a push notification on her mobile phone to verify that the contact information on file for the site is correct.
During her review, she notices that the address you have designated for shipping is out of date. Their medical campus now has a centralized shipping and receiving location that’s different from the office where they see patients.
She makes the update and submits the changes. The system automatically verifies the address with the United States Postal Service as being valid and goes on to check your clinical trial management system (CTMS) to see if the address exists, but has not yet been associated with the site. Because the system is unable to find an exact match, you are alerted that a human needs to weigh in and make a decision.
You review the content of the update and verify that the address is not a slightly different duplicate of an address already in the system. You accept the change, which creates a new address and associates it as the shipping address for the site in all of the integrated systems, and then updates the change request status and notifies the site coordinator.
This simple, yet powerful, solution’s strengths are transparency, self-service, and automation. Just think about how something like this could help your organization avoid communication and mailing and shipping issues with your sites.
To learn more about specific clinical trial challenges concerning the pharma-investigator relationship and potential solutions using robotic process automation, you can download the guide here, or fill out the form below.
