Patient-Finding Technology to Accelerate Trial Recruitment

Discover how patient-finding technology is revolutionizing the way sites identify eligible patients for research studies, streamlining manual processes, and unlocking the potential of electronic health records. Stephen Jasperse from IQVIA and Michal Janota from St. Anne's University Hospital discuss the challenges and breakthroughs with implementing this innovative solution. Explore the benefits of utilizing patient finder technology beyond patient recruitment, including data insights, research support, and improved patient outcomes.

Transcript

Michael Pierre: 0:00

Greetings and thank you for being part of the Society for Clinical Research sites on SCRS Talks. I'm your host, Michael Pierre, a project manager here at SCRS. Get ready to dive into pressing clinical research industry topics, celebrate noteworthy achievements, and create a deeper connection within the research community. This is the space to amplify voices and perspectives that shape the landscape of clinical research. Today we have Stephen Jasperse and Michal Janota. Stephen is from IQVIA and Michal is from St. Ann's University Hospital to talk about patient finder technology. Thanks for joining us this morning. You can introduce yourselves and then we'll go into the questions.

Stephen Jasperse: 0:41

Okay. Thanks, Michael. So I'm Stephen, as you say, from IQVIA. I've been involved now in clinical research for around 28 years having started as a monitor back in the mid 1990s. So I've seen a lot of developments in the industry in that time. I've been at IQVIA now for about three and a half years. And in that time, my roles have encompassed both site engagement activities across Europe and more recently customer success. So the engagement element is around working with key sites where IQVIA has established strong partnerships. To see how we can help them through the use of our technology solutions, for example, in supporting research related activities, and more recently, I've become involved in supporting the successful implementation of these solutions at those sites and working with the site teams to ensure that the use of those tools can be optimized.

Michael Pierre: 1:34

Okay, Michal.

Michal Janota: 1:35

Hello again. Good afternoon. My name is Michal Janota. I'm working in the University Hospital in Brno, Czech Republic. I'm head of strategic cooperation and I'm working in our institute for over 12 years and I'm focused on administrating and coordinating research projects that are focused on supporting the research and this project which we are going to talk about is also about supporting the research infrastructure for clinical trials and for researchers.

Michael Pierre: 2:10

Okay, thank you. So tell me a little bit about the product we're going to be discussing today before I get into the questions.

Stephen Jasperse: 2:16

Okay. So basically we know that Patient identification remains a largely manual process at many sites with staff often sifting through paper medical records over many hours in an attempt to find patients that meet specific eligibility criteria. So what our technology does is allows sites to run a search. So effectively to build a set of queries, it's a software solution that can be applied across the electronic health record within the site and that basically allows patients to be surfaced or identified meet the study criteria. So it's basically easing the burden on site staff in terms of identifying patients more easily through utilizing the electronic health record.

Michael Pierre: 3:06

Got it. And what are the challenges with this kind of site level technology deploying it, both from IQVIA's perspective and then from the site's perspective as well?

Stephen Jasperse: 3:16

Okay, so from IQVIA's perspective this is not always an easy space to work in, as anyone involved in technology and healthcare will know. One of the main challenges is the typically long engagement cycles that's necessary to deploy technology solutions at sites. And why is that? Because you're involving multiple stakeholders across the organization. So we think within IQVIA that it's important to establish strong relationships to help navigate that site environment and ensure that all the relevant parties are aware of the benefits that our software solutions can bring. So we work with physicians, with research teams, with IT and data staff, legal staff, governance, data privacy teams, finance, procurement, and of course there's even the C-Suite staff. So we really need to ensure that you have the necessary buy in. To proceed and those relationships can only be established over time. So that's more in terms of the people environment, but you also have then the technology challenges. So, I mean, once the tech is deployed and embedded within the site, it can have such an impact on improving how sites work, and it can become integrated into the site's day to day workflows and have a huge impact. But to get to that stage, the implementation can often be complicated. You know, healthcare environments, they typically have multiple systems. They're not necessarily well connected. So we have to navigate those systems to help create a data environment which can be easily utilized by site staff. And so we work with site IT teams to help address those challenges. And again, that comes back to that relationship piece I was talking about earlier. And then, particularly with the work that we're doing, another area is around data governance. So, we're helping sites to utilize their patient data more effectively. And anything involving patient data is highly regulated, of course, rightly so. What we then do is work very closely with the data privacy, the legal teams to provide that the necessary reassurances that the software solutions we provide operate in full accordance with all the relevant guidelines. But again, that all comes back to that collaborative partnership. We build partnerships with the site, with the R& D teams, with IT, with governance. That's the key. You build that trust with all the relevant stakeholders and then any of the challenges that we face can be mitigated.

Michael Pierre: 5:45

And Michal, any comments on the site side of it?

Michal Janota: 5:48

Well I communicated with Stephen for actually maybe one year on this project and we are both trying to make it happen. Well, I would say that we spent almost nine months with negotiating the GDPR issue internally all the legal stuff. All cybersecurity staff demands, and we are still hospitals. So the patient is still on the first place and we are obliged to take care about his or her data and keep them maximally secured. So that's why it was quite a long period, which was focused on negotiating all terms, all conditions. But we agreed on, let's say, the basic security conditions between the St. Ann's University Hospital and ITVR developer team. So, this actually happened. What was the most important step, let's say within the organization was changing the mindset just for you to have the idea that this is the first project in the Czech Republic. So we are the first hospital that is dealing with such a huge project because it's actually touching the core infrastructure of medical records in the institution. And it's trying to convert them From the unstructured to complete structure database. So it's a completely pilot project and thus you need time to convince people that all the risks and benefits. Are not, let's say, blinds, but the benefits significantly will prevail. So I think that this was the most challenging and still we are having internal discussion in the institution this discussing the possibilities, how to use this solution, but on the maximum because. It's the powerful tool which mines the data from internal system and the potential can be huge. So, it's actually not finished the discussion how to use it at the maximum. It still continues. And it's connected with convincing the people to participate in this project. So Stephen said that there are technical challenges. There are also challenges in the staff demanding the time dedication to the project. But for me definitely changing the mindset was the key.

Michael Pierre: 8:43

Stephen, why is IQVIA focused on implementing site focused solutions and what led to this project?

Stephen Jasperse: 8:49

So, from IQVIA's perspective, I think, What we're aiming to do is enable sites to harness the power of their data. So we want to be able to utilize our innovative technologies to help sites, which will ultimately help patients, as well as supporting what we need to deliver for our customers. So some of our customers, for example, the pharmaceutical companies on whose behalf we perform research studies, we can also support through these solutions. But there are ever increasing demands on site staff in the current climate, these demands aren't getting easier. There are more patients, often with increasingly complex medical needs, with fewer staff around, and the staff that are around have more demands placed upon them. So what we look at is how we can provide technical solutions that support sites, ease the burden on staff to make their workflows easier, and through that enable sites to support patients more effectively, delivering improved patient outcomes. You know, so why are we focused on implementing these solutions? If we get this right, sites win, patients win, and we also support our customers in helping them achieve their aims.

Michael Pierre: 9:58

And what benefits do you see from sites, from the use of these technologies?

Stephen Jasperse: 10:03

Well, there are a number of use cases that are possible, but they all stem from the ability to utilize the electronic health care records across the site environment. So basically we enable data insights to be derived through the technology we provide. So for example, in the most simple example, in clinical research studies, our technology supports site staff in being able to identify patients for study participation. As we said at the start of the call, this is a very kind of manual process often at sites with staff taking a lot of time having to sift through records. But what we can do with our software solution is present patients to site staff that already meet the criteria for the study in question. And why are we so confident that our tool can do that? And it's because, I don't want to get too technical, but I just want to mention a couple of things. Basically our software uses a tool called NLP or natural language processing and what that means basically is that the software is able to understand the content of documents and the context of the information within those documents so effectively the tool can then look across all of the health records within a site and use that NLP, that natural language processing, to find those patients that meet the study type, study criteria. And electronic healthcare records at sites are messy. You know, information isn't always where it should be. Items are not always coded correctly. So what our technology is able to do is work within these complex data environments and draw out the information in a way that makes the data meaningful to site staff. And it makes the review of that information a much more streamlined process than the traditional ways that sites have of reviewing data. So that's kind of first and foremost in terms of supporting the identification of patients for studies. That's the key thing for us.

Michal Janota: 12:03

Yes. I can just add to Stephen that I'm calling it just unlocking the data potential. Generally, this solution is focused to allow using the data that were collected in last decades in the hospital and are still being collected here to be accessible to all physicians. To be accessible to researchers, and this is the most important fact for the Czech Republic where the environment in the hospitals was, for a long period, under funded. So it's important to just imagine that almost all hospitals here in the Czech Republic have their own internally developed hospital systems, which is not actually sustainable. Also from the national point of view. We are trying to get closer to international standards to be able to exchange the data with other institutes internationally, but still we are all on the way. This is something that will help us significantly. It's not only about the clinical trials. It's a very pleasant tool that we are able to see the number of patients in real time that are fitting to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. But it's just the only one aspect and one benefit of the whole solution of the patient finder software. It's also, it allow us to create the data connectors to other hospital system because it has SQL connector so we can easily mine the data from the hospital environment and use them in another software to dashboards for management, for example, and we are also able to generate pseudonymized and anonymized data for research. It's quite important in the university hospital, which is also focused on the research. And we are also leading international projects focused on AI and developing AI solution. And this is the important basis without we won't be able to participate in international calls and international grants with other research institute. So I think that these are the most important benefits. And once we are able to obtain the data, unlock their potential there are also let's say regional authorities that are actually interested in using the data informing the regional strategies. For the health policy because they don't know the real status of, the population.

Michael Pierre: 15:07

Okay. And then Michal, when do you expect to get started? Because, you mentioned before, you've been working on this for possibly over nine months. So when do you expect to get started?

Michal Janota: 15:16

Actually, we are finishing the trainings for the staff. And I think that we have pilot study for the next month that is on schedule which will be the first use when we will compare the manual search done by the physician and the automatic search or electronic search using this software solution. So it will be for the first time and it will be for the first time for the clinical trials. In June, July, we would like to have a workshop here focused on the research and for using the data also with regional authorities. So I hope that this will be done before starting the summer.

Michael Pierre: 16:04

Wow, that's a big project. Stephen, how long has IQVIA been working on this project?

Stephen Jasperse: 16:09

Oh, well we've been working on this software now for just under 10 years. And it's gone from a very kind of local application in one European country and expanding now across Europe. So we're developing the software all the time and as Michal said one of the things that I think we don't deploy the software and leave. This is not like a one and done, you know, here's the software, off you go. As Michal said, we are going to work with this site over, well, for years, it's all about partnership. And what we do with our sites, is we sit with them and make sure that they can utilize this software to its maximum potential. Yes, I talked about research and targeting patients for research studies, but Michals absolutely right. There's so many benefits beyond that, beyond just finding patients for research. It's basically allowing Michal, and the other sites we work with, to utilize the data, to derive insights into the data. Research is one aspect of that, but there are so many others in terms of deriving those insights into patient populations. So, our journey is very much to, once we deploy that software, it's then very much about working with the sites to ensure that they continue to get the maximum impact out of that software.

Michael Pierre: 17:26

Well, it's always good to, as a site person to see that the patient recruitment and retention being the effort into that shared on both sides of the protocol. So rather than telling the investigator, okay, go enroll these patients and then we see what happens for the other side of the industry to also assist in that. And this sounds like a really good project for everyone. And will there be some kind of announcement when you start that I can read about, any kind of posting or a press release or something says, Hey, we've implemented this new product and here's the success we're having, or we're looking forward to it. Anything like that planned?

Michal Janota: 18:01

Yeah, definitely there will be announcement. What we would like to focus on. It's not to finish just by starting the project for the patient recruitment. So we will announce launching this project for clinical trials. But we need also to inform the public that we are using this solution also for the research. Working with data, it's quite a sensitive issue that are dispersed by the general public. And we need to declare that we are working with the data responsibly and that it's not only about the clinical trials. In general, it's about improving the health and also to provide the possibilities for patients to get to the modern method of treatment.

Michael Pierre: 18:54

Very good. And Stephen from what I've seen on the website, this is for the EMEA region currently, is there plans to expand out or is it open to and do you encourage other countries to also get involved?

Stephen Jasperse: 19:09

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, at the moment, our focus is very much on the EMEA region, and we're currently in deployment across a number of countries and number of sites but yes, it's this could be a global solution. IQVIA is a global organization, and we are happy to try and get this software deployed wherever sites need it. That's our aim. As I said, it is supporting sites. So wherever they may be but obviously, first and foremost our immediate attention is on the EMEA region.

Michael Pierre: 19:39

Well, thanks very much for your time this morning. As we wrap up, please don't forget to explore more site focused resources on our website, myscrs. org. You'll find a wealth of content and publications, plus the opportunity to save your spot for upcoming webinars and SCRS summits held throughout the year. Thank you for tuning in, and until next time, this has been SCRS Talks.