Clinical trial collaboration
To foster greater collaboration and more effective communication in conducting its mission, the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s (NIDA) Clinical Trials Network has turned to a Web-based technology solution from Information Management Consultants (IMC) and Open Text.
IMC is using Open Text Livelink as the underlying technology platform for NIDA, which is part of the National Institutes of Health. To support its mission of enlisting science to fight drug abuse and addiction, NIDA has established the Clinical Trials Network to develop and deliver new treatment options to patients in community clinical settings.
The Network consists of NIDA treatment researchers and community-based service providers, and Livelink offers the services they need to collaborate effectively nationwide as multi-site clinical trials are designed and conducted. Livelink’s document repository enables:
- documents to be filed electronically, providing controlled access to research throughout the protocol development process;;
- version control through a secure interface, supporting document review and download;;
- access to documents for review and comment in a discussion area, eliminating the need for travel and increasing the efficiency and timeliness of communication.;
“Ideas for study in the Clinical Trials Network are generated through collaboration among research scientists and treatment services providers,” explains Jim Glass, chief of informatics at NIDA. “The use of collaborative knowledge management technology will greatly improve chances that successful research projects address current needs and are quickly disseminated across the service delivery sector to become part of standard treatments.”
Open Text President John Shackleton says that the implementation provides the Clinical Trials Network “with an extranet framework for maintaining collaborative relationships between researchers throughout the United States. The collective knowledge of top researchers can work together to propel drug treatment breakthroughs.