Three Benefits of Adopting New eCOA Standards

In today’s fast-paced clinical trial environment, efficiency and speed are essential. However, the eCOA (electronic Clinical Outcome Assessments) industry has seen little innovation over the past 20 years. Managing eCOA often involves lengthy processes and operational complexities, leading to missed milestones, increased costs, and frustration for study teams.

To align eCOA with other clinical technologies, modern solutions must adopt new standards that transform the delivery and management of eCOA, enabling greater efficiency for study teams.

Here are three key ways these new standards can simplify trial delivery for study teams.

Meet critical study milestones

Teams are under pressure to meet critical milestones such as IRB submissions, first patient in (FPI), and database lock.

Modern eCOA platforms include pre-validated instrument libraries to eliminate the need to build, validate, and gain approval for eCOA assessments and their translations for each new study. Providing accurate previews of the COA through an iterative build process aligns all stakeholders and prevents unwanted surprises as the process moves toward UAT. This can accelerate build times and mid-study amendments by up to 75%, giving teams confidence the eCOA solution will be ready for study start.

Access to data is crucial for meeting study milestones. Modern solutions enable data management by allowing on-demand data access and export throughout the study. This reduces the dependence on periodic vendor reports and enables data review alongside EDC and other sources. These improvements in real-time data accessibility help teams efficiently meet mid-study data review requirements and database lock milestones.

Track study progress

Traditional eCOA systems restrict data visibility and study progress transparency, which delays issue identification and increases workloads.

Interactive dashboards and on-demand data access enable study teams to monitor study execution effectively. This provides continuous visibility into study progress, meaning teams can easily track eCOA status and compliance, identify emerging trends, and anticipate potential challenges.

Similarly, actionable dashboards and built-in workflows help ensure sites have the necessary information to manage their responsibilities and monitor patient progress efficiently.

Increase consistency across studies

eCOA solutions are typically selected and built study-by-study. Taking an enterprise approach standardizes eCOA requirements and instruments (e.g., within a therapeutic area), streamlining study planning and minimizing the complexities that often prolong study lead times.

For data management teams, consistency ensures that data collected across studies adhere to the same standards, formats, and quality thresholds. This uniformity simplifies data transfer agreements (DTAs), minimizes discrepancies, and reduces the time needed for data cleaning and reconciliation. As a result, teams can focus efforts on generating insights rather than resolving inconsistencies, ultimately speeding time to database lock.

This approach offers new opportunities for organizations to increase efficiency, data quality, and cost predictability.

Time for change

With a modern approach to eCOA, organizations can optimize eCOA implementation, increase data consistency, and enhance study visibility. This transformation will alleviate the pressure on sites and study teams, empowering them to meet crucial study milestones and pave the way for more efficient clinical trial delivery.

See how Veeva eCOA reduces study build times by 75% and streamlines data management. Register now for our webinar on February 26.