How to Embrace Technology and Drive Change with Florence’s Approach to Site Enablement

The clinical trial industry has experienced about 6% growth, year over year, as well as greater study complexity, causing a 70% increase in tasks required in Phase III Trials. Unprecedented stress has been put on sites as they’re expected to maintain data integrity, patient safety, study speed, operational transparency, participant diversity, and keep up with record high numbers of trials.

We had the opportunity to sit down with Louise Coleman from Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, Ireland, and Mina Jafarzadeh from ECRAID in Utrecht, Netherlands to hear about their insights and experiences going from paper to digital. Louise and Mina shared their reasons for transitioning to digital workflows sooner rather than later, and how they served as champions for this change within their organisations – you can watch the recording here.

This approach to being a champion for Site Enablement Technology includes 5 steps:

As the clinical research industry continues to face the combination of increased study volume and staff shortages, research sites are experiencing many challenges on an ongoing basis. Navigating more complex studies while also being wrapped up in paperwork and duplicative processes is less than ideal. The first step in being a champion for your site to embrace Site Enablement technology is to identify and articulate the problems at hand. Bringing your challenges into the light sets the stage for the second step within the approach for championing technology. 

Once you have clearly communicated the key problems and challenges at your organisation, the next step is to identify your sites’ needs and goals. Are you in need of a central, connected system to easier access to documents? Are you trying to swap manual processes for automation? Speed up the study start up process? Or save both time and money by switching to remote monitoring? 

Whatever your particularly needs may be, gather them and set goals so that you have a clear picture of where you are and where you need to end up.

Don’t be surprised if you experience some pushback within your organisation as you advocate for technology. Change is difficult and there will always be hesitations and fear of the unknown. It’s best to face objections head on and address them right away. Chances are, their minds will be changed once you put their worries to rest with answers to their questions, which leads to the next step.

While addressing hesitations, it’s important to articulate the value of technology and create excitement around what utilizing a Site Enablement platform can do. 

Partnering with a trusted, knowledgeable vendor makes all the difference in the world. Connecting with a vendor who is dedicated to your success will allow you to show your team how Site Enablement technology works and how it can impact your site. Sharing success stories increases excitement as your team imagines life after implementation. Sites are proving to gain more ROI through site enablement technology adoption, and 91% of site staff agreeing that technology makes them more productive. That’s easy to get excited about!

Once you’ve communicated the value of technology and successfully gained buy-in, it’s time to prepare to leave your binder room behind. The transition takes time, so having a change management plan is crucial. This will allow you to experience a much smoother process, along with the help of your technology vendor. 

Finally, participate in various industry associations. It’s always great to learn from peers and leaders in the industry. Learning from and collaborating with each other often fuels the fire for creativity and new, innovative ideas.  

The shift from paper to digital automation within clinical research is already in motion, and it’s happening quickly. Florence’s mission is to enable research sites to do their best work without spending all day stuck in technology. Watch the webinar recording to get a deeper look into how you can embrace site enablement technology and drive change within your organisation – watch now.