Top Five Ways Study Sites Benefit from Remote Monitoring

At first, easier clinical trial monitoring access to data and documents may seem like only a benefit to the sponsor, but a deeper dive reveals how it is a win for the site when layered on top of an eISF.

“Onsite monitoring visits can waste a lot of time,” explains Chad Adams, Associate Director of Clinical Research at the University of Arizona Cancer Center. “The onsite experience necessitates time spent setting up the visit, calling back and forth, reserving rooms, and preparing physical binders. Then when the day arrives, often the entire day of the [Clinical Research Coordinator] CRC or Regulatory Coordinator is spent checking in and being a runner for that monitor.  Every site CRC has many other important things they can be spending time on rather than sitting with the monitor, but they often times end up doing that during site monitoring visits.”

Fundamentally, remote clinical trial monitoring built on top of an eISF platform helps keep studies moving forward by making access easy for the monitor and data exchange less time consuming for the research site.

Because the site is maintaining all of their content in the platform, from content creation to completion, there is no time wasted exchanging documents and data between the site and monitor.

Physical monitor visits require extensive coordination with the site to ensure vital study personnel, documentation, and room reservations. Sites must allocate space and provide a study “runner,” typically a CRC, who often spends an entire day retrieving documents. One of our cancer center customers revealed that they have as many as fourteen rooms allocated to accommodate monitoring visits.

“The space requirements are a huge problem,” explains Chad, “Our [Standard Operating Procedures] SOPs had to start restricting how often a monitor can be onsite because often the demand for monitoring visits exceeds the space capacity we can provide for monitor visits.”

Physical space is at a premium in a healthcare provider building, so minimizing space for monitors is a tangible and measurable win. Remote clinical trial monitoring requires minimal site personnel disruption and no physical site-space needs.

eISF based remote clinical trial monitoring platforms allow sites to control what access monitors have to their study documents – even if the sponsor is paying for the solution.

Purpose-built remote monitoring platforms allow the site to control who gets access to a binder or a document, how much they are allowed to see, and what they can do with that visibility.  

Control also means that monitoring can take place outside of regular business hours. A site can easily accommodate a monitor two time zones over working outside local business hours or on a Saturday.

During an in-person monitoring visit, the site staff can, at best, infer what the monitor is interested in and review the official monitor summary report to give them insights into how the monitor measures their site performance.

eISF + Remote Site Access platforms give the site deep visibility into the monitor visit through a clear record of what each monitor does in the system. This tracking capability allows research teams to more tactically understand what areas to focus on or improve for future monitoring visits with little effort.