5 Key Benefits of Using Electronic Data Capture in Clinical Trials

Whether it’s an academic purpose, medical device, biotech, and pharmaceutical research, Electronic data capture (EDC) systems have become important tools for almost all departments in the healthcare industry. If you are a medical researcher but are not fully familiar with the concept of electronic data capture (EDC), how it’s used in clinical trials today, and how it may benefit your research, this article is for you!
First thing first! Let’s start with knowing what exactly Electronic Data Capture in Clinical Trials is!

What is Electronic Data Capture?

Electronic data capture (EDC) is here to replace the traditional paper-based data capture systems that used to consume a lot of time and effort. EDC helps capture and manage clinical trial data on a digital platform to make the data capture process smooth and easier. Using such a system not only results in secured data capture but also streamlines the research process while ensuring data reusability.
Most electronic data capture systems nowadays are cloud-based ensuring the utmost security every time you access the data from any device and any location.

When researchers conduct a clinical study, they store the information of patients in Case Report Forms which are traditionally paper-based. When their study/research is completed, the CRF documents are sent to the sponsor who later transfers the data to the statistical analysis tool. 

This entire process consumes a lot of time as well as effort. And the biggest drawback of such patterns is that paper-based research data can be stored for only 15 years and not more than that.

However, by using Electronic Data Capture in Clinical Trials, researchers can fill the same CRF on a web-based platform and the data will be stored directly in a central database. This saves not only the hassle but also prevents the risks of storing potentially sensitive data on paper, excel, and other less secure methods. Additionally, the most professional EDC clinical trial systems today provide automatic identification of data errors to ensure the best quality of data is stored.

Apart from these, there are a lot more benefits of using Electronic Data Capture in Clinical Trials.

So, What are the Top benefits of EDC Clinical Trial Systems?

1. Easy to Get Started

Starting with your clinical research using an Electronic Data Capture system can be relatively easier depending on your system. For example, Cloudester’s CTMS user interface is designed to be engaging, intuitive, and researcher-friendly. Prompt customer service makes it easier for new users to get started with the system and perform their EDC clinical trials hassle-free. For more complex studies, they can get instant assistance from one of our Cloudester’s CTMS professionals.

2. High-End Security

One of the key benefits of using a cloud-based EDC system is that it makes it easier for researchers to collaborate with like-minded people from across the world in a more secure way. Researchers can easily set up an online study and invite a collaborator option to help them access their study with a single click.

3. High-Quality Data

One of the key benefits of using EDC Clinical Trial systems is that they allow researchers to add validations and dependencies to the research forms before they start collecting data. This helps in improving the quality of data and ensures the collected data is more accurate with no flagging errors.

4. Time and Cost Saving

As mentioned above, ECTMS (Electronic Clinical Trial Management Systems) are way better than traditional ones. They reduce the man effort and costs consumed in the entire data capture process.
Not just that, the data stored in the electronic data capture systems stay longer. So, it can be reused for the replication and meta-analyses to combine datasets and to test completely new hypotheses.
Furthermore, an electronic data capture platform like Cloudester enables researchers to collect all the study data in one place! Whether it’s related to primary or secondary outcomes, patient-reported outcomes, or safety-related data, they can access it in just a single click.

The data usually includes –
Electronic Case Report Forms (eCRF)
Electronic Patient-Reported Outcomes (ePRO)
Electronic Clinical Outcome Assessments (eCOA), and
Serious Adverse Events (SAE).

5. Compliance

One of the key reasons why researchers must opt for an EDC system is ‘compliance’. As clinical research is highly regulated, the data, identity, and privacy regulations, everything faces the restrictions.
In traditional systems like Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access, Google Forms, or SPSS, it is digitally impossible to comply with all mandatory regulations to protect sensitive medical data. On the other hand, the electronic data capture systems in clinical trials designed by Cloudester ensure ICH-E6 – Good Clinical Practice (GCP) and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance.
Furthermore, it’s crucial to ensure that patient data remains unidentifiable and secure. While audit trails, user access rights, and data encryption cannot be controlled in paper copies, data security remains at the most risk.

So, the healthcare companies and individual researchers are advised to invest in an EDC system that allows for on-demand data access and reporting for different uses. It must also offer high-end security of data and automatic backups.

How will Cloudester become a leader in CTMS development soon?

Electronic data capture systems are becoming increasingly popular among contract research organizations (CROs), academic researchers as well as biotech and pharma companies. With advances in globalization and medicine collaborations worldwide, researchers who are still using paper-based tools and are lagging in the usage of this technology might find it difficult to keep up.

Cloudester has the expertise in designing high-end eCTMS that offers a user-friendly, affordable, and compliant solution for academic researchers as well as commercial healthcare companies. With Cloudester’s electronic data capture systems, researchers can perform clinical trials and store the results in just a few clicks using the intuitive Form Builder.
To ensure good clinical practice, Cloudester’s eCTMS are also compliant with patient data privacy laws. If you’re willing to invest in EDC systems to streamline your data capture process, connect with us today!