IBM Study Advance Designed to Reduce the Time and Costs Associated with Clinical Trials

Access to real-world data, collaborative tools and templates can potentially enable greater trial efficiency while aiming to reduce the potential for costly amendments

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Feb 18, 2020, 08:00 ET

ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 18, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM Watson Health (NYSE: IBM) today unveiled its newest cloud-based technology IBM Study Advance at the 11th Annual Summit for Clinical Ops Executives (SCOPE). The data-driven, study design tool, is designed to optimize clinical trial protocol design by merging automated access to real-world patient population data, standardizing protocol template guidance and providing a collaborative workspace designed to facilitate efficiency.

On average, a single protocol amendment to a Phase III clinical trial can result in approximately $500,000 (USD) in unplanned expenses and an additional 61 days to the project timeline.¹ IBM Study Advance is designed to offer critical insights during the process of study design to help reduce the number of amendments during clinical trials. The tool is designed with an interface to provide access to commercial and claims data from de-identified patient profiles covering 89 million lives from multiple employer-sponsored U.S. healthcare beneficiaries, as well as tools to assess the impact of inclusion and exclusion criteria on the eligible patient population.

"Currently, 80% of trials experience delays in recruiting² and one out of four amendments were considered completely avoidable³," said Rob DiCicco, PharmD, Deputy Chief Health Officer, IBM Watson Health. "Breakdowns in the clinical trial process, including issues caused by study design decisions, may potentially delay access to life-changing therapies for patients. IBM Study Advance aims to remove the barriers in clinical development to help researchers efficiently bring necessary therapies to patients."

Study Advance's collaborative workspace is designed to allow near real-time collaboration with study design team members who can manage and assign the team to specific sections of the protocol. The workspace is also designed to provide access to standard protocol templates and version control capabilities with complete traceability back to changes, aiming to reduce the average time required to author a clinical trial protocol.

Experience Study Advance
For more information about IBM Study Advance, please visit the website. Interested parties can also find more information at the IBM Watson Health booth at the SCOPE conference located at booth #317.

About IBM Watson Health
Watson Health is a business unit of IBM that is dedicated to the development and implementation of cognitive and data-driven technologies to advance health. Watson Health technologies are tackling a wide range of the world's biggest health care challenges, including cancer, diabetes, drug discovery and more. Learn more at ibm.com/watson/health.

IBM Media Contact
Rachel Ford Hutman
External Relations
301-801-5540
[email protected]

¹ Getz K. (2014). Improving protocol design feasibility to drive drug development economics and performance. International journal of environmental research and public health, 11(5), 5069-80. doi:10.3390/ijerph110505069
² https://www.clinicalleader.com/doc/considerations-for-improving-patient-0001
³ Getz K. (2016). Acknowledging Cycle Time Impact from Protocol Amendments. Applied Clinical Trials, 25(4). Retrieved from http://www.appliedclinicaltrialsonline.com/acknowledging-cycle-time-impact-protocol-amendments

SOURCE IBM