Hospitals, Pharma

Ochsner Health System and Pfizer team up to rethink clinical trials

The aim of their collaboration is to improve the patient clinical trial experience and ease participation in clinical research for patients and healthcare professionals.

Ochsner Health System in Louisiana has paired up with pharmaceutical company Pfizer to create innovative models for clinical trials.

As part of their multi-year strategic alliance, Pfizer and Ochsner (through its innovation lab, innovationOchsner, in partnership with Ochsner Research) will aim to improve the patient clinical trial experience and ease participation in clinical research for patients and healthcare professionals.

Participating patients will get to try out new digital tools for making the clinical trial experience more inclusive. The goal is to leverage direct data system integration and automated study conduct tools. Thus, clinicians will be able to offer clinical research to a broader range of patients, and research groups will benefit from interoperability.

The organizations started with a “proof of value” phase in which researchers transferred mock data (not actual patient data) from Ochsner’s EHR to Pfizer’s electronic data capture system used in clinical trials. The point was to understand the gaps between EHR data and patient-reported data from clinical trials.

Moving forward, Ochsner and Pfizer plan to keep developing ways of digitizing the patient and clinician experience in clinical trials.

Since Ochsner has implemented FHIR, the two organizations also plan to use their collaboration to create a model for applying FHIR standards so clinical trial data can be collected within hospital electronic systems.

Richard Milani, Ochsner’s chief clinical transformation officer and medical director of innovationOchsner, noted in a statement:

As a national leader in healthcare, Ochsner is delivering on its mission to bring the most innovative ideas to our patients. We are relentless about using the latest breakthroughs in science and technology to solve some of the toughest healthcare challenges. Partnering with Pfizer allows us to transform medicine by creating a digital clinical trial experience that improves patient participation, integration, communication and accessibility.

Late last year, Ochsner joined forces with Geneva Health Solutions, which offers data management and remote monitoring for implantable cardiac devices. Through their partnership, GHS’ cloud-based technology platform and remote monitoring service will be used to help Ochsner’s patients with cardiac device implants in Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia.

Photo: 9amstock, Getty Images

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