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An Italian start-up producing an on-line platform specific for biomedical research studies

Country of Origin: Italy
Reference Number: TOIT20161205006
Publication Date: 5 December 2016

Summary

An Italian company operating in the biomedical field has developed an intuitive innovative on-line platform, which enables researches to design, implement and manage multicenter studies, clinical trials and audits. This software is based on questionnaires and a specific protocol for data integration. They are interested in research and technical cooperation with Research institutes and pharmaceutical industries in Europe, to validate the existing platform and add new functionalities to it.

Description

This company was established in 2015 in northern Italy and focused on the biomedical field, in which they have developed an innovative, simple and intuitive web platform enabling teams of researchers, healthcare professionals and research and Public Health promotion institutes (e.g. universities, pharmaceutical industries and patients associations) to design and implement multicenter studies.

The application enables to collect data on-line, to facilitate the monitoring of projects and the coordination of participants, helping to enhance their performances and the diffusion of the research outputs.   

The platform enables teams of researchers, healthcare professionals and research institutes to design on-line questionnaires, set up multicenter studies with a specific methodology and collect data on the cloud. It offers an integrated set of tools for the biomedical research, providing support to the specific needs of this sector. In fact, it is not limited to the creation of questionnaires and data collection, but it also supports the management of the study. The coordinator of a research can adopt a specific methodology for its investigation, add researchers to his/her team, activate different phases of a study and supervise the performance.

The Web application enables the development of shared research studies and provides support for data collection and quality monitoring (thus ensuring the consistency and their protection). It guides the researcher through the various stages of a project, offering the necessary methodological rigor to the study.

The proper widget for each field from a variety of ones available (text, number, list, multiple choice etc.) can be selected. There are also computed fields available for simple automatic calculations based on the answers, so that you can get scores, such as the Pack-years, the Wells score or even the Cockcroft-Gault Equation for the creatinine clearance, right away! The researchers are provided with personal credentials so that they can participate in the study.

The platform can also be employed for studies that include Patient-Reported Outcomes (PROs). The platform supports the development of such questionnaires with a series of features, which facilitate the collection of reports of the status of the patients’ health condition directly from them.

The flexible management of the collected data and the cohorts enables the research coordinators to develop complex study designs that integrate data coming from both the patients and other resources, such as the healthcare professionals.

There is a range of tools that aim at increasing the engagement of patients, such as the automatic generation of QR codes, the sharing of the surveys in social networks and the monitoring of the patient participation.

Thanks to the simple and intuitive user interface patients can be involved in the design of such studies actively. The platform takes into account the researchers who work in rural, remote and isolated areas, and developing countries, where there is intermittent Internet connection or where they don’t have their PC. The app we provide is very useful to perform data entry and quick monitoring, but it can also be very handy for physicians carrying out house calls or for those who work in protected houses (for the elderly, immigrants, etc.). 

The platform implemented by this start-up differs from any other on the market, because it is:

•	Healthcare-focused

•	All-in-one 

•	Flexible & tailored

•	Accessible offline 

•	Efficient in data storage consistency

This start-up wishes to collaborate with Research institutes, pharmaceutical industries, hospitals, oncology centers, producers of medical devices, producers of cosmetics interested in formalizing the internal work procedures, improving their processes. Moreover, by working according to the requests of these organizations, it would be possible to add new functions to the software.

Advantages and Innovations

This solution is a software that offers additional value to the work of researchers. The Web application enables the development of shared research studies and provides support for data collection and quality monitoring (thus ensuring the consistency and their protection). It guides the researcher through the various stages of a project, offering the necessary methodological rigor to the study.

A typical workflow of the application can be schematized as follows:

1. The coordinator who manages a group of researchers, creates a study based on a questionnaire;

2. He/she also creates an account for each researcher of his/her group;

3. The researchers access the application and participate in the data collection of the study by filling in a questionnaire;

4. The coordinator establishes the details and can observe the progress of the study in real-time by monitoring the number of completed questionnaires and by producing reports.

Creating a study means combining a questionnaire with a specific methodology and involving of a group of researchers who are supervised by a coordinator.

The on-line platform offers a simple and intuitive user interface, minimizing the costs of training the staff. The tools for monitoring and managing the studies increase the respect of the protocol and improve the quality of the data collected from patients and clinicians. The researchers can collaborate through an internal social network, exchanging information and reports.

This is offered both as a stand-alone package to be installed on private servers, for those requiring a total control on the medical data, and as an on-line service (software as a service) with an absolutely competitive price.

The aim of the use of this platform is to innovate the research mechanism in the biomedical field, in particular the methodologies which drive to the inspiration and sharing of information among the members of the research group, but also among the patients involved in the research.

Stage Of Development

Already on the market

Requested partner

This company is searching for two types of partners: research cooperation agreement and technical cooperation agreement 

The ideal partners of this start-up are Research institutes, pharmaceutical industries, hospitals, oncology centers, producers of medical devices, producers of cosmetics. 

The collaboration with such partners would be useful to add new functions to the software.

In addition, by using this software companies could formalize the internal work procedures, thus improving their processes and respecting the regulations requiring the computerization of data.