Using Force.com, Intuitive Surgical Built a Custom Application for Managing Clinical Trials in Just Two Weeks

Challenge

• Intuitive Surgical, the leader in operative surgical robotics, needed a system on which it could efficiently track and report on patients who undergo robotic-assisted minimally invasive surgery for FDA-regulated clinical trials
• Because the company’s robotic technology is still subject to clinical trials in certain surgical specialties, it needed an on-demand platform it could customize to comply with strict FDA regulations
• Due to the life-saving nature of the business—along with a geographically scattered team— reliability and speed were of the utmost importance
• Resource constraints precluded the company from dedicating IT resources to the system deployment

Solution

• Using Force.com's builder, Intuitive Surgical built a custom clinical trial management system that facilitates its business processes with an exactitude that achieves compliance with FDA regulations
• The company deployed the solution in just two weeks and with zero IT intervention to multiple centers and clinical trials around the world
• Automated workflow pushes surgery results—which are entered in real-time from the operating room—into Salesforce CRM immediately following a procedure, accelerating third-party case reviews that determine if it is safe to proceed 
• A “Patients” tab—changed from the standard “Accounts” tab in Salesforce CRM — provides an auditable data trail for each step of a patient’s procedure

Results

• Speedy information transfer among multiple parties allows for seamless collaboration and rapid independent third-party review
• Because the process is so smooth, it allows expeditious transfer and real-time sharing of information between trial sponsor and participants
• The Force.com-based system helps Intuitive Surgical easily meet the FDA’s “Good Clinical Practice” standards by managing and tracking all pertinent information in one source 
• Intuitive Surgical staff instantaneously receives results from anywhere, saving time and travel costs