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

"We feel empowered by the Force.com platform to create exactly what we need in far less time than we imagined, with far more functionality than we thought possible. I’ve been in this industry for 15 years and have never seen any solution from a partner turn around so fast with such dramatic results."


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 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 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—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
 
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