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Health and Safety

How Virtual Clinical Trials Are Speeding The Path To Another Vaccine

Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on the BBC StoryWorks site.

For decades, IQVIA has been helping pharmaceutical giants perform clinical trials to test new treatments. The company combines advanced analytics and technology solutions for the healthcare and life sciences industries, and has built a strong bedrock of trust with its global network of customers by consistently delivering on their promises. Maintaining that trust relies on IQVIA being a customer-centric organization, including anticipating industry needs and innovating new solutions to meet customer expectations that have transformed in the face of a global pandemic.

“Digital transformation is now front and center of all life sciences companies’ thinking,” says Nagaraja Srivatsan, IQVIA’s Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer of R&DS Technology Solutions. “With the pandemic, the acceleration and the adoption of digital transformation has increased tremendously,”

IQVIA turned to Salesforce, one of their long-term partners, to accelerate its digital transformation and deliver results more efficiently and effectively in an increasingly digital world. IQVIA introduced a suite of clinical technology solutions that can speed clinical trials while reducing burden on patients, and also empower the company to utilize data more strategically. The technology suite automates study processes, generates insights through artificial intelligence and machine learning, and strengthens communication between patients and clinicians—all by employing SaaS and technology-enabled services, coupled with IQVIA’s broad life sciences expertise.

“The ability to really leverage and understand data and make smarter decisions is what has made data and analytics come to the fore to transform life sciences companies,” said Srivatsan.

IQVIA has also been developing solutions that could someday transform the future of clinical trials to allow trialists to participate virtually. Historically, trialists would spend significant time undergoing evaluation for side effects in a controlled hospital environment. When the COVID-19 pandemic closed many of these sites, it critically accelerated the urgency of being able to engage with patients remotely. To develop a solution, IQVIA used Salesforce’s Health Cloud to massively scale its virtual clinical trials system and empower trialists to participate from their homes. Health Cloud helps IQVIA improve its productivity, study quality, and clinical trial enrollment and retention. The scalability of Salesforce’s infrastructure also enables IQVIA to readily adapt the technology solutions to support clients of all different sizes.

Utilizing its Salesforce-enabled digital solutions, IQVIA is now conducting clinical trials for pharmaceutical leaders that are working to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. The data and analytics powered by Salesforce’s platform play a role in virtually every aspect of the clinical trials, from identifying sites to finding and bringing in the right patients.

“IQVIA brings the right people, process, technology all together to make sure that clinical trials, specifically around vaccines, are conducted in an efficient, effective and sustainable manner,” says Srivatsan.

Along every step of its digital transformation journey, IQVIA is proving that leveraging innovative solutions to adapt to change is key to maintaining and improving performance. Throughout this unprecedented period, the company’s commitment to preserving the trust of its clients and patients has not wavered. IQVIA has devoted critical attention to ensuring that the technology which underpins the company’s data collection is scalable and transparent in how it supports clients’ goals. By digitizing its workflow and harnessing the power of data technology, IQVIA has remained proactive and resilient in uncertain times – to better advance the global health of today and tomorrow.

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