The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust is set to make its clinical trial management system paper-free as part of a collaboration with Hyland.

Covid-19 accelerated the project after the pandemic posed difficulties for researchers who needed to access trial information kept as hard copies.

The specialist cancer hospital worked with Hyland to create a paper-free solution which allows pharmaceutical companies who need to check governance for the trials they sponsor to do so remotely. The solution also frees up physical space used to store huge volumes of paper copies.

The trust had previously worked with Hyland when it implemented OnBase, an electronic document management system.

Lisa Emery, the trust’s CIO, said: “We were already using Hyland’s OnBase enterprise information platform for patient record management, as are many other NHS and private hospitals and clinics, but until now all trial governance still had to be in hard copy and stored in a records office.

“Our researchers worked closely with Hyland’s developers to build on what we already had in place with OnBase and produce a paperless solution fit for researchers and pharmaceutical organisations”

Having invested resources into creating the Hyland Clinical Trials Management solution, The Royal Marsden will receive commission on certain onward sales, with the proceeds being re-invested into clinical trial administration and legal costs.

Ed McQuiston, executive vice president and chief commercial officer at Hyland, added: “We are thrilled to extend our partnership with The Royal Marsden providing an agile and scalable digital data management solution to help manage clinical trial information access and governance remotely.

“We know the top priority for healthcare providers is, and always will be, their patients – and our focus remains supporting their mission to improve patient experience with innovative technology. The Hyland Clinical Trials Management solution will help NHS trusts evolve their clinical data management processes to ensure continuity for healthcare research providers.”


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