Investigator Databank Collaborative Philosophy
The global community of clinical trial investigators is a common resource on which we as industry sponsors rely. By sustaining investigators, we sustain ourselves, so that we can continue to develop new therapies for patients who need them.
We believe that sharing information about which investigators participated in our trials and their respective recruitment metrics allows for better matching of investigators and future protocols, thus providing a benefit to both parties.
By reducing the administrative burden involved in clinical trials, new investigators may be more inclined to get involved in clinical research, and existing investigators will be more inclined to continue to participate in clinical research, thus sustaining the industry.
Industry members share the financial support for development and access to the Databank. There is no charge to investigators or their institutions to opt-in to Investigator Databank.
Benefits to industry
- More informed protocol planning and country selection
- Increased access to investigators for feasibility and site identification (average 9x increase in investigators)
- More rapid recruitment through better matching of investigators to protocols
- Faster start-up from sharing of standard documents
Technical Standards
As described in our philosophy, all members of the Investigator Databank and DrugDev have agreed to share investigator, site, and study data to help reduce the burden of clinical trial operations. To achieve this goal, we have had to overcome the challenge of integrating multiple sponsor systems into one common data standard.
Through collaboration with all member companies, the Investigator Databank have developed an Interoperability Standard. This standard includes a set of technical specifications; a mapping of company-specific nomenclature and vocabularies; and business rules that define a consistent method for sharing data from CTMS, public data, EMR/EHR, and other 3rd party sources.