The Alliance for Clinical Research Excellence and Safety (ACRES), analytics company ViS Research and HealthCarePoint (HCP), will officially begin registering clinical research sites worldwide. This is the first step in the development of the ACRES Global Network of high-performing sites, part of an open, global system for clinical research. This network will ultimately include thousands of sites worldwide connected through a shared technology platform.

ACRES president, Dr. Greg Koski, announced the rollout of an online site-network interface, developed and powered by ViS and HCP, as the first component of the ACRES platform designed to enhance safety, quality and operational efficiency. It applies a systems approach to clinical research and medical product development, supporting the collection, sharing, and analysis of information.

"ACRES vision is to work collaboratively with stakeholders to build a non-proprietary shared IT platform for clinical research that incorporate standards ensuring inter-operability and inter-change of data while safeguarding privacy and security. This interface allows sites to share their capabilities and get involved,” said Koski.

Through this new site-network interface, sites wishing to participate in ACRES global safety, quality and professional development initiatives will register as ACRES-affiliated sites, allowing for the exchange of information between the site and the ACRES Global Network. Registered sites will enter information describing the site and its capabilities into ViS' center profiles where it can be shared with sponsors conducting online feasibility assessments. Sites will also be given, for free, the HCP Personal Experience and Training (PET-ABC) HR Management System to enable archiving and user-controlled sharing of professional credentials and training certificates with colleagues, sponsors, regulators and institutional review boards to improve both operational efficiency and compliance.

"We have created a global shareable network that makes the entire clinical research process better, easier and faster," said Al O. Pacino II, president of HCP, a global technology company that has previously committed over $10 M in technology and services to ACRES. "The ACRES Global Network will allow us to provide technologies, goods and services to research sites that will make sites more productive, sponsors more efficient and will ultimately minimize regulatory compliance risks to all stakeholders in the research ecosystem."