Texas-based healthcare and clinical research networking-technology company HealthCarePoint (HCP) has unveiled the final version of its BlueCloud networking technology, which allows organizations to connect and share verifiable information between healthcare and clinical research organizations and their stakeholders via a private network.

HCP currently provides networking technology to more than 700,000 healthcare and clinical research professionals through dozens of national and international entities including 34 pharma, biotech, medical device and other sponsors, 14 CROs and thousands of healthcare provider organizations.

According to HCP president and cofounder Al O. Pacino, BlueCloud will allow the healthcare and research industry to connect using complementary technologies that promote quality, safety, operations management, compliance and healthcare cross-over standards into research and accountable processes that support patient-human-subject protection; and standardized application programming interfaces (APIs), which connect legacy systems to BlueCloud.

BlueCloud networking technology already has been proven to solve many challenges the healthcare industry faces, including—but not limited to—privacy issues, because information is owned by the professional and managed by his or her healthcare employees and clinical research sites. Employees, sites, sponsors, CROs, IRBs and other approved third parties can verify information over multiple organizations simultaneously. Through alerts and time-stamped verification prompts, BlueCloud also compels users to keep information accurate and up to date, ensuring regulatory compliance and reducing financial burdens often caused when inaccurate information is shared.

“Much of this technology will be donated to national and international not-for-profit organizations, government entities, universities, investigative sites, ethical review committees, institutional review boards, hospitals and physicians offices, among others,” said Pacino. “This will enhance collaboration and continue to break down the silos that have created redundancies and waste—issues that have plagued our industry for years.”

Pacino added, “It has always been our mission to help the industry move forward by providing the tools necessary to enable collaboration between organizations without additional financial investment while significantly reducing the costs associated with the redundancies that were previously necessary to ensure accountability both in patient care and research.”

“As research sites, we have to be concerned with the overhead costs of local compliance and the ability to acquire and retain business,” said Chuck Wilcox, president of Pharmacology Research Institute (PRI). “HCP’s complementary tools allow us to show compliance and proof-of-competencies in the eyes of sponsors, CROs and regulatory agencies, while allowing our PIs and healthcare professionals to connect and share our information directly with stakeholders interested in doing business with PRI. Logically, this saves all stakeholders time and resources.”

The initial version of BlueCloud has been used successfully in dozens of global clinical trials. These trials are being managed directly by sponsors and CROs, saving the industry millions of dollars. Many BlueCloud components also are being used effectively by professionals, governments and thousands of clinical research stakeholders and healthcare organizations.

“The HCP Network has shown to save our organization thousands of dollars in time and resources by tracking hundreds of our associates’ verified professional experience and training credentials in real time from different organizations, which normally are required by regulatory agencies, the Joint Commission and NCQA, among others,” said Theresa Linville, data specialist for Carrol Hospital in Westminster, Md.