inVentiv Clinical Trial Recruitment Solutions (iCTRS), created to accelerate trials, and the Alliance for Clinical Research Excellence and Safety (ACRES), an alliance-driven nonprofit organization dedicated to enhancing quality, safety, integrity and operational effectiveness in drug development and health research, are partnering to fast track the development of a global system to support responsible conduct of clinical trials according to the highest standards of safety, quality and efficiency.

Numerous challenges limit the pace of progress for global clinical research. According to ACRES, the industry wastes $20 billion annually due to inefficiencies inherent in the current process of bringing a new drug to market. Uniform global standards for research sites and independent third-party accreditation are lacking, as are interconnectivity and interoperability. Standards support the objective identification and assessment of sites, delivering improved system management and long-term sustainability.

The partnership focuses on developing and adopting global standards and performance metrics as the basis for clinical research best practices and guidelines, to encourage operational excellence. iCTRS brings experience in global, data-driven decision support systems, advanced informatics technologies and a patient-centric approach for trial acceleration.

Otis Johnson, vice president of clinical research services at iCTRS, will join the steering committee of ACRES' Site Optics and Quality Informatics Initiative (SOQI), focused on the development of a global information platform for effective trial management. The open access infrastructure will offer a collaborative network housing a massive data repository for worldwide data exchange.

"iCTRS brings the clinical experience and global capabilities needed to help facilitate a comprehensive information management strategy necessary for the development of a global system," said Dr. Greg Koski, president and CEO of ACRES.

Johnson said, "Together we'll promote new standards worldwide by creating awareness, building strategic industry alliances and raising the bar for clinical research sites."