http://www.excointouch.com Exco InTouch : Exco InTouch News and Events http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2008/3/3/applied-clinical-trials-online-text-trials-to-85342-to-receive-m/ Subject noncompliance in clinical trials ranges from 20% to 80%, depending on the therapeutic area.  This is due to a number of factors, including subjects failing to follow medication regimes, missing clinical  visits, and failing to comply with crucial requirements of the study. Replacing noncompliant subjects can have a  significant impact on cost, recruitment, timelines, and the data quality of a clinical study. As a result,  overcoming subject noncompliance is an increasingly important issue in the pharmaceutical industry. It is possible to minimize subject noncompliance through a number of methods, including targeted subject  recruitment, the use of electronic diaries during a study, and communicating reminders directly to subjects.  These methods are increasingly complemented by the adoption of new technologies such as Short Message Services  (SMS)—or text messaging as it is commonly known.   There are currently an estimated 3.3 billion cell phone users worldwide,1 surpassing the number of home Internet  users by 2 billion. And there are now more cell phones than people across much of Western Europe. Text messaging  technology is a solution already used in the consumer sector with immense success, and it is now developing into  a workable solution for the clinical trials arena.   By using SMS communication to interact directly with subjects, pharmaceutical sponsors can improve subject  recruitment, retention, and compliance in a cost-effective way that is also personal and confidential for the  subject. This article will discuss current strategies for doing this, the integration of SMS technology into  existing processes, regulatory challenges, and the future of communication technology in clinical trials.   Current strategies   SMS technology can easily be used by sponsors to communicate with and elicit responses from subjects during a trial. Finding quality volunteers and subjects for a clinical study can be extremely challenging and directly affects the success of an entire clinical program. Although physician referral has traditionally been a common form of subject recruitment for clinical trials, advertising is fast becoming the most effective method. Studies have shown that  while 44% of subjects find out about trials through the media, only 14% gain the information from their physicians. 2 Depending on regulatory restrictions, sponsors can advertise for subjects in a wide range of environments,  including hospitals, clinics, and universities, as well as on television, radio, and in the cinema. Subject recruitment advertisements need to include a strong call to action—for example, a Web site address or  telephone number where potential subjects can find out more information about the trial. This project is usually  undertaken by an external call center, where outsourced staff can field questions about the trial and take people  through a series of questions to determine suitability for a trial.   New technology can complement the subject recruitment process. For example, Web-based questionnaires and  interactive voice response technology can filter out unsuitable individuals. However, these methods all require  the potential subject to take the first step, meaning that many good quality people simply never find out about  these opportunities.   Once they are recruited, ensuring that subjects complete the study and comply with the directions of the sponsor  is a huge ongoing problem, and noncompliance translates to up to $75 billion per year in lost sales to the  pharmaceutical industry.3 Among noncompliant subjects, almost a full quarter of them say that they simply forgot  to take their medication.4 Pharmaceutical sponsors are often subjected to time constraints during a clinical study, but there are simple  solutions currently available that remind subjects to take medication and attend clinical visits. Sponsors often  send out fridge magnets with reminder messages, diaries with clinical visit dates already inputted, and other small items to serve as reminders to subjects. Additionally, letters and e-newsletters can be sent out periodically to  remind subjects to attend their upcoming clinical visits or to inform them of changes to the study.   Subjects may decide to leave a study for a number of reasons. The product may have side effects that deter them  from complying with the recommended regimen, in which case it is important to provide an appropriate level of information  about the expected effects of the product. Alternatively, they may suffer from lack of incentive or feel asymptomatic,  stopping the medication altogether. In such cases it is important to renew motivation, such as by creating a goal that is  personal to the subject and that serves as a reason for participating in the study. Another common reason for noncompliance  is lack of enthusiasm on the part of a subject, which can be caused by behavioral or psychological changes as a result of the study. In this case, educating and increasing awareness during particular phases of the study can help to remotivate subjects . Reinforcement points can be tailored to include more items such as news about the disease or reminders of the benefits of remaining in the program. Although these methods can improve subject compliance and retention, they do not require interaction from them, so there is a chance subjects may simply fail to respond to reminders or communication from the sponsor. As new technologies emerge, they can be used to tackle these issues.   Text message technology   As mentioned, cell phone technology is rapidly becoming ubiquitous across the globe, and health care providers can now use these  devices to overcome the obstacles of subject recruitment, retention, and compliance. Companies are taking advantage of the cell  phone's popularity to develop cost-effective and easy-to-use solutions to communicate with and elicit a response from subjects. Such solutions use simple SMS functionality, which is included as a standard function on all cell phones without the need to download or install additional applications. SMS messages and alerts are delivered directly to the subject participating in a clinical study via his or her own cell phone,  resulting in a powerful and nonintrusive method for ensuring that subjects remember to take medication and stay on the program.  This solution offers health care providers a personal and inexpensive outbound form of direct-to-subject communication and means  that subjects can proactively and easily contact the sponsor via return text messages.   Such technology is now also being deployed along with location-based services to recruit, locate, and screen potential subjects  for clinical trials and commercial programs. Traditional methods of subject recruitment generally result in a response rate  of between 5% to 10%, but sponsors using SMS technology can see rates of more than 30%. In addition, recruitment results are delivered  immediately, saving time in comparison to traditional methods, which can take up to weeks or even months to provide results.     Cell phone technology can be used to complement traditional advertising, and people can register for a trial by sending an SMS message to a short code, such as "Text TRIAL to 85342 to receive more details." Upon receipt of the SMS, multiple workflows can be  activated, including a short SMS-based questionnaire about the age, sex, and condition of the person. Alternatively, a  response can be sent that directs the person to the nearest recruiting center to be screened for suitability.   Noncompliance solutions   SMS technology is currently used by a number of large pharmaceutical companies in support of their clinical trials and  marketing programs. Using cell phone technology, timely SMS messages can help to address subject noncompliance. Within certain socio-economic groups, it is important that the physician prescribing the information is seen as the  information "holder." In this case, SMS messages that are seen to be from the physician are extremely effective. Not only does this encourage communication without additional work on the part of the physician, it also makes subjects feel more valued  and important. Information reinforcement is essential to improving subject compliance, and the SMS message can be personalized by the health care professional.   Pharmaceutical sponsors are also using cell phone technology to send medication and clinic visit reminders to subjects.  Enrolled subjects receive timed reminders regarding their next clinic appointment, and these messages can be configured to  prompt the subject to confirm whether they can attend the visit. SMS messages can also be personalized according to a subject 's medication, dosage, and frequency to remind them when and how to take their medication safely.   Regulatory issues   In the highly regulated pharmaceutical environment, it is essential that any new technology be compliant with strict  regulations in order to be suitable for use in clinical research. In the case of SMS technology, both data protection and  collection are important issues, as well as the ethical implications of personally contacting subjects. For example, the cell phone technology provided by our company is fully compliant with both the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and  Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and the EU Directive 2002/58/EC (a Directive on privacy and electronic communication).  This ensures that all data are encrypted to 256 bits, subject consent is obtained before communication begins, and a simple "opt-out" service exists for subjects or sites. Additionally, the solution has full message tracking capabilities and  generates delivery reports to guarantee the surety of receiving the messages, providing a full audit trail in line with  these regulations.   Future predictions   Analysts are now predicting the demise of conventional SMS messaging in favor of 3G technology, such as cell phone-based  email and instant messaging. In the next five years, it's likely these technologies will be adapted for subject  communication in clinical trials. This will not only enable sponsors to send more engaging messages but will also increase  the response types available to subjects, including photo and animated messages. However, clinical studies are now increasingly outsourced to developing countries, particularly Africa, India, and Latin  America. Although the number of cell phone users in these areas is growing, technology is often slower to develop.  As a result, SMS technology will continue to play an important part in clinical trials in such geographies, since they will adopt 3G and associated technologies less rapidly.   References   1. investing.reuters.co.uk/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=media&storyID=nL29172095&pageNumber=0&imageid=&cap=&sz=13&WTModLoc=InvArt-C1-ArticlePage2/.   2. Harris Interactive, http://www.harrisinteractive.com/news/allnewsbydate.asp?NewsID=941.   3. Datamonitor, "Disease Management and Drug Adherence: Strategies to support patients and enhance treatment persistence, July 2, 2007, http://www.datamonitor.com/.   4. The Chodon Group, reported in NewJersey's The Star Ledger (7 August 2007).   Alternatively you can view the full article here..... Mon, 03 Mar 2008 11:28:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2008/12/16/pfizer-selects-exco-intouch-to-enhance-patient-communication-in-/ Exco InTouch, the leading mobile messaging provider for the pharmaceutical industry, announces that its text messaging technology ATLAS™ has been selected by Pfizer, one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies to enhance the efficacy of its patient recruitment and retention in Phase I clinical trials. Exco InTouch's integrated system will enable Pfizer to quickly identify, contact and assess relevant patients and maintain patient communication throughout the life of its trials across Belgium, Singapore and the US. Traditional methods of patient recruitment such as letter-based processes can often be time-consuming, costly and sometimes ineffective. Text message-based methods are quick and non-intrusive, offering healthcare providers a simple, cost-effective and direct-to-patient system of communication. ATLAS from Exco InTouch is a unique, regulatory compliant system used to send text messages to any mobile phone. ATLAS can be integrated with a wide range of existing healthcare management systems and is already used in a wide range of Phase I clinics to create regulatory compliant messaging services for patient recruitment. Pfizer specifically required a solution that could be fully integrated with its own volunteer database, allowing immediate text message-based communication with selected patients and enabling fast assessment of a potential subject's availability via text message. With the integrated text messaging system from Exco InTouch, Pfizer is able to promptly send alerts from a range of text message templates to the recipient via their own mobile phone (for example "Text YES to 54321 to participate.") Patients' responses are then sent directly to Pfizer's system, allowing recruitment staff to make immediate decisions regarding a patient's eligibility to participate in a study. This fully integrated system developed by Exco InTouch also offers benefits for patients already enrolled on studies, as the system enables investigators to send protocol-specific questions, events or reminders to patients using ATLAS. Text messaging technology for sponsor/patient interaction has been proven to significantly improve patient compliance and retention throughout the life of a clinical study. In addition, ATLAS also provides Pfizer with a complete audit trail by tracking the delivery of text messages with receipts which are sent directly back into the system, which enables compliance with FDA 21 CFR part 11 audit trail requirements. Exco InTouch offers a novel way to improve patient selection for clinical trials as well as retaining subjects throughout the study. This low-technology solution utilises a powerful yet simple system to provide a reliable approach to improve patient recruitment in the pharmaceutical industry. The success of this close collaboration reflects Exco InTouch's ability to assist companies to streamline clinical trials and offer significant productivity gains..... Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:57:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2008/12/16/exco-intouch-hosts-successful-recruitment-and-retention-workshop/ Exco InTouch, the provider of interactive patient communication solutions today announced the results of a successful pre-conference workshop at the Patient Recruitment and Retention conference in Amsterdam, October 13th – 15th 2008. The event, run in partnership with the patient recruitment agency MMG, focused on the use of proven methods and exploration of new technology to improve patient recruitment, retention and compliance within clinical research. The workshop offered an interesting insight into the way that patient recruitment initiatives are viewed amongst the sponsor community. Post-event survey results provide evidence that recruitment and retention is as strategically important now as it has ever been: Only 12% of delegates had a specific patient recruitment role within their sponsor organisation. However, over 75% of participants have planned and subsequently executed specific recruitment and retention initiatives as part of their initial protocol design management. Just over 50% of attendees had used an outside agency or technology vendor to assist them in their tactical planning to improve recruitment and retention. Finally, over 90% of sponsor personnel at the workshop stated that they were actively looking for new, creative ways to help enhance communication with patients in order to reduce lost to follow up and early withdrawal rates. Participants recognized that lost to follow up rates, which can be as high as 40%, are proving to be unacceptable in terms of the resulting study delays and increased patient recruitment costs. In order to improve efficiency companies are now looking to take proactive steps particularly in those therapy areas with notoriously high retention and compliance rates. Recruitment strategies currently in use or under consideration include direct-to-patient or direct-to-caregiver materials, advertising and physician referral materials. Additionally, sponsors were excited by the prospect of harnessing innovative technology to both find valuable patients and keep them engaged in their clinical trials. Nearly 80% of attendees wanted to receive further information about how mobile communications and the internet could be used to support trials currently being initiated. Areas of specific interest for future consideration were Electronic Diaries using cell phone technology, social networking websites, medication and dosing reminders delivered via text messaging, site website application for easy visit scheduling and patient notifications. Both Exco InTouch and MMG were delighted with the support and enthusiasm for the workshop and will be repeating the interactive seminar at events in the future. Patrick Hughes, Senior Vice President of Exco InTouch in North America commented, "The interactive session reinforced that Pharma sponsors are looking for new and innovative ways to improve recruitment, retention and compliance within clinical trials. Exco InTouch is helping its clients to reduce lost to follow up and early withdrawal rates by over 30% in some cases and these are exactly the kind of patient communication solutions that will become a common standard within future studies"..... Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:58:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2008/12/16/exco-intouch-named-runner-up-for-most-innovative-recruitment-str/ Exco InTouch, the leading provider of patient communication solutions for the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors announces that it came in second at the prestigious 2008 Good Clinical Practice Journal (GCPj) Awards in the category of Most Innovative Patient Recruitment Strategy. The awards were organised by Informa Healthcare, the leading provider of business information for the biotechnology and medical devices industries and involved a panel of judges from prominent global pharmaceutical organisations. This recognition follows Exco InTouch's recent success at the European Outsourcing Awards and was received in recognition of the company's text message-based participant communication strategy developed for MDS Pharma Services. Exco InTouch was named second in this category in recognition of its innovative clinical trial participant technology and the unique benefits experienced by customer MDS Pharma Services. MDS Pharma Services uses Exco InTouch's participant communication technology for Phase I studies at its Belfast, UK clinic. MDS Pharma Services uses text messaging technology for participant recruitment in all of its Phase I studies as a result of the success the company has experienced through working with Exco InTouch. As MDS Pharma Services is a clinical research organisation, the sponsor has recruitment targets to meet often on a short deadline, and must find and dose participants as quickly as possible. John Taylor, Head of Patient Recruitment, MDS Pharma Services, comments: "The services provided by Exco InTouch are critical in ensuring that participant enrolment is on time and within budget. Using text message-based technology for participant recruitment enables MDS Pharma Services to find suitable study participants more quickly than with any other method and we are pleased to see this innovative solution recognised by the industry." "We are delighted by this new recognition at the GCPj Awards, which represent a prestigious industry gathering," comments Tim Davis, Co-Founder, Exco InTouch. "Patient communication via text messaging technology offers unique benefits during recruitment strategies as well as throughout the life of a study, often increasing retention by over 20%." Following the success of Exco InTouch's communication strategy, MDS Pharma Services now implements text messaging technology into its recruitment advertising campaigns, using short codes to elicit responses from interested yet unknown participants (for example, "We are currently running trials in your area. For more information, text TRIAL to 12345"). Exco InTouch's technology is fully customisable and can be used as a standalone solution or integrated into existing strategies to improve recruitment rates..... Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:59:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2008/12/16/exco-intouch-wins-best-it-strategy-category-at-european-outsourc/ Exco InTouch, the leading mobile messaging provider for the pharmaceutical industry, has been presented with the Best IT Strategy award at the 2008 European Outsourcing Awards. The prestigious industry awards were held in Frankfurt on October 1, 2008 by Via Media Ltd, a dynamic media company specialising in printed and digital publications for a wide range of industries including pharmaceutical, biopharmaceuticals and life sciences. The international judging panel took into account a number of factors when awarding the honours including the effective deployment of the technology and its benefits to users. Exco InTouch received the award in recognition of its ATLAS™ short messaging service (SMS) technology for clinical trial applications. The company won the award for their submission based on the innovative integration of the ATLAS system with electronic data capture (EDC) technology which enables pharmaceutical sponsors to quickly identify and contact potential clinical trial subjects, speeding up the recruitment process. ATLAS from Exco InTouch is also used within a number of clinical trials to improve patient retention and compliance. Using ATLAS, sponsors can send personalised text messages to subjects enrolled in a study, including clinic and medication reminders and motivational tips. "The judging panel was extremely impressed with the standard of entries for the 2008 awards," comments Kevin Robinson, Editorial Director, Via Media Ltd. "Exco InTouch's submission stood out as an innovative technology that provides real benefits to the pharmaceutical industry." Tim Davis, Co-Founder, Exco InTouch, comments: "We are delighted that Exco InTouch has been presented with this industry honour. SMS is a growing technology with wide-ranging applications in the pharmaceutical industry and can offer unique benefits to sponsors in terms of facilitating clinical trials processes. It is extremely rewarding to see the industry recognising the effectiveness and innovation of new technologies such as SMS." Drug development companies are looking for faster access to data both for the recruitment process and during the life of a study, and by using ATLAS to communicate with and elicit responses from patients, sponsors can speed up recruitment drives and optimise product-to-market time. ATLAS technology is already used to create global, regulatory compliant messaging services for patient recruitment, retention and compliance in a wide range of clinical studies. ATLAS can also be integrated with clinical trial technologies such as electronic data capture (EDC) systems in order to offer fully streamlined recruitment, retention and compliance processes..... Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:01:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2008/12/16/exco-intouchs-electronic-patient-diary-selected-by-synairgen-to/ Exco InTouch, the leading mobile messaging provider for the pharmaceutical industry, announces that its electronic patient reported outcomes (ePRO) solutions have been selected by Synairgen, a drug discovery company focused on asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Exco InTouch's short message service (SMS) ePRO offerings will enable Synairgen to collect patient data in its second clinical study of inhaled interferon beta (IFN-beta) for asthma treatment. This Phase 1 study from Synairgen is designed to establish the safety of inhaled IFN-beta at four different dose levels over a 14 day period in asthmatic volunteers. Exco InTouch's innovative text messaging ePRO system will enable Synairgen to collect accurate PRO data which might be crucial in gauging the efficacy in future studies. Using secure mobile online access, this technology will allow patients to complete diary questionnaires at pre-specified times via a series of text messages. Secure text messages will enable Synairgen's patients to easily record and transmit data concerning their asthma using their own mobile phone, facilitating diary data collection which is then relayed back to the clinical sites for further analyses. "Symptom diary cards are notoriously unreliable; we are attracted to this simple method for collecting asthma symptom scores on a daily basis" said Richard Marsden, Managing Director of Synairgen.... Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:02:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2008/12/16/exco-intouch-partners-with-mmg-to-provide-effective-patient-recr/ Exco InTouch the leading mobile messaging provider for the pharmaceutical industry, announces that it has partnered with US-headquartered MMG an international industry leader in patient enrolment for clinical trials to enhance the efficacy of patient recruitment and retention services for pharmaceutical sponsors. The integration of Exco InTouch's REACT™ short messaging service (SMS) technology will complement MMG's services, enhancing the company's ability to quickly find good quality patients through advertising, pre-screening and selection. Additionally, Exco InTouch's innovative mobile technology allows MMG to interact directly with subjects during a clinical study, which can significantly improve retention for faster and more cost-effective trials. REACT™ SMS technology from Exco InTouch will be offered by MMG in synergy with its existing enrolment services, enabling sponsors to quickly identify and pre-screen potential subjects for clinical studies. The partnership between Exco InTouch and MMG comes as a response to the demand from pharmaceutical sponsors for new and innovative methods to find good quality, compliant volunteers for clinical trials. Exco InTouch's technology complements MMG's existing patient communication and recruitment services, offering SMS-based recruitment advertising and enabling fast assessment of potential subjects' suitability via SMS. In addition to substantially improving patient recruitment, the new combined services will offer significant benefits to sponsors throughout the life of the trial. REACT™ produces and updates patient visit schedules, meaning that site personnel do not need to refer to the trial protocol each time a change is made. Customized visit and medication reminders are automatically sent to patients via SMS, ensuring that subjects comply with the trial requirements while minimizing the input required from study organizers. John Benbrook, CEO of MMG, comments: "Pharmaceutical sponsors are constantly looking for novel ways to improve patient selection for clinical trials as well as retaining subjects throughout the study. Adding Exco InTouch's innovative SMS communication technology to our existing patient recruitment and retention services enhances our ability to find good quality patients and to support participants throughout the trial to ensure retention." "The new combined services from Exco InTouch and MMG reflect our close collaboration, enabling sponsors to streamline clinical trials and offering significant productivity gains. In addition, SMS communication between sponsors and patients ensures that subjects feel supported throughout the trial, typically improving retention by 20%," adds Tim Davis, Co-Founder of Exco InTouch..... Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:03:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2008/12/16/dia-reveals-industry-move-towards-sms-for-clinical-trials-commun/ Exco InTouch, the leading mobile messaging provider for the pharmaceutical industry, announces that the DIA 44th Annual Meeting 2008 represented a growing shift away from traditional patient communication techniques within clinical trials. Direct-to-patient communication using cell phones is now emerging as a viable alternative and can offer significant advantages in the areas of patient recruitment, improving adherence and maximising patient retention. Exco InTouch profited from the opportunity to meet with colleagues in the drug development industry and discuss the evolution of technology in the pharmaceutical sector when exhibiting at the DIA Annual Meeting in June 2008. Tim Davis, Co-Founder of Exco InTouch, comments: "The methods we use to communicate within the clinical trial framework are changing in line with facilitating participation for the patient. The use of cell phone technology is now ubiquitous across the globe, and SMS text message communication enables sponsors to fully interact with patients and investigators while maintaining compliance with the strict regulations covering communication within clinical trials. The spectrum of attendees at DIA, from pharmaceutical sponsors through clinical trials investigators, provides a cross-section of trends in the industry, with a focus on utilising new technology to improve communication during clinical trials." Exco InTouch provides cost-effective, simple technology to communicate with and elicit a response from patients. By utilising simple SMS technology, alerts are delivered promptly to the patient participating in a clinical study via their own mobile phone. These SMS methods are non-intrusive, offering healthcare providers with a simple cost-effective, personal, direct-to-patient system of communication. The Exco InTouch portfolio of solutions is designed to improve subject recruitment, retention and compliance during clinical trials and pharmaceutical marketing studies, from delivering reminder services to patients to non-intrusive methods of promoting investigator relationships. This technology has revolutionised clinical trial communication, using Short Message Service (SMS) to send scheduled, action-driven text messages directly to the mobile phone user, enhancing patient relationship management. Exco InTouch is the premier provider of global, secure and regulatory compliant mobile solutions to the biopharmaceutical and healthcare industries. The Exco InTouch technology is currently used by a number of large pharmaceutical companies in support of their clinical trials and marketing programs..... Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:07:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2008/12/16/exco-intouch-announces-the-availability-of-new-technical-paper-o/ Exco InTouch announces the availability of its new technical paper, 'Electronic Data Capture Using the WOMAC™ NRS 3.1 Index: a Pilot Study of Cellular Technology in OA'. The informative new poster has been developed with the Centre of National Research on Disability and Rehabilitation Medicine (CONROD) at the University of Queensland and focuses on a preliminary evaluation of cellular technology in capturing the Western Ontario and McMaster University Osteoarthritis (WOMAC) NRS 3.1 Index data using mobile telephones. The poster details methods for mobile phone selection for the WOMAC Index, and identifies high levels of correlation between manual and electronic data capture (EDC) for the index, with no statistically significant differences between the methods. This new poster is available free of charge in downloadable PDF format. Mobile technology is increasingly used in healthcare applications and can facilitate patient self-reporting and the completion of EDC questionnaires. The new technical poster from Exco InTouch describes the evaluation of an alternative approach to EDC in osteoarthritis, using appropriately-enabled mobile phones to capture the same data. Exco InTouch has developed a Java-based application of the WOMAC NRS 3.1 Index, m-WOMAC, enabling patients to quickly and easily complete EDC using the WOMAC Index via a mobile phone. The WOMAC Index is a validated instrument for assessing hip and knee osteoarthritis. It is a self-assessment questionnaire and includes questions on pain, stiffness, and physical function such as walking ability. Patient-reported outcomes using standardised, validated outcome measures are usually presented in paper format for the patient's self-completion. However, this method requires clinic attendance and has traditionally required the manual transcription of the data from paper to an electronic database. m-WOMAC from Exco InTouch was developed directly from the original paper-based version of the questionnaire, and has been reviewed and approved for use by the originator of the WOMAC Index. During the evaluation, mobile phones were reviewed in Australia, Canada and the UK, and one phone was identified for suitability from each of the three major international brands: Nokia, Motorola and Samsung. Patients with hip and knee osteoarthritis successfully completed EDC through cellular technology using m-WOMAC and the completion time was recorded automatically and compared with the time to complete the paper-based questionnaire. The results demonstrated that this new method is more convenient to patients, higher in efficiency and can be applied to clinical practice, disability management and clinical research situations. Exco InTouch's work with the WOMAC index provides a complement to the company's current mobile EDC solutions. Using Exco InTouch's technology, unique messages are sent to a patient's mobile phone. Any reply the patient enters must be preceded with their unique PIN code which links the patient to the response and ensures complete data security. All data collected is available in real time for the appropriate stakeholders to view and read via a secure website..... Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:07:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2008/12/16/join-the-exco-intouch-team-at-the-dia-and-win-big/ Exco InTouch will be exhibiting at the 44th Drug Information Association Annual Meeting from June 22nd to June 25th. Key Details: What: Booth Nos 1647/1648 Where: Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, Boston, MA, USA We realize that this is a very busy event for all delegates but here are just 3 of the many reasons why should take the time to drop by and say hello: Take part in our ‘fit for purpose’ competition to win a Nintendo Wii Fit! These are sold out across the world but we have one up for grabs and you’ll have a healthy amount of fun trying to win it. Pick up your "Power To The Patient" T-shirt to show your solidarity for all patients in clinical trials. Featuring a powerful design, these T-Shirts will be the hot giveaway at the event so make sure you drop by early to grab one before they all go. Chat to the team about how Exco puts the patient first in your program and review our latest mobile showcase for recruitment, retention, compliance and eDiaries. This innovative use of cell phone technology is taking the industry by storm and we would be delighted to share our compelling case studies with you during the event. Feel free to drop by anytime or if you would prefer, why not book a time for a one-on-one meeting with one of our team? This year’s DIA promises to be an exciting educational event and the team at Exco InTouch will make sure that you have some fun whilst learning about the latest patient-centric technology. See you in Boston and make sure you’re fit and raring to go for our on-booth contest! Finally, if you would like to have a no-obligation consultation and protocol review to determine how Exco InTouch can support your next trial then don’t hesitate to let us know. Our expert team would be happy to give your study a health check so contact us today..... Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:08:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2008/12/16/exco-intouch-partners-with-logos-technologies-to-improve-patient/ Exco InTouch, the leading mobile messaging provider for the pharmaceutical industry, announces that it has partnered with London-based Logos Technologies, experts in early phase EDC and Phase I site automation, to develop an integrated system which speeds up the patient recruitment process. The integration of Exco InTouch's short messaging service (SMS) technology, ATLAS™, with ALPHADAS®, Logos Technologies' proprietary electronic data capture (EDC) system, enables clinical trials sponsors and investigators to quickly identify, contact and assess relevant patients for early phase studies. The collaboration between Logos Technologies and Exco InTouch has been fuelled by the demand from sponsors for a seamless, fully integrated system for patient recruitment. The combination of these two industry-leading systems enables biopharmaceutical clients and study personnel to search for relevant patients in ALPHADAS and immediately communicate with selected patients via SMS using ATLAS. Patients are able to respond to certain questions using their own mobile phone, and these responses are sent directly to the ALPHADAS system, allowing recruitment staff to make immediate decisions regarding a patient's eligibility to participate in a study. This fully integrated system also offers benefits for patients already enrolled on studies, as the ALPHADAS system enables sponsors and investigators to send protocol-specific questions, events or reminders to patients using ATLAS. Sponsor/patient interaction using Exco InTouch's SMS technology has been proven to significantly improve patient compliance and retention throughout the life of a clinical study. "Drug development companies are looking for faster access to data both for the recruitment process and during the life of a study," says Tim Davis, Co-Founder of Exco InTouch. "The combination of using ALPHADAS to search for eligible patients and using ATLAS to communicate with and elicit responses from these patients enables sponsors to speed up recruitment drives, ultimately optimising product-to-market time." Giles Wilson, Business and Operations Director for Logos Technologies, comments: "We understand that early phase clinical trials require a complete and fully integrated solution to deal with the common issues with patient recruitment. The integration of our ALPHADAS system with ATLAS from Exco InTouch offers sponsors and investigators a faster and more streamlined method of patient recruitment. Following this success, we are now looking into further system integration that will enable remote data capture via any mobile phone." ATLAS from Exco InTouch is a proprietary system on which SMS applications can be built, run, and integrated with a wide range of existing healthcare management systems. ATLAS technology is already used to create global, regulatory compliant messaging services for patient recruitment in a wide range of phase I clinics. ALPHADAS from Logos Technologies is an early phase web-enabled EDC system and a clinical trial site automation tool which has been successfully used by life sciences organisations for over a decade..... Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:09:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2008/12/16/exco-intouch-facilitates-healthcare-system-integration-with-intr/ Exco InTouch, the leading mobile messaging provider for the pharmaceutical industry, announces the introduction of ATLAS™, providing secure and cost-effective short message service (SMS) integration with pharmaceutical and healthcare systems such as EDC and CTMS. This unique, regulatory-compliant enterprise system is used to send SMS messages to any mobile phone across the globe in a wide range of languages. ATLAS is capable of processing over 50 messages per second, and can deliver to over 600 mobile phone operators in more than 200 countries, providing sponsors with unparalleled access capabilities including strong links with Verizon, Motorola and Nokia. Mobile marketing techniques such as text messaging have become increasingly popular with the introduction of television shows like American Idol and Dancing With the Stars, where voting by SMS is encouraged. Receiving healthcare information on a cell phone can be beneficial for patients who wish to learn about their disease or treatment, as information is disseminated in short bursts in contrast to a heavily branded website or a costly and disposable product leaflet. Exco InTouch provides cost-effective, simple technology to communicate with and elicit a response from patients, clinical trial monitors, nurses and investigators participating in clinical trials and market studies. By utilising simple SMS technology, alerts are delivered promptly to the recipient via their own mobile phone. These SMS methods are non-intrusive, offering healthcare providers a simple cost-effective, personal, direct-to-patient system of communication. Many organisations now focus high levels of resources on system integration in order to streamline processes. ATLAS eliminates the common problems associated with system integration by offering a simple integrated SMS solution that is easy to implement and use. As integration with ATLAS is based on open industry standards, implementation does not require the development of additional technology or extensive user training. ATLAS from Exco InTouch enables pharmaceutical and healthcare organisations to easily add SMS capability to any application. ATLAS is a proprietary system on which SMS applications can be built and run, and can be integrated with a wide range of existing healthcare management systems. In order to meet the strict regulatory requirements governing the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries, Exco InTouch processes are committed to security, change control and design and development policies. Phone numbers and messages are encrypted at the database level within ATLAS, and the system address FDA and HIPAA regulations. ATLAS also has a complete audit trail and can track all changes made to the database..... Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:09:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2008/12/16/exco-intouch-featured-in-bio-it-world/ Exco InTouch's Co-Founder Tim Davis is interviewed in Bio-IT World... Harlow, Essex (UK)-based Exco InTouch recently released the latest version of its contact management software, known as REACT, which uses cell phone text messaging to do everything from pre-screening potential clinical trial participants to sending treatment and appointment reminders to enrolled subjects. Version 3.0 of REACT "provides a means by which an organization can connect directly to specific clinical audiences with tailored, high-impact communications," says Tim Davis, co-founder of Exco InTouch. REACT uses global mobile messaging capabilities, a customized website through which text messages get channeled, and investigator site staff to create a "seamless participant experience." All text messages are sent in patients’ local language according to local time zones, says Davis. Message content is typically pre-configured, although "for some studies the site personnel can personalize messages to patients." Patients can reply to text messages directly to confirm or reschedule appointments, and the data gets relayed via REACT to the clinical site. Sites can also receive reminders about when to expect patients and when trial milestones have been met or missed. Medication and visit reminders "significantly" improve patient compliance with the study protocol and "dramatically reduces…‘lost to follow up’ rates," says Davis. Patients can be reminded to continue taking medication even if they feel better or are experiencing "normal" side effects. Motivational and educational messages can also be included, as can site phone numbers to aid contact with the investigator or study nurse. For purposes of patient recruitment, REACT can be used "by clinical sites, Phase I units, SMOs [site management organizations], CROs [clinical research organizations], and patient recruitment specialists to blast text messages out to known patients/volunteers/participants to let them know that there is an upcoming trial that they may be interested in," says Davis. Typically, 75 percent of responses are gathered "within the first three hours of the message being sent, and the rest within the next six-hour period." REACT also can be used in conjunction with an advertising campaign where there will be a "call to action" that includes the text messaging option. In both scenarios, Davis adds, this could enable pre-screening questions to be sent establishing eligibility and geographic location for follow-up contact. "Collecting data like zip codes can help funnel the right patient to the right site in a timely manner by prompting the patient to call a local site number or, more commonly, for a site/call center to call the patient directly." REACT has truly "global reach" because cell phones are so ubiquitous. "We can provide cell phones to patients who do not own one," says Davis. "But with over 45,000 patients we have worked with to date, we have only sent 39 cell phones, and this is across 41 countries." Worldwide, there are over 3.3 billion active cell phones – versus only 1.2 billion active email inboxes. Customers not looking for a stand-alone application can have REACT integrated with clinical trial management or safety systems (electronic or paper-based) as well as electronic data capture, through a secure encryption of mobile user data, Davis says. For most trials, a secure database simply stores the cell phone numbers and personalized message schedule for individual patients. Medication schedules or dose frequencies might also be stored. To date, REACT has been used for 19 trials and has enjoyed a high acceptance rate among clinical sites, says Davis. Fees range from about $1 per patient per month for a five-year project with 6,000 patients to $10 per patient per month for a two-year study with 600 patients..... Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:11:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2007/12/16/exco-intouch-introduces-innovative-react-for-improved-patient-re/ (29 February, 2008) Exco InTouch has introduced REACT™, providing secure mobile communication for healthcare and biopharmaceutical applications. REACT™ is designed to improve subject recruitment, retention and compliance during clinical trials and pharmaceutical marketing studies, from delivering reminder services to patients to non-intrusive methods of promoting investigator relationships. REACT™ has revolutionised clinical trial communication, using Short Message Service (SMS) to send scheduled, action-driven text messages directly to the mobile phone user, enhancing volunteer relationship management. Finding good quality volunteers and patients for clinical trials is a continuing challenge and SMS helps target, identify and locate volunteers and patient populations, additionally providing a new channel to deliver timed reminders regarding screening appointments and trial prerequisites. REACT™ allows for the customisation of mobile services and can be integrated into existing systems or delivered as a custom-made application. Patient retention and compliance are also improved through the provision of interactive and personalised SMS messages. REACT™ software allows selection from approved, validated, local language translations, with the capacity to insert multiple variables for personalised messages. Seamless integration with email and total reporting facilities is available, allowing for full role and rights-based access to ensure that the right people do the right things at the right time. REACT™ seamlessly integrates with both electronic and paper based clinical trial workflow processes, through a secure encryption of mobile user data. Exco InTouch follows a standard quality management process to provide the highest quality technology to its clients. Data is stored in a secure database, complying with the EU data privacy act and applicable industry legislation. Exco InTouch computer systems are also fully validated to comply with FDA 21 CFR part 11 guidelines. Exco InTouch provides cost-effective, simple technology to communicate with and elicit a response from patients. By utilising simple SMS technology, alerts are delivered promptly to the patient participating in a clinical study via their own mobile phone. These SMS methods are non-intrusive, offering healthcare providers with a simple cost-effective, personal, direct-to-patient system of communication. REACT™ from Exco InTouch is available as a hosted service or as an enterprise solution installed within a corporate network, allowing rapid import of contact management data. Participants and investigators can be linked, providing seamless, traceable communication paths. Exco InTouch is the premier provider of global, secure and regulatory compliant short messaging service (SMS) technology to the biopharmaceutical and healthcare industries. The Exco InTouch technology is currently used by a number of large pharmaceutical companies in support of their clinical trials and marketing programs..... Sun, 16 Dec 2007 16:11:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2007/12/16/exco-intouch-featured-by-clinpage/ Exco InTouch Co-Founder Tim Davis and Executive Director Patrick Hughes are interviewed by ClinPage... Simplicity is precious. Its absence is irksome. We spent the past week (unsuccessfully) troubleshooting one Microsoft networking glitch. Microsoft engineers are trained to camouflage their messes as simplicity.   Google engineers have a different approach. They deliver simplicity. Google can send its web-based Google Calendar alerts to mobile phones with no configuration. Exco InTouch appears to have drawn more of its inspiration from Google than Microsoft. Based in Britain, with U.S. offices, Exco InTouch has a solution to use short message services, or "SMS," in a health care context. We recently had a chat with the company’s co-founder, Tim Davis. He previously served at electronic patient-reported outcome firm CRF and at Procter & Gamble, where he worked on electronic data capture (EDC). He understands the requirements of a regulated industry. The Exco text-messaging technology conforms to strict European privacy laws, and to HIPAA and wireless regulations in the U.S. 3 Billion Txtrs As Exco appraised the gold standard of usability in the handheld computer sector—Palm—the company believed it could do better. "We looked around to find a lower common denominator of technology, something people were already familiar with," Davis explains. "Half of the world’s population has a cell phone. We’re capitalizing on that. It’s getting to the device they already have." In the U.S., he reminds us, more than 70 percent of the population has a cell phone, and the vast majority of those devices can send and receive text messages. Ordinary citizens just want to make calls on their mobiles. They don’t want to use their cell phone to film a documentary, edit a spreadsheet, or make popcorn. We were surprised to learn that just a few percent of the population in the U.S. owns a Palm-Treo or Blackberry-based smartphone. When they are given as gifts, smartphones are frequently returned. Indeed, Davis says, more than half of the functionality on smart phones is never used at all. It will be interesting to watch whether Apple’s iPhone can change that. Exco InTouch’s vision, meanwhile, is to use SMS on ordinary cell phones to reach patients. Simple messages can serve as reminders about clinic appointments or confirmations of whether medication has been taken. And that can happen programatically, without human intervention. Other clinical systems have used SMS and email alerts. But the Exco system is being positioned as one that can ensure messages are delivered around the world. The firm has done eight trials in 26 countries. To do so, Exco negotiated agreements with all of the major SMS "gateways." It has also assisted in another 10-15 projects that were just focused on patient retention or compliance. The telecommunications access is not always easy to arrange. "Establishing these connections has taken a lot of time, but we now offer connectivity to 200 countries across 550 cellular operators," says Davis. Integration With IVR, EDC Sites, crucially, are relieved of massive robo-calling duties and can make more important calls. Exco InTouch is selling the technology into both the clinical trial and the marketing sectors of the industry, with help from Patrick Hughes, a former ClinPhone executive. Davis notes the Exco system can be connected to EDC systems or interactive voice response (IVR) systems if needed. At any predetermined time interval or milestone, the system can identify, then send the appropriate message. Messages can be customized by patient name and other variables. Infrastructure Workaround The company is making lemonade from the fact that wired infrastructure in the developing world can be limited. "We’re going into India, China," he says. "Landline infrastructure as we all know it doesn’t exist." The price of the company’s solution varies according to the scope and duration of a project. In a two-year global study with 600 patients, Davis says, the budget might be $10 per patient per month. In a five-year project with 6,000 patients, the monthly fee might be closer to $1 per patient per month. Those figures include all costs. Patients, needless to say, should need no training to use their own phones. Sites access the system via the internet. Raising Compliance The sponsor community, Davis says, is interested that Exco can prove that a particular patient got a particular text message, and that response rates from patients are dramatically higher when the SMS protocol is used to contact them than when the telephone or email are used. There seems to be something about the urgency of an SMS message that makes people less likely to ignore it. "People can discreetly pull out their mobile phone and respond to it," Davis says. In some instances, ethics boards or institutional review boards (IRBs) may have to decide whether cellular phones will be supplied to patients who do not already own them. So far, Exco has shipped a few dozen phones around the globe. "It depends on how valuable it is to retain that patient," Davis says. In some trials, the costs of finding new patients to replace those who have dropped out might far exceed the cost of Exco’s system. The system can also be used to prod investigators to address data clarification forms (DCF) or "queries." The system "can be used to send specific DCF reminders direct to the Investigators’ mobile phone so as to direct them to the most urgent outstanding queries," the company website notes. Saving The Site But most of the company’s pitch is saving sites from having to make hundreds or thousands of calls. "We’re making something appealing, very warm and friendly and not so much of a burden for the sites," he says. A sample text message is admittedly short and pithy. It might just read, Hi Susan, it’s Dr. Smith, I’m looking forward to your next assessment. In Russia, Exco discovered something interesting about the provenance of cellular phones there. Exco had programmed its system to use the Cyrillic alphabet. But one project in the country immediately encountered problems as clinical research associates reported unexpected "#" symbols. It turns out that ... ahem, an informal, nontraditional distribution channel funnels phones from elsewhere on the planet to the former Soviet Union. "The common man in the street in Russia sends text messages in Roman characters," says Davis. Whatever the source of a phone, the use of text messages in large clinical trials is just getting started, and seems like an ideal match of an extremely scalable, user-friendly technology with a low total cost of ownership..... Sun, 16 Dec 2007 16:12:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2007/12/16/patrick-hughes-works-with-exco-intouch-to-drive-us-commercial-ac/ Exco InTouch, the leading mobile solution provider for the pharmaceutical industry, announces that former ClinPhone Senior VP of sales and marketing, Patrick Hughes, is working with the company to consult on US business strategy. Following the opening of the company’s new US headquarters in Irvine, California, Patrick will be working with Exco InTouch to drive commercial growth, increase the North American customer base and introduce the full suite of solutions to the US market. Richard Tupman, Managing Director of Exco InTouch, comments, "With over 10 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, Patrick’s expertise will be of great benefit to Exco InTouch and our North American customers. We have recently enjoyed a significant surge in sales from the US and we hope that through working with Patrick we can better serve our existing customers while significantly growing our client base.".... Sun, 16 Dec 2007 16:13:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2007/12/16/exco-intouch-continues-rapid-growth-in-usa-with-the-opening-of-w/ Exco InTouch Ltd, the leading mobile solution provider for the Pharmaceutical Industry today announced the opening of a facility in Irvine, California to support its ever increasing US customer base. This new office also acknowledges the importance of the US market and Exco InTouch's commitment to providing local operational and commercial support to its BioPharma clients and partners.   "We have enjoyed a significant surge in sales from the West Coast and so it made sense to put down roots in this area and work more closely with our valued customers" said Richard Tupman, Managing Director of Exco InTouch Ltd. "Although initially this will be a sales office to complement our operational facility in Raleigh Durham, North Carolina we expect to be hiring operational staff in the near future". The new US office is located at; Exco InTouch Inc., University Tower, 4199 Campus Drive, Suite 55, Irvine, California 92612.... Sun, 16 Dec 2007 16:14:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2007/12/16/new-product-launch-atlas-enabling-your-electronic-data-capture-s/ The big question on any managers mind when introducing new technology is "How can my processes drive the technology instead of the technology driving my processes?". There is always a risk that, when introducing new technology, that some processes are duplicated to help in its introduction. This has commonly been seen in the extract and load model, where data from one system is exported, reformatted and loaded into the new system for processing. Although this can be a necessity (eg. Lab data loaded from disparate systems), the alternative process based solution - creating a standard that must be adhered to by all stakeholders - can be a very inflexible working model. This focus on streamlining processes has lead pharmaceutical companies to focus a high degree of their resources on integration of software systems. The process of integration has historically been fraught with complexity and as a result, high cost. So when Exco InTouch started hearing from you, our clients, that you were looking for a simple, secure and cost effective way to integrate SMS in your current EDC, CTMS, Phase 1 systems etc., we introduced ATLAS. ATLAS allows you to simply and securely add SMS capability to any application in your organization. Whether you want to send SMS’s from your Phase 1-4 EDC or dedicated Phase 1 system to patients, clinical monitors, nurses and investigators, from your drug brand website to consumers or from your clinical trial supplies system to the pharmacy, ATLAS can do it. Your IT department will be sold on the simplicity very quickly. Integration with ATLAS is based on open industry standards (eg. XML), so there is no new technology for your IT department to learn or develop. Perhaps most importantly, all of Exco InTouch’s text messaging products are designed and built specifically for use in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry. Quality, security and confidentiality are our highest concern. All our products and procedures reflect this..... Sun, 16 Dec 2007 16:15:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2006/12/16/smartphone-messenger-solution-for-the-japanese-clinical-market-a/ Over the past 12 months, we have been eagerly approached by an ever increasing number of clients interested in using mobile messaging technology to help reduce the operating costs of Japanese clinical studies. With the relative cost per patient for Japanese clinical studies being over twice as high as that of the US, our clients were enthusiastic to adopt our technology to help them decrease the cost associated with patient non-retention and non-compliance. In response to these requests, Exco InTouch introduces SmartPhone Messenger™ as the newest member of our growing repertoire of products. Released this month, SmartPhone Messenger™ pioneers the way for pharmaceutical and healthcare organisations to address the cost of patient non-retention and non-compliance in Japan with the use of mobile technology. SmartPhone Messenger™ was developed to address the specific mobile messaging requirements (such as i-Mode) of the Japanese market. To ensure that we met the advanced needs of 3G phones and the fine intricacies of the Japanese language, we employed the expertise of 2 Japanese consultants. One of the consultants focused on technology infrastructure and configuration specific to the Japanese market. The other consultant focused on the user interface design, usability and kanji text on the SmartPhone Messenger™ website. To ensure message delivery across all networks, we performed intensive connectivity testing with mobile users in Japan. As with REACT™, SmartPhone Messenger™ does not require a specific device to be distributed to the patient, it works directly on the patients own mobile phone, making it both convenient for the patient and cost effective for sponsor. SmartPhone Messenger™ has already been adopted for use in a clinical study by one of the top 5 pharmaceutical companies, reminding patients to attend their appointments. The website is used by site staff for enrolling the patient into the study. Kanji messages are automatically scheduled and subsequently sent to the patient’s phone according to the next visit date. Site staff can verify when messages were sent, edit patient details and withdraw patients from the study via the website. Although SmartPhone Messenger™ was developed to help increase patient retention and compliance, we all know that when site staff find a solution difficult to work with, they won’t use it. Feedback about the look and feel of the website has been very positive. One user exclaimed "it is a lot easier than I thought it would be!". SmartPhone Messenger™ is destined to be met with the same enthusiasm that our other products have in the past. SmartPhone Messenger™ was designed for the Japanese market and is available with a standard Kanji interface. Although 3G messaging has its origins in Japan, it is an emerging technology in other geographic regions. We also provide SmartPhone Messenger™ with an English interface for other markets..... Sat, 16 Dec 2006 16:19:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2006/12/16/sms-sets-new-world-record-of-70-000-sms-per-second/ Around the world, 70 000 SMS or text messages were sent to and from mobile phones per second in the 3rd Quarter of last year. This volume represents the first time that text messaging has exceeded 550 Billion, according to Informa Telecoms & Media's World Cellular Data Metrics. "These latest figures mirror the high level of growth we are experiencing with our customer base" commented Richard Tupman, Managing Director of Exco InTouch. He added "Our Pharmaceutical clients, in conjunction with ourselves, are developing the technology for this marketplace, as it is an ideal mechanism for communicating confidentially with Patients, Physicians and Internally; both in the clinical and commercial setting." The average number of SMS sent per mobile phone subscriber was 75 per month in Q3, 2006. The highest per subscription rate was recorded in the Asia-Pacific region (133), with Africa recording the lowest (19)..... Sat, 16 Dec 2006 16:16:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2006/12/16/introducing-our-new-head-of-project-management/ We are delighted to announce the appointment of a new Head of Project Management at Exco InTouch, Bipin Patel. Bipin comes to us from GlaxoSmithKline, where his Project Management duties included introduction of Electronic Diaries (ePRO) and EDC systems. Additionally, he has experience in Data Management, Standards Management (including adherence to GCP) and Change Management, as well as practical experience in provisioning, site training and support. Bipin's unique combination of experience gives him the skills and insight for providing the best possible service to our customer base. He has worked for both Sponsors and CRO’s in Europe and in North America, and with his 8 years of Pharmaceutical industry experience, he is strong addition to our growing team. Please join us in welcoming Bipin aboard!.... Sat, 16 Dec 2006 16:18:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2006/12/16/introducing-our-new-head-of-development/ We are delighted to announce the appointment of a new Head of Development at Exco InTouch, Simon Dennison. Simon has many years experience in delivering and supporting fully validated clinical trial and e-business solutions engaging various mobile phone technologies. Simon will help strengthen our technology expertise and extend the product range globally. Please join us in welcoming Simon aboard!.... Sat, 16 Dec 2006 16:18:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2006/12/16/conference-come-and-meet-the-exco-intouch-team/ Exco InTouch's Co-Founder Tim Davis will be presenting at the conference below. Tim will explain how everyday mobile technology can be used as a powerful driver to accelerate patient recruitment and retention throughout clinical studies. What:Revolutionising Patient Recruitment and Retention in Clinical Trials When: 28th/29th September Where:Prague, Czech Republic We look forward to meeting you there!.... Sat, 16 Dec 2006 16:19:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2006/12/16/teens-luv-2-txt-st-marys-hospital-choose-exco-intouch/ Exco InTouch’s interactive text messaging solution has been selected by the Family Clinic at St Mary's Hospital, London to provide a unique medication reminder service for their teen age HIV patients. Dr Hermione Lyall of the Paediatrics Unit of St. Mary's Hospital said; "Many Children born with HIV need to take multiple medications, every day. For those reaching teenage years, keeping motivated and remembering when to take the medications each day is a challenge, which if not addressed can seriously affect the long term health of the patients."She continued "Exco InTouch's solution offers the best method of reminding them of their medication while maintaining their independence and confidentiality." Exco InTouch’s solution allows the patients to select not only the time of each reminder but also the message content itself. "We wanted to avoid the traditional approach offered by other companies providing only generic reminder messages that often serve only as nuisance rather than an aid.", said Tim Davis, Co-Founder and Director of Sales, Exco InTouch. "One of the features of our solution is to allow the user to personalise the messages so that it serves not only as a reminder but as a confidential and personal narrative.".... Sat, 16 Dec 2006 16:22:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2006/12/16/from-the-economist-a-text-a-day/ The medical uses of mobile phones show they can be good for your health. What impact can mobile phones have on their users' health? Many people worry about the supposed ill effects caused by radiation from handsets and base stations, despite the lack of credible evidence of any harm. But evidence for the beneficial effects of mobile phones on health is rather more abundant. Indeed, a systematic review carried out by Rifat Atun and his colleagues at Imperial College, London, rounds up 150 examples of the use of text messaging in the delivery of health care. These uses fall into 3 categories: efficiency gains; public-health gains; and direct benefits to patients by incorporating text-messaging into treatment regimes. The study, funded by Vodafone, the world’s largest mobile operator, was published this week.  Using texting to boost efficiency is not rocket science, but big savings can be achieved. Several trials carried out in England have found that the use of text messaging reminders reduces the number of missed appointments with family doctors by 26-39%, for example, and the number of missed hospital appointments by 33-50%. If such schemes were rolled out nationally, this would translate into annual savings of £256m-£364m. Text messages are also being used to remind patients about blood tests, clinics, scans and dental appointments. Similar schemes in America, Norway and Sweden have had equally satisfying results – though the use of text-message reminders in the Netherlands, where non-attendance are low, at 4%, had no effect other than to annoy patients. Test messages can also be a good way to disseminate public-health information, particularly to groups who are hard to reach by other means, such as teenagers, or in developing countries where other means of communication are unavailable. Text messages have been used in India to inform people about the World Health Organisation’s strategy to control tuberculosis, for example, and in Kenya, Nigeria and Mali to provide information about HIV and malaria. In Iraq, text messages were used to support a campaign to vaccinate nearly 5m children against polio. Finally, there are the uses of text-messaging as part of a treatment regime. These involve sending reminders to patients to take their medicine at the right time, or to encourage compliance with exercise regimes or efforts to stop smoking. The evidence for the effectiveness of such schemes is generally anecdotal, however, notes Dr Rifat. More quantitative research is needed-which is why his team also published three papers this week looking at the use of mobile phones in health care in more detail. One of these papers, written in conjunction with Victorian Franklin and Stephen Greene of the University of Dundee, in Scotland, reports the results of a trial in which diabetic teenagers’ treatment was backed up with text messaging. Diabetes needs constant management, and requires patients to take an active role in their treatment by measuring blood-sugar levels and administering insulin injections. The most effective form of therapy is an intensive regime in which patients adjust the dose of insulin depending on what they eat. This is more onerous for the patient but allows for a greater dietary variety. The Sweet Talk system was tested over a period of 18 months with teenage patients receiving both conventional and intensive diabetes treatment. A control group received conventional treatment and no text messages. The researchers found that the use of text messaging significantly increased the “self-efficacy” (the effectiveness of treatment, measured by questionnaire). More importantly, among patients receiving intensive therapy, the level of haemoglobin HbA1c-an indicator of blood-glucose and hence glycaemic control-was 14% lower than for those in the control group. Since even a 10% decline in HbA1c level is associated with a reduction in complications such as eye and kidney problems this is an impressive result. It suggests that texting can cheaply and effectively support intensive therapy among teenagers, who often demonstrate poor compliance. Despite such promising results, Dr Rifat notes, many of the medical uses of text messaging have not yet been subjected to clinical trials, because they are so new. And even where the benefits are proven, the technology has not been systematically deployed on a large scale. But when it comes to improving outcomes and reducing costs, text messages would seem to be just what the doctor ordered. SOURCE: The Economist.... Sat, 16 Dec 2006 16:23:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2006/12/1/exco-intouch-in-the-usa/   Exco InTouch is on the road again! Following on from our European conference success we will be presenting for the first time in the United States. Book your seat to hear our real-life case studies demonstrating the effectiveness of mobile technology for improving patient compliance.   What: Patient Compliance & Adherence USA When: November 30 - December 1 2006 Where: Crown Plaza Hotel, Philadelphia, USA We look forward to meeting you there!  .... Fri, 01 Dec 2006 16:17:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2005/12/16/have-you-taken-your-medication-today-yn/ Exco InTouch responds to UK government calls for greater emphasis on patient safety. "It is critically important to patients, the NHS and the pharmaceutical industry that the public have trust in and benefit from advances in medicines". Dr Richard Barker Association of British Pharmaceutical Industry. With UK MP's, Committees, Regulatory bodies, Health Services and Companies looking for someone to blame for the dangers of patient non-compliance and drug safety issues it’s time to learn how the simplest technology can deliver the biggest rewards and bring you closer to your patients. It's a known fact that patients rarely comply with their medication exactly as they should, and pharmaceutical companies and Doctors are starting to pay the price. In the US, patient non-compliance costs the economy $100 billion annually and in clinical trials, can top 80%. Most importantly, non-compliance costs lives. In the US alone, 135,000 people are killed each year by taking their medication incorrectly. Simple, time-critical reminders and brief questions monitoring symptoms delivered direct to patients through their mobile phones could be a vital step in preventing loss of life and add value to patients with complex regimens such as those suffering from HIV. With more than 1.369 billion mobile phone users worldwide, text messages are now a crucial part of our daily lives which is why they represent the ideal choice for keeping in constant contact with patients without the need for costly and sophisticated processes, training and equipment. Currently 5% of all UK hospital admissions are attributable to adverse drug reactions, forcing greater Government and regulatory scrutiny upon the already stringent policies and processes relating to drug development and marketing. Simple and regular communication through SMS help to guarantee patient eligibility, increase prompt site attendance and monitor adverse reactions. The use of SMS can improve safety and deliver measurable commercial benefits by reducing recruitment and enrolment activities, which currently eat up 25% of the clinical development timeline. In a recent UK report, the Pharmaceutical industry and government both said they were committed to ensuring patients' safety was paramount and with 650 million prescriptions written each year by GPs, concerns where highlighted relating to the over-prescription of drugs. Richard Tupman, Director of Exco InTouch, a Global mobile phone applications provider said, "SMS communication with patients would facilitate constant contact, allowing GPs to more closely monitor symptoms, gauge the effectiveness of medication and alter prescriptions accordingly". He added, "The most important aspect of our work is to protect the patient, and deliver tangible health benefits through the application of our technology"..... Fri, 16 Dec 2005 16:23:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2005/8/1/applied-clinical-trials-online-eshowcase-for-exco-intouch/ Exco InTouch knows why most patients become noncompliant: they simply forget.  Exco InTouch (Hertfordshire, UK) poses what seems like a trick question on its Web site. What's the most important part of a trial? The CRF? Drug? Site?   Nope, it's the patient. Often patients become noncompliant due to simple forgetfulness. That's why Exco InTouch offers an astoundingly simple concept: remind the patients to take their meds. Their SMS (Short Messaging Service) sends out text messages to patients of a clinical trial. "Have you taken your medicine today? Yes or No." The message serves two crucial purposes: it gives patients a daily reminder to stay compliant, and it creates an online patient diary of compliance. Patients choose what time of day to receive the message, and they can choose between a text-messaging-enabled phone or a computer with an Internet connection. Billions of these messages are sent every year: just one of them a day could ensure statistical significance in an upcoming clinical trial. Read the original article here..... Mon, 01 Aug 2005 13:03:00 BST http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2010/1/6/digital-diagnosis/ DOCTOR WILL TEXT YOU NOWRemote transmission of your vital signs, automatic drug administration, diagnosis by text message some specialists think that technology will drive the personal health care of the future and that it will be the saviour of the NHS. A worried mother taps her baby's date of birth and her concerns about his health into an app on the iPhone assigned to her newborn by the NHS in the delivery room; sensors in a wristband, snapped on moments after birth, have already calculated blood pressure, temperature and oxygenation levels, transmitting them back wirelessly and automatically to the local paediatrician. A practitioner calls back within 30 minutes and advises calm - the baby's stats look fine, regular doses of the paracetamol-based painkiller Calpol should be enough. Text alerts remind her of when and how much to dispense. A follow-up call comes automatically the next day to check the baby's progress. The mother is reassured with the offer of a face-to-face check-up if she is still alarmed. She immediately texts a friend: 'Baby fine now. Anxious mum fine too!' Elsewhere, a 30-year-old man is controlling his asthma remotely; sensors in his inhaler check his peak-flow levels and automatically dispense thecorrect level of salbutamol and steroids. His time consuming appointments at the asthma clinic are a distant memory. Prescriptions are emailed every two months to the closest pharmacy for collection. His girlfriend - who developed acute type 2 diabetes fiveyears ago - has reclaimed her life even more dramatically thanks to automatic insulin pumps that not only dispense the correct amount of insulin, discreetly and painlessly, into her subcutaneous fat whenever her sugar levels waver but also transmit that information to a base attached to her weighing scales which she uses once a week. This collates and sends information back to her NHS records. If her condition changes in any way, an MSN message sent to her PC offers a choice of appointments for a physical check-up. Back at the local surgery, the reception area is quieter than it's been for years...Welcome to the decade of hands-free health care. While the past 20 years have seen giant strides made in the form of blockbuster drug breakthroughs (successes have included omeprazole for heartburn, clopidogrel for preventing blood clots in vascular conditions and metoprolol for high blood pressure) and improvements in early diagnosis in acute care, they have also seen an explosion in the number of people suffering chronic conditions (such as obesity, diabetes, asthma, arthritis) and the accompanying budget pressure has stretched health service resources to the limit. Given that no political party thinks that the budget can be increased in real terms by more than one per cent next year, it would be easy to imagine that the future looks bleak. Scientists and academicsare genuinely concerned that the era of the 'magic bullet' - when new drugs and treatments just kept coming - is over. But health policy strategists are not quite so discouraged. If everything falls into place, the next decade, they suggest, could see us with smarter, cleverer health care that actually costs less while delivering impressive results. Nick Bosanquet, Professor of Health Policy at Imperial College London, and a special adviser on public expenditure to the Commons Health Committee, has long given warnings that Britain's health service is facing a dire future. 'There is going to be a very serious funding crisis in 2011-12,' he says. 'Successive governments have stoked up costs and expectations, and that collides with financial realities, which means we are goingto have to take difficult decisions.' To avoid disaster, he thinks we need to cross the 'digital divide'. He adds, 'We need a system that is closer to patients, with more support available for those with long-term illnesses. And we need to change the way we handle acute care, too.' As an example, he explains that there were 100,000cancer admissions into hospital last year, many of which were avoidable. These are patients who suffer some sort of crisis out of hours and cannot contact their usual doctor. So they end up at A&E, being treated by doctors who are not oncologists, and being admitted routinely, just in case. 'If we make health care more focused on communication with patients- really using the technology that already exists - we immediately save moneyand begin to take the strain off the system.' Prof Bosanquet is working with the University College London Hospital team to set up a cancer centre where it will take only 10 days from referral to treatment, and which has no in-patient department. This, he believes, will be the experience of many cancer patients in the 2010s. ) Anyone who needs to stay over can book a [refundable] room in a hotel nearby,' he explains. 'In a trial, we have found they prefer it, and it's much cheaper than a £400-a-night NHS bed.' He adds, 'Researchers did think initially that patients might become fretful and worry outside a hospital, but the reverse has turned out to be true. They are far happier. And as technology improves they can keep in constant touch with their medical staff anyway.' In the near future, patients can look forward to becoming consumers, says Karol Sikora, the medical director of Cancer Partners UK, and an honorary consultant oncologist at Hammersmith Hospital, London. 'By the end of the next decade, we will be dealing with health care very differently,' he says. 'There will be much more quality information available on the internet. Programmes will be developed to guide patients through their choices and help them make decisions.' It is not only the health professionals and academics who are looking at the way attitudinal changes will shape the next 10 years or more. Big business is very excited, too. The Dutch electronics giant Philips announced in November that it is investing several million Euros in the health care home monitoring market in Holland; the company division responsible reported more than €l billion of revenue in 2008, and, according to a Reuters report, is expected to grow at double-digit percentage rates. Philips estimates the global market at about €100 billion. 'It is all about expanding care beyond its current boundaries, like the hospital,' says Walter van Kuijen of Philips. As the population ages dramatically - the number of over-65s is estimated to double by 2050, and a third of these will be over 80, according to the European Social Network – there will be a concomitant rise in the number of chronically sick. 'They will need continuous treatment and monitoring,' van Kuijen says. Philips is a leading partner in the EU-funded €20 million Heart Cycle project, started in 2008, which is researching technologies for home telemonitoring systems where patient and doctor will play active roles in carrying out care. The project aims to create a 'patient loop' that gives patients regular feedback on their state of health and progress towards achieving planned health goals, as well as a 'professional loop' in which relevant data on a patient's state of health and how they are following treatment is automatically communicated to a professional information system. This second loop will allow doctors to monitor each patient's condition and therapy response to create ideal individual care plans, as well as allowing them to identify deterioration or sudden cardiac events that require immediate remedial action. The march for new ideas goes on. In Britain, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council awarded 10 research grants worth a combined £16 million to projects ranging from a collaboration between Swansea University and Boots to produce the first affordable home-based stroke detector, which could be available by 2015, to the development at Newcastle University of a handheld sensor to test for infectious micro-organisms such as MRSA. Paul Williamson, the head of wireless medical at Cambridge Consultants, a company that develops products and provides business consulting, thinks a technology-supported, patient-centred society is not only possible, but unstoppable. 'The demand and the interest are already there,' he says. 'The third biggest sector of apps for the iPhone is health-related. You can download a peak-flow record for asthma, for example, or charts to work out your fertility.' There's even a swine flu tracker that collates information on cases in Britain. In February Google set up Google Health in association with IBM, encouraging people to store their personal health records online with them (although not their NHS records). It did cause some consternation, suggesting it was perhaps a couple of years ahead of its time. Some found it a step too far in the democratisation of data: David Davis, the Conservative former shadow home secretary, said, 'Google is the last company I would trust with data belonging to me.' 'What's out there is fairly clunky,' Williamson points out. 'You have to manually enter your own information - figures, medication, etc. And then scroll through for an interpretation. What will be happening in the next decade is that these processes will become automated, seamless. People already have mobile phones so we should be able to connect that directly to a monitor; then a drug delivery application could plot trends and give advice and feedback to the user.' And who will be paying for such developments? Williamson believes that the pharmaceutical companies will be most interested. 'They want to build value into their products so they last longer than their patent. They could fund the connectivity, and provide coaching and advice through the internet.' Meanwhile a £12.4 billion scheme, NHS Connecting for Health, is currently updating our national records for the entire NHS. 'There are concerns about the security of such a gigantic enterprise,' William admits. 'And although no system is entirely foolproof - someone can always leave a laptop on a train - the benefits outweigh the risks.' The real problems with such a technological system will be the issue of compliance. For every tech-savvy person who adores using their computerised health care, there will be those who 'fall through the cracks,' Karol Sikora says. 'Those who can't access information, or don't speak English as a first language, who are poor or not clever enough. But it is the job of the state to step in and protect these people. Government will have to work out what to do.’ Williamson agrees. 'While automated systems remove the errors that occur when data such as blood pressure readings are manually entered, and you can set up text messaging to remind patients to take drugs, you cannot make them do it. The World Health Organisation has said that the most important factor in health outcomes is patient compliance.' But he thinks that many organisations already target those least able to cope with the technology. 'Equipment is already being trialled on those in care homes, the elderly, the chronically sick, the less educated.' He is emphatic: 'You won't have to be a whiz kid to work it.' Indeed, it may be the elderly who do best from hi-tech revolution, becoming more empowered by the changes. A spokesman for Continual Health Alliance, a not-for-profit industry group that has also become involved with the security aspect of this new technology, says, 'Connected health solutions will allow people to age independently and securely in the comfort of their own homes. Individuals can maintain contact with professional caregivers and loved ones without giving up their independence, dignity or security.' Not everyone thinks we should be getting so excited. Terry Young, Professor of Healthcare Systems at BruneI University, says, 'I don't subscribe to the point of view that it's all going to be about sensors and computers. We are human beings, not motor cars.' He is focusing on different trends in health care. 'For the past decade, the NHS has been looking at the processes such as Lean Thinking [the concept of creating more value with less work]  that revolutionised industrial quality and productivity after the Second World War. If we can adapt these to health care-let's say we could deliver care twice as efficiently- imagine the impact it might have on our current budget of about £100 billion a year.' The second trend he spots is for further transparency within the health service around value for money. 'The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence [Nice] has been quietly revotionising the way we decide to purchase drugs or technology, and the remit is expanding, ultimately to include the services we receive. And although, as periodically, it comes in for criticism, it means that decisions are increasingly based on evidence. I believe better articulation of value in service provision can only be a good thing. Britain is seen as a trendsetter in this area.' He is less concerned that the next decade may see less money available for the NHS. 'There is always the chance of disaster, but it could also benefit the system if well-thought-out efficiencies were a key result. The quality of care doesn't need to suffer as long as careful service design is managed by high-quality leadership.' For patients, the extent to which we embrace technology-driven health care will come down to one issue: trust. For many it will seem too remote initially; impersonal and therefore unreliable. But 20 years ago we would never have felt secure about doing a large portion of our banking and shopping online. Today, it is second nature. And what of the surgery staff and the doctors? Are they welcoming these changes with open arms? Dr Prit Buttar, a GP from Abingdon, is not so sure that general practice will change dramatically. 'I'm very cynical about anything that is supposed to make life easier,' he says. 'These new systems may give me more data but they won't stop me doing what I'm doing. The only research done on patient self-monitoring has shown that those who do it have a higher level of anxiety than those who don't - although we don't know why that is. And you do get something intangible from a face-to-face encounter that you don't get from collated data. You can't reduce medicine to something that can just be measured or quantified.' As an example, he cites a patient of his with diabetes. 'He's had the condition for six or seven years so ought to be comfortable with treatment. Had I simply been reading his stats from afar I might have been frustrated by his inability to manage a relatively simple programme. But sitting down with him I was able to pick up that he is depressed, and that is affecting the way he complies with treatment. Now we can work on that together.' He adds, 'In Lord Darzi's reports on the NHS, he claimed patients value convenience above everything else. But I don't agree. I think they fall into two camps: those for whom ease of access is all, and those for whom continuity really matters. You won't achieve that without face-to-face contact.' But, Karol Sikora says, 'Patients' time will be more valued than it is now. You won't wait at your doctor's convenience. The next generation will be a lot less forgiving of doctors. And hospitals will welcome patients and be a much nicer proposition than they are now.' 'You will still have appointments,' Paul Williamson says. 'You won't easily replace the interface between doctor and patient. People say primary care is over, but I disagree.' Source: Lambert, V. Telegraph Magazine, 02 January  2010.... Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:56:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2010/1/8/article-from-clinpage-com-pfizer-picks-exco-sms/   Say you need someone to do something for you in Singapore. It turns out it’s rude to leave someone a few voice mail messages. Even several email requests are a bit of a no-no. Instead, communication via so-called “text” or short messaging systems (SMS) is the norm and the Emily-Post approved technique. That works for Pfizer. The firm has been using the SMS system of Exco InTouch for two years and just decided to roll it out for all Phase I trials worldwide—in the U.S., Belgium and Singapore. We have no knowledge about why Pfizer allowed its name to be used in connection with the small Harlow, U.K. firm, based north of London, but its endorsements have generally been granted infrequently. The Vatican probably pardons more organizations than Pfizer singles out as suppliers. SMS Marketing SMS alerts from Exco are used to recruit patients for trials, and to manage routine communications between patients and sites. The 100 or so character limit to the SMS format is terse. Compact. But it’s enough. The brevity lends itself to simple tasks like reminders about diary entries, missed dosages or clinic visits. (“Your appointment with Dr. Nissen is at 2:00 pm today.”) Exco InTouch CEO Tim Davis says that sparing sites the headaches of managing routine communications is a key point. “There is nothing worse than sites being told they have to adopt a tricky process or a complex piece of technology,” he says. “It can feel like a chore, for both sites and patients.” Davis says the response rates using his system are four or five times higher than those of a postal letter, and that the firm has begun tying SMS blasts into more traditional advertising for clinical trials at a fraction of the cost of mass-media campaigns. The Exco system conforms to HIPAA, European privacy regulations and cellular network procedures that are collectively more rigorous than anything applying to spam-blasting or robo-calling of the sort used by mass marketing firms. As a result, a text message is likely to be sufficiently free of spam and dozens of “cc” recipients that it warrants immediate action. A new email could be to anyone. A new SMS message is just for you. Ending The Phoneathon? Pfizer, Exco says, has integrated the Exco SMS system with three patient databases. That allows its Phase I units to pinpoint, say, nonsmoking male asthmatic patients and send an SMS alert only to them. Because the Exco system is 21 CFR Part 11 compliant, there is a full audit trail. Patients’ replies are tracked automatically by the same system. This saves the overburdened office staff in busy clinics—we are estimating this, ok?—18 billion phone calls annually. Such frequent, low-hassle contact with patients helps keep them in the trial, and allows the sites to know when a patient has slipped off track. Pfizer’s ability to combine SMS and its own databases, which are segmented by patients in various therapeutic areas, appears to be novel and on the frontier of what any company in the industry is doing. There is no need to load or reload the SMS system with names of different lists of patients. The text messages go out automatically. In effect, the patient database and the SMS platform behave as one system. Says Davis: “Pfizer has been the leader here.” No Training Patrick Hughes, Exco’s senior VP of sales and marketing, runs a U.S. commercial office in Irvine, California and helps to keep tabs on an operational facility in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. He notes that the company has also begun to use SMS for simple electronic patient reported outcome (ePRO) studies. In contrast to most ePRO approaches, which require the lease or purchase of a $1,500 custom-programmed Palm or Windows smartphone, Exco trials often use the patients’ own mobile devices. In deploying its technology to 250,000 patients, Exco has distributed a grand total of 59 mobile phones to patients who did not possess them already. Edging Into ePRO The high expense of ePRO, Exco notes, has been a limiting factor for biotech and mid-sized pharmas that want the same high-quality data from their patients. As a result, it can be a bit hard to categorize Exco. In some respects, it is a logistics or clin-ops firm. In other ways, it is a software house and a patient-recruitment consultancy. But making inroads into ePRO could push it into more open competition with the likes of companies such as Arrowhead, CRF, invivodata,Parexel and PHT. Besides the cost advantage, text messages also present the appealing prospect of requiring no additional training or tutorials. People already know how to use their own phones. Then there’s the immediacy of a text message. Patients receiving SMS messages reply to them promptly. In an instance where a trial had to be repeated, Hughes says the Exco system delivered a 20 percent improvement in patient compliance with the protocol. “The immediacy of it is a big thing,” Hughes says. “You have got 80 percent or more of the responses in the first three hours of when you sent the message, and the remainder by the end of the working day.” Global Reach In a current ePRO hemophilia study, run by Exco for a large international pharma, the web browser built into a mobile phone serves as a simple but useful interface that allows the patients to schedule a therapeutic injection. The use of Java in some projects allows Exco to use a cell phone to replicate much of the functionality of a web page—except on a tiny screen. There is a caveat. For all the fuss about the iPhone, that device doesn’t support Java for competitive and security reasons. And so there might be a select number of Java-based Exco projects that would not work on iPhones supplied by patients. But the vast majority of other mobile phones around the planet can run Java with no difficulty; and of course the Apple devices handle plain-vanilla SMS communication easily. Texting, it seems, is now more popular than mobile calling, according to survey data from Nielsen Mobile. With billions of people using SMS already, the Exco technology offers the potential to give clinical research and the pharmaceutical industry a friendly, more contemporary face. “There are something like 40 million new wireless subscribers every month across the globe,” says Hughes. “People don’t go out of their house without their car keys, their wallet and their cell phone. To harness that technology in clinical research is great.” Editor’s note: Here’s an earlier ClinPage article on Exco In Touch that outlines some of the difficulties it encountered in establishing its access to phones around the world. You can read the full article here.  .... Fri, 08 Jan 2010 12:16:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2010/1/29/great-white-sharks-tracked-by-tags-and-text-messages/ They strike fear into the hearts of the most seasoned swimmers and surfers, and can empty a beach in minutes, but the fearsome great white shark could finally have met its match in the form of a humble text message. More than 70 white pointers have been tagged by scientists is Western Australia in a world first trial that will send beach lifesavers a text message when one of the predators swims close to the Perth shoreline. Wildlife officials and scientists will also receive the text or email warning when any of the tagged sharks move to within 500m of metropolitan beaches. The text messages will be triggered less than two minutes after a shark swims over any one of 18 acoustic seabed receivers. Since the receivers were installed in May, Department of Fisheries' senior research scientist Dr Rory McAuley said sharks had been picked up in Perth waters on four occasion, PerthNow reports. The last detection was in September. "The use of the technology that delivers real-time notifications of tag detections hasn't been used in an operational sense anywhere else in the world," Dr McAuley told the website. The study is aimed at unlocking the secrets of shark migration patterns and how they relate to attacks on humans. "The information we are hoping to collect will hopefully provide us some answers to the questions we are always asking about how long white sharks spend off our beaches, whether they come back, is there a season, do they come back one year after the other." In all, researchers hope to tag 100 sharks over the next two years. The sharks are fitted with the satellite-tracking darts by researchers who shoot or stab the devices into the flank of the animals. "I think the public's fear of sharks stems largely from a fear of the unknown," Dr McAuley said. "Any information we can find out about the real risk of people encountering sharks at the beach will hopefully alleviate people's concerns to some degree." Shark are an ever-present threat in the waters off Perth. Nine years ago, a man was killed by a white pointer in waist-deep water off Cottesloe Beach. Since then, there have been a dozen shark attacks in Western Australia, two of them fatal. Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/6909254/Great-white-sharks-tracked-by-tags-and-text-messages.html.... Fri, 29 Jan 2010 12:12:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2010/1/29/cell-phone-web-connectivity-is-on-the-rise/ 58% of Americans now have a mobile phone with web connectivity. 58% of online consumers currently own a mobile phone capable of connecting to the Web. Of the online consumers with Web-enabled phones, 21% own a smartphone, 8% own an iPhone(TM), and 29% own another type of Web-enabled phone. 42% of PriceGrabber survey respondents said they own a non-Web-enabled phone capable of using voice and text service plans only. iPhone, released on June 29, 2007, jump-started mainstream smartphone adoption, with 75% more online consumers purchasing their first Web-enabled phone in 2007 compared with 2006. Despite the economic climate, 8% of online consumers purchased their first Web-enabled phone in Q1 2009. 10% of online consumers said they purchase online from their mobile device, 16% compare prices and another 16% research product details/specifications. Of the online consumers making purchases from their mobile phones, 58% have purchased digital content for their phone, 51% have purchased consumer electronics, 37% have purchased computers, 36% have purchased books, and 31% have purchased clothing. Smartphone and iPhone owners are comfortable using the mobile Internet to make purchases. 56% of Apple iPhone owners and 28% of smartphone owners already are comparing prices online with their mobile phones. Additionally, 27% of iPhone owners and 35% of smartphone owners anticipate that they will be comparing prices within two years.     .... Fri, 29 Jan 2010 11:50:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2010/1/29/texting-is-not-just-for-children/ According to new research by mobile messaging company Tekelec, 60% of those over 45 were found to be just as likely to use SMS as they were to make voice calls from their mobile device. The survey of 500 people in North America and Europe also found that text messaging is gaining on email as the preferred means of daily international communication, with 32% of responses across all ages preferring SMS, compared to 33% for email. And nearly a third of respondents said their use of SMS would increase in 2010. In addition, more than 80 percent of respondents across all age groups thought they would get a quicker response from a text than from an email or voice message. Women preferred to let their fingers do the talking, with 40% describing themselves as 'mainly texter,' compared to 30% of men. One more difference between the sexes: women were more likely to engage in TV voting via text, with 25% versus just 14% of men engaging in such behavior. But those under 35 were the most likely age group to vote via text, with 16% of them saying they do so, followed by 9% of 35- to-44-year-olds, and 7% of those 45 and older. However, 35- to-44-year-olds are the largest consumers of news and sports by text, at 18% compared to 17% for those under 35, and only 8% for those over 45.   Source: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=120387 .... Fri, 29 Jan 2010 12:22:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2010/3/16/exco-intouch-announces-free-web-seminar-moving-from-epro-to-mpro/ Moving from ePRO to mPRO - How enlightened Sponsors and CROs are realizing more value by collecting patient self-report diary data and assessments using cell phone and internet technology Dates and Times:      March 30th: 3pm GMT / 4pm CET / 10am EST / 7am PST     March 31th: 2pm EST / 11am PST / 7pm GMT / 8pm CET Click here to register During this FREE WEB Seminar you will hear first hand:    - How cell / mobile technology is changing the way that sites engage their patients better   - Why mPRO has already surpassed ePRO in terms of usability by the site and patient and      value to the sponsor   - How a ubiquitous and easy-to-understand communications technology can reduce the      burden on the site, sponsor and patient by removing the logistical problems of the past   - What Return on Investment you can expect from changing your approach to ePRO   - What you can expect from working with clinical technology thought leaders that recognize      that the process and people elements of the solution are as important as the technology      platform   - Therapy-specific real world case studies detailing the power of the technology to vastly      improve patient compliance Speakers:John Varaklis, Head of Operations and Innovation for Translational Medicine, NovartisTim Davis, CEO and Founder, Exco InTouch Who should attend:   - Chief Medical / Scientific Officers   - Heads of Clinical Operations   - Clinical Operations Managers / Directors   - Clinical Project Managers   - Outsourcing / Procurement Managers and Directors   - Clinical Data Managers   - IT Managers Register Here!.... Tue, 16 Mar 2010 11:21:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2010/3/23/exco-intouch-and-mds-pharma-services-article-published-in-applie/ Trial Outreach via Texts - The use of text messaging technology for recruitment in Phase I studies. By: Tim Davis, John Taylor The success of clinical trials is directly related to finding good quality volunteers and patients, which can be extremely challenging. Traditional methods of clinical trial recruitment, such as physician referral or paper-based methods have a very low success rate. One popular method of recruitment is advertising, used in a wide range of environments such as universities, hospitals, clinics, and in the media. During the recruitment process traditional methods can be helpful; however, they all require the subject to take the first step. Ultimately, many good quality volunteers simply never find out about clinical trial opportunities. Read the full article at: http://appliedclinicaltrialsonline.findpharma.com/appliedclinicaltrials/CRO%2FSponsor/Trial-Outreach-via-Texts/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/660942.... Tue, 23 Mar 2010 13:10:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2010/5/5/sms-technology-provides-significant-benefits-in-clinical-trials/ Two recent reports have highlighted the benefits of using cell phone technology within Clinical Trials to improve patient compliance.  The first, a collaborative paper between MDS Pharma services and Exco InTouch, reported that the use of outreach via cell phone, resulted in typical response rates of 50% to 60% compared to approximately 5% when using traditional paper-based methods.  The authors concluded that the implementation of mobile communication strategies alongside existing procedures or as a standalone method ensured that CROs and Sponsors could benefit from significantly improved overall data quality.  This in turn leads to more successful clinical trials with improved recruitment rates and reduced lost-to-follow-up and reduced study costs. In the second, which undertook a review of clinical studies, where the internet was used as a medium for the delivery of interventions designed to promote health behaviour, the authors found that the use of SMS reminder services improved subject compliance. The review showed that text messages were highly effective means of prompting an action and had been used in several ways: • to promote interaction with the intervention• to send motivational messages (eg, reminders of the benefits of exercise)• to challenge dysfunctional beliefs• to provide a cue to action The authors concluded that, although the Internet provides a suitable medium for delivering interventions, personal contact via text message helps to support behaviour change.  We at Exco InTouch understand that behavioural change is critical in ensuring patient compliance and we believe that using cell phone technology in clinical trials offers a powerful and non-intrusive method of direct-to-subject communication which overcomes the most common challenges in clinical trials. Sources: http://appliedclinicaltrialsonline.findpharma.com/appliedclinicaltrials/CRO%2FSponsor/Trial-Outreach-via-Texts/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/660942 http://www.jmir.org/2010/1/e4.... Wed, 05 May 2010 09:28:00 BST http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2010/5/5/mobile-communications-are-a-21st-century-global-technology/ When considering the communications platform to be used within your clinical trials, it is interesting to note that geographically there are subtle differences in how the end user is able to interface with your study.  Infrastructure differences between the developed and developing world are often overlooked in study design and delegates at the recent CITA wireless 2010 conference were told that the mobile phone is becoming a great equalizer between the haves and have-nots around the world. In the developed world, where there is a history of infrastructure deployment, the notion of wired telecommunications is almost taken for granted and as such this has instilled a more conservative behaviour into the population when it comes to the use of mobile communications.  In stark contrast, such behaviours are not seen in the developing world, where the lack of investment in wired infrastructure has resulted in the have-nots readily exploiting the benefits that the wireless world has to offer.  In the developing world mobile technology is seen as a fundamental component of every day life, going beyond the realms of an emergency communications method, it is readily used for everyday banking and e-commerce transactions.  In Haiti for example, people use cell phones as mobile wallets, where they get paid via mobile credits that are later converted to cash. In another example, delegates where told how in India in an effort to gain support for an environmentally friendly tree planting program, the government found that the details could be delivered to farmers more easily via one-to-one wireless communications than they could through normal government channels. Highlighting how wireless innovations were down at the level of the peasant farmer. Delegates were also told how mobile communications technology is transforming the lives of people in need throughout the developed world.  For example in the US, the White House recently set up a program called "Text4Baby" to help pregnant women get diet and medical tips several times a week. Expectant mothers can set up the service by texting the word baby, or bebe in Spanish, to 511411, at the time of the conference 25,000 mothers had already registered for the service. The global acceptance of the cell phone as a key component of daily life means that Exco InTouch mobile technology is the ideal solution to support your global Clinical trials requirements. Sourcehttp://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9174181/CTIA_keynoters_tout_how_wireless_fills_social_needs.... Wed, 05 May 2010 09:54:00 BST http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2010/5/5/epro-cell-has-the-answers/ As with all services, we at Exco InTouch are asked supporting questions around the claims that are made in the sales and marketing literature. Therefore we would like to take this opportunity to share with you the top four findings from some analysis we have undertaken on the use of our market leading ePRO CELL service in clinical studies. This analysis looked within the study population and compared the compliance rates between those who had access to ePRO CELL and those who used traditional reminder methods. The results are startling and highlight the significant benefits that mobile technology can provide to sites, sponsors and patients when used within your clinical trials. Sites which used ePRO CELL saw significantly lower rates of discontinuation than those using traditional reminder method Patients who used ePRO CELL had a lower rate of discontinuation than patients who used traditional reminder methods Patients who used ePRO CELL exhibited a higher rate of visit compliance throughout the duration of the study Sites which used ePRO CELL in their studies saw a higher level of visit window compliance Please contact us to see how these benefits can be translated into your next clinical study.... Wed, 05 May 2010 10:37:00 BST http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2010/5/11/exco-intouchs-poll-identifies-mpro-is-replacing-traditional-tech/ Exco InTouch, the leading provider of patient communication solutions for the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors, has carried out a poll demonstrating the effectiveness of cellphone technology in clinical studies, following its recent webinar on “Moving from ePRO to mPRO”. The webinar, in collaboration with Novartis, discussed distinct advantages of ePRO (electronic reported outcomes) using cellphone technology, known in the industry as mPRO (mobile patient reported outcomes), to accurately and reliably capture real-time patient data. The webinar detailed a case study example of the benefits of mPRO over other traditional methods of reporting. The poll results revealed that 52% of responders indicated that they would consider using mPRO in their next eDiary evaluation. This demonstrated acceptance of mobile solutions in the marketplace and an increased enthusiasm for the use of cellphone technology in patient care management. This was reinforced by the fact that no responders discounted the use of mPRO for their future studies. The poll results also revealed that the frequency of assessment, quality of user interface, feedback and electronic reminder features of mPRO all help influence patient compliance, which is crucial for good data quality. The webinar highlighted that a staggering 70% of the world’s population own one of the five billion cellphones in the world. Recognising the increased use of cellphones in every day life gives ePRO sponsors a distinct advantage in data collection. Exco InTouch has worked with over 450,000 patients in 60 countries and has only needed to provide cell phones to 646 patients, further validating the benefits of cellphone technology in patient reported outcomes. The benefits of mPRO were highlighted throughout the webinar, such as cost savings and increased patient safety from eliminating the inaccuracies caused by patients not completing paper diaries as well as helping pharmaceutical companies employ a technology platform that enables patient data capture while complying with FDA guidelines. These advantages in technology demonstrated the increased validity mPRO lends to the collection and evaluation of data for pharmaceutical studies. Tim Davis, CEO, Exco InTouch, comments: “We received an overwhelming response to our webinar and as the poll demonstrates, respondents are keen to utilise mPRO in their next eDiary evaluation. Exco InTouch is leading the way in patient communication solutions with its three validated ePRO solutions spanning simple diaries to the most complex clinical assessments. Pharmaceutical companies are becoming increasingly interested in the benefits and use of mobile phone technology to manage patient’s illnesses and medication, which also provides a positive user experience for both sponsors and subjects.” Exco InTouch’s cellphone platform allows for consistent data throughout patient trials providing valid and quick response results in compliance with the recent FDA guidelines. Maintaining the need for privacy, mPRO uses the patient’s own cell phone as an electronic data-collection platform, immediately transmitting all data to a secure central server, a feature not feasible with traditional methods of PROs. Recognising and harnessing these advantages in technology, demonstrates the increased validity mPRO lends to the collection and evaluation of data for pharmaceutical studies. The collection of real-time, real-world patient experience data that is reliable, valid, and sensitive to drug effects is all a reality with mPRO..... Tue, 11 May 2010 16:22:00 BST http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2010/5/18/exco-intouch-announces-its-next-free-web-seminar-using-mpro-for/ Join us at this Free Webinar entitled: Using mPRO for Patient Data Capture with Validated Scales and Assessments – How the m-WOMAC NRS3.1 index was successfully validated and deployed in an Osteoarthritis study Dates and Times:     June 1st: 10am UK Time / 11am European Time     June 2nd: 10am US Eastern Time / 7am US Pacific Time Register Here During this FREE WEB Seminar you will hear first hand:- How cell / mobile technology can easily be used for studies using validated scales- Why there are no longer barriers to the use of mPRO technology- How mPRO technology is accessible to all, even with subjects who have severe movement restrictions- Details of a real world case study of the validation and use of the m-WOMAC NRS3.1 index on a mobile device- How mPRO delivers ultimate compliance and user satisfaction, ensuring the success of your study- What you can expect from working with clinical technology thought leaders who recognize that the  process and people elements of the solution are as important as the technology platform Speakers:Professor Nicholas Bellamy MD, Director of the Centre of National Research on Disability and Rehabilitation Medicine (CONROD), University of QueenslandTim Davis, CEO and Founder, Exco InTouch Who should attend:   - Chief Medical / Scientific Officers   - Heads of Clinical Operations   - Clinical Operations Managers / Directors   - Clinical Project Managers   - Outsourcing / Procurement Managers and Directors   - Clinical Data Managers   - IT Managers Register Here.... Tue, 18 May 2010 10:25:00 BST http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2010/6/7/exco-intouch-to-showcase-innovative-patient-communication-soluti/ Exco InTouch, the leading provider of patient communication solutions for the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors will showcase its portfolio of mobile Patient Reported Outcomes (mPRO) solutions at the 46th annual Drug Information Association meeting, June 13 – 17, 2010 in Washington, DC. The Exco InTouch range of clinical trial communication solutions will be showcased exclusively on booth #838. Exco InTouch will also be presenting a talk at the meeting on Patient Recruitment in a Technological Era as well as a poster on Electronic Data Capture Using the WOMAC NRS 3.1 Index. At the DIA annual meeting, Exco InTouch will demonstrate its innovative software and service offerings, which offer pharmaceutical sponsors, CROs and patient recruitment agencies a cost-effective and simple technology to enhance patient communications. Innovations such as Exco InTouch's cell phone-based ePRO offerings have already helped many large pharmaceutical companies to enhance clinical trail communications and substantially improve the accuracy and integrity of patient data capture and compliance. By utilizing simple text message technology, alerts are delivered promptly to the clinical trial subject via their own mobile phone which directly links patients to their ePRO diary / assessment. These cell phone based methods are non-intrusive, offering sponsors a simple cost-effective, personal and direct-to-patient system of communication. Exco InTouch will be showcasing its innovative solutions on booth #838. Visitors will be able to see demonstrations of:  - InTouch Clinical – Improving patient compliance and retention  - InTouch Recruit – Accelerating patient recruitment  - ePRO SMS / CELL / APP – Three simple yet powerful methods for patient data capture At the DIA meeting, Exco InTouch CEO Tim Davis will be presenting a talk titled "Determining the Best Way to Reach and Support Patients in a Technological Era" on June 16 between 3.30pm – 5pm, as part of Session # 392 - Patient Recruitment in a Technological Era. The talk will focus on the effect of mobile communications on subject enrolment, retention and compliance. Tim Davis will also be presenting the results of the collaboration between Professor Nicholas Bellamy, Director of CONROD, University of Queensland and ExcoInTouch in a poster titled “Electronic Data Capture Using the WOMAC NRS 3.1 Index: A Pilot Study of Independent Remote Data Capture in OA” on Tuesday 15th June 12:00 - 13:30 and Wednesday 16th June 12:00 - 13:30. Delegates in Washington should join Exco InTouch at booth #838 to see how the power of cell phone technology is improving patient retention compliance and recruitment and driving the collection of crucial ePRO data..... Mon, 07 Jun 2010 14:04:00 BST http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2010/6/23/exco-intouch-article-the-future-of-patient-reported-outcomes-re/ This article provides an overview of the impact of the new FDA industry guidance on current Patient Reported Outcome (PRO) services and identifies ways that the industry can utilise the emerging PRO toolset to ensure regulatory compliance going forward. The FDA Final Guidance highlights  that in order to produce the most reliable and adequate information sponsors and CROs must re-examine their current PRO methods to ensure that the claims made at  submissions are consistent with the documented capabilities of the PRO tool.  The article details how the incorporation of various combinations of emerging PRO technologies into clinical trials can produce the most accurate picture of the effects of a specific drug on a patient and provide the FDA with clinically valid data that will enable the process of reviewing PRO measures to be accelerated. By conducting clinical trials in accordance with the advice stated in the FDA Guidance, the process of collating PROs will be greatly assisted, enabling sponsors and CROs to overcome a wide range of regulatory challenges and present data that can effectively support medical product claims. Follow this link to the original article..... Wed, 23 Jun 2010 10:39:00 BST http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2010/7/7/further-evidence-that-texting-transends-all-age-barriers/ In a follow up to the story we showcased in January, a recent case study in americanbanker.com highlighted how SMS technology transends all age barriers and is readily accepted as a secure method of interacting with your bank to manage your financial dealings. Here, a large US bank reported that when given the choice users of all age groups were willing to accept bank communications via SMS.  These results came as a surprise as the bank thought that SMS technology would be primarily of interest to teenagers and those in their 20s. Instead, an enthusiastic "yes" came back from all kinds of people: teenagers and young people certainly, but also working adults, stay-at-home moms and even retirees. It wasn't of "some" interest — it was in demand with more than 15 million customers opting in to receive bank communications by SMS. The reasons behind this overwhelming yes vote reflect those seen by Exco InTouch in that the primary driver for the acceptance of mobile communications is due to way people use and perceive their cell phones. For most, the cell phone is a constant companion: they take it into meetings and on journeys, they take it out shopping, they take it to conferences, they even take it into the bathroom. It's the first thing that's switched on when a plane lands, and it's rare that a customer is out of range of a signal. All of this makes cell phone communication the fastest way to get a message to a customer. And while a voice call may go unanswered if the customer is in a meeting or at a social engagement, an SMS is still likely to gain their attention. As with the Clinical domain, within the banking environment SMS messages are perceived by users to be more discreet than phone calls, in that a customer who would not appreciate their bank calling them at work to advise that their account is in danger of being overdrawn might welcome the arrival of an SMS with the same warning. For those who like to stay on top of their financial affairs, a daily text message detailing their current balance and recent transactions is a convenient way to keep in control, wherever they may be. As with CRO’s, many banks have also found SMS messaging to be one of the most expedient ways to gain a customer's attention. For example in the event of a suspected fraud, with a properly automated system, an SMS message can be sent out to a customer within 30 to 60 seconds of a suspicious transaction occurring, which is equivalent to the time it takes you to log off from a Web site or gather your bags and walk out of a store. Typically, 60% of customers reply to these messages, 82% within five minutes of their being sent. This is a huge speed and efficiency gain over other forms of notification. With a more traditional approaches to communication (phone call, e-mail or letter) a reply may not be forthcoming for hours or even days — during which time the fraudster may have the opportunity to strike repeatedly before the bank issues a hold on the account. Source: http://www.americanbanker.com/issues/174_227/textings-not-just-for-teens-1004300-1.html.... Wed, 07 Jul 2010 09:47:00 BST http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2010/7/20/mobilepro-by-exco-intouch-proven-as-powerful-solution-for-patien/ Exco InTouch, the leading provider of patient communication solutions for the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors, announces that its new mobilePRO (mobile Patient Reported Outcomes) technology is a powerful solution that overcomes issues associated with traditional ePRO (electronic Patient Reported Outcomes) technology. In collaboration with The University of Queensland, Exco InTouch conducted an evaluation of mobile phone technology for independent remote data capture, using the Western Ontario and McMaster Osteoarthritis (WOMAC®) NRS 3.1 Index. This study was designed to test the feasibility and effectiveness of using mobile phones to capture patient data in clinical trials and overcome the challenges of traditional data capture methods. Traditional paper-based methods of data capture can be costly and unsuitable due to potential compliance and validity concerns. Exco InTouch wanted to identify an alternative, regulatory compliant, standardized method that could be implemented across all clinical trials driving efficiencies and accelerating the data capture process, resulting in faster database lock. mobilePRO enables cost-efficient, easy and reliable capture of real-time patient data, as well as increased patient safety by eliminating inaccuracies caused by spurious patient information or incomplete paper diaries.  The WOMAC index (a knee and hip osteoarthritis index, which accesses the three dimensions of the condition: pain, disability and joint stiffness) has been successfully deployed for 28 years. The index author, Professor Nicholas Bellamy MD, Director of the Centre of National Research on Disability and Rehabilitation Medicine (CONROD), University of Queensland, Australia, investigated developing a patient-acceptable format of WOMAC that can be delivered on a mobile phone. In collaboration with CONROD, Exco InTouch developed the mobile version of the WOMAC index (m-WOMAC NRS3.1) and successfully validated in an osteoarthritis study that using mobilePRO is more powerful than traditional PRO techniques for patient data capture. Professor Bellamy comments, “The pilot study revealed that m-WOMAC (WOMAC delivered using a mobile phone application) is a valid, reliable and responsive alternative to paper WOMAC (p-WOMAC). Based on overall preference ratings, 81% of the study participants were either indifferent or preferred the m-WOMAC application. Furthermore, there was no significant difference in ease of completion of the m-WOMAC or p-WOMAC for those with, compared to those without, concomitant hand osteoarthritis.” With 70% of the world’s population owning one of the five billion mobile phones in circulation today, mobilePRO technology is accessible to all, crosses all age boundaries and can even be used by those subjects who have severe movement restrictions. The ubiquitous adoption of mobile phones around the world gives sponsors a distinct advantage in data collection. When compared against other methods of patient reported outcomes (PROs), such as paper diaries, electronics diaries (PDAs) and Interactive Voice Response Systems (IVRS), mobile phone technology clearly provides distinct advantages.  As well as being the most cost-effective of all electronic PRO solutions, key advantages include no requirement for specialist devices or end user training, no complex logistical and shipping issues and ease of combination with retention and compliance alerts. Exco InTouch offers three different mobilePRO solutions, linear text messaging, online mobile data capture and downloaded mobilePRO applications, giving users choice and flexibility to leverage different study protocols and budgets. mobilePRO technology can easily be used for studies using validated scales and assessments. Professor Bellamy continues: “mobilePRO provides unique opportunities for using quantitative measurement in clinical practice and research.” Exco InTouch has worked with more than 500,000 patients in 60 countries, delivering more than 3 million texts, and has only needed to provide mobile phones to 1000 patients. A recent paper, authored by Tim Davis and other members of the EDC Study Group*, has been published in The Journal of Clinical Epidemiology.  Entitled “Osteoarthritis Index delivered by mobile phone (m-WOMAC) is valid, reliable, and responsive. Click here to view this paper At a recent webinar entitled “Using mobilePRO for Patient Data Capture with Validated Scales and Assessments”, a poll conducted among attendees revealed that 63% of responders would consider using mobilePRO to capture PRO data for validated scales and assessments, showing there are no longer barriers to the use of mobilePRO technology. The presentation slides from the webinar are available free of charge and can be obtained by completing the contact us form. *The authors of the aforementioned published paper in The Journal of Clinical Epidemiology and part of the EDC Study Group includes: Tim Davis, Bipin Patel, Simon Dennison, Exco InTouch, Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire CM21 0AF, UK and Nicholas Bellamy, Cecilia Wilson, Joan Hendrikz, Centre of National Research on Disability and Rehabilitation Medicine (CONROD), The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4006, Australia and Sarah L Whitehouse, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Prince Charles Hospital, Brisbane, Queensland 4032, Australia, etc..... Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:18:00 BST http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2010/8/31/exco-intouch-will-be-at-the-2nd-international-mhealth-networking/ Exco InTouch, is pleased to announce that it as well as sponsoring the 2nd International mHealth Networking Conference, on the 8th and 9th September in San Diego, it will also be presenting a talk entitled “Engaging the Patient with text, email and Social Media”. Patrick Hughes and Ben Wilson will be presenting as part of  the ‘Using Mobile Technologies and Social Media in Clinical Trials and Healthcare Programs’ conference tract. During the talk delegates will hear how the effective use of every day simple ubiquitous technology is driving growth in the mHealth arena. The Exco InTouch range of innovative clinical trial communication solutions will also be showcased in the exhibition hall. Our solutions offer pharmaceutical sponsors and healthcare organizations a cost-effective and simple technology to enhance patient communication and engagement. Exco InTouch’s innovative solutions have already helped many companies to enhance clinical communications and substantially improve the accuracy and integrity of patient / consumer data capture and adherence. By utilizing simple text message technology, alerts are delivered promptly to the patient via their own mobile phone These cell phone based methods are non-intrusive, offering providers with a simple cost-effective, personal and direct-to-patient system of communication. Delegates at the conference in should join Exco InTouch to see how the power of cell phone technology is improving patient and consumer communication and driving the effective collection of crucial mHealth data. For more information about the 2nd International mHealth Networkign Conference go to:http://www.mobih.org/meetings/.... Tue, 31 Aug 2010 08:52:00 BST http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2010/9/1/gsk-head-of-patient-recruitment-joins-exco-intouch/ Exco InTouch announces the new appointment of Director of Patient Recruitment, Judith Teall. The newly created position will drive Exco InTouch to build on its “patient centric” approach to managing clinical trials by identifying barriers to recruitment and  retention, enhancing the crucial relationship between patient, trial processes and the sponsor company. Based at Exco InTouch’s European headquarters in Hertfordshire, UK, Teall’s role will see her lead and direct patient engagement solutions, lending her first-rate experience to further develop Exco’s recruitment, retention and compliance suite of services for the company’s biopharmaceutical sponsors and Contract Research Organization (CRO) clients. Validating Exco InTouch’s growing stature in the eClinical arena, Teall joins the team with a distinguished patient recruitment background from Glaxo SmithKline, where she headed up patient recruitment across Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa and the Middle East. With over 20 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical clinical research area, Teall originally graduated from the Sheffield School of Nursing and spent her early career as a RGN nurse. Teall has an extensive understanding and insight into the healthcare arena through a variety of roles, firmly establishing herself as recruitment expert in the clinical research industry. Her work in guiding recruitment excellence, including developing enrolment strategies and delivering global monitoring training methods strengthens Exco’s global focus on patient recruitment and retention. “Exco InTouch has been built on a very strong base of experienced personnel coupled with the innovative use of technology and service excellence, and is already well placed in the patient recruitment, retention and compliance arena. This was a key driver in my decision to join the company,” says Teall. “Exco’s industry expertise and commitment to a patient centric approach to developing all its services, made it an ideal match for my expertise in patient recruitment. I am looking forward to further enhancing the standards of global patient recruitment through effective enrolment and engagement strategies.” Tim Davis, CEO, Exco InTouch, comments: “We believe in putting the patient experience at the heart of everything we do at Exco. Welcoming someone of Judith’s capabilities to our team further enhances our ability to develop these recruitment and engagement strategies and we see Judith as a vital addition to our efforts on this front.  With her extensive experience in the industry, we believe Judith will be a key member of the team. Exco has grown significantly by innovative but pragmatic service development especially in the patient recruitment process and with this new appointment we plan to maximise the opportunity for recruitment, communication and engagement with all patient populations.”.... Wed, 01 Sep 2010 09:13:00 BST http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2009/1/4/clinical-discovery-magazine-subject-retention-and-compliance-usi/ It’s good to text Tim Davis looks at the growth of SMS technology as a communication strategy in patient recruitment and retention, and examines the patient security and regulatory issues involved More than half the world’s population now owns a mobile phone and many users favour communication via short message service (SMS) over the more traditional phone call. In fact, eight out of 10 under-25s prefer to communicate via text. Not surprisingly, text messaging has become an efficient method of communicating directly with clinical trial subjects, with pharmaceutical sponsors increasingly using SMS technology for patient recruitment and retention, and electronic patient reported outcomes (ePRO) developments to improve patient data capture.Traditional strategiesThe limitations of traditional subject communication methods in clinical trials means mobile phone technology can be an attractive alternative. Patient recruitment by physician referral – which can have success rates as low as 14% – is now increasingly accompanied by recruitment through advertising in the media and in environments such as universities, hospitals and clinics. A strong call to action in an advertisement, such as a phone number or website address where potential candidates can access further information, can help recruitment, but these methods while useful, still require the patient to take the first step.Patient non-compliance is of course one of the most significant challenges for clinical trials organisers. Non-compliance rates can be as high as 80% – costing industry US$75 billion per year – and a significant proportion of this cost can be attributed to developing targeted reminders for patients, including letters and telephone calls, to ensure subjects comply with the requirements of the study. Again, however, these methods require little or no interaction on the part of the patient.A patient may decide to leave a study for a number of reasons – they may experience unusual symptoms or feel a lack of support from study organisers. Sponsors currently utilise a range of methods to keep patients in a study, including providing detailed paper-based information on the medication and side-effects at the outset of the trial, but this information can often be lengthy and difficult to understand, and patients usually require ongoing support and motivation throughout the life of a clinical trial.Talking textBy using mobile phone technology to interact directly with patients in the initial stages of recruitment, pharmaceutical sponsors can support existing recruitment advertising in a way that is confidential and personal to the patient. For example, patients can text a specified shortcode from a recruitment advertisement to register their interest in participating in a trial. They can then be directed to patient recruitment centres or prompted to self-enrol, usually by means of a short questionnaire sent by SMS to the patient’s mobile.Unsuitable candidates can therefore be identified at the outset. Moreover, the technology allows recruitment results to be delivered instantaneously. To-date, SMS technology is typically providing recruitment response rates of more than 30% compared with around 10% for traditional methods.SMS technology can also help improve compliance by allowing automatic reminders to be sent directly to the patient’s mobile phone, prompting them to take their medication or to attend clinic appointments. These messages – which can be one- or two-way – can be tailored to the individual patient to include information such as dosage, frequency and – importantly for patients taking multiple medications or those with complex medication schedules – how to take the medication safely.Motivational support is key to retaining patients on a trial, and SMS messages and alerts can be used to keep patients informed of the aims of the trial and to remind them of the benefits of remaining in the study. Motivation can be renewed through short inspirational messages that appear to have been sent by the patient’s physician – again enhancing patient confidence in the trial. This type of action can help improve lost to follow up rates by up to 20%.Patient reportingAlongside SMS technology, recent developments in ePRO technology mean that accurate patient data can be collected quickly and efficiently during a clinical trial. Sponsors now have access to eDiaries to retrieve information directly from subjects, while patients can complete diary questionnaires via a series of text messages. Secure text messages with unique PIN codes enable patients to easily record and transmit data back to the clinical trial organiser using their own mobile phone.Studies have shown that eDiaries can increase patient compliance rates, reduce overall clinical development costs, improve the quality of patient reported data and minimise the time and effort required for study set-up. Moreover for the sponsor, accurate patient data is essential in determining the efficacy of new medicationRegulatory challengesIt is essential that SMS communication strategies are developed in accordance with the regulatory requirements of FDA 21 CFR 11 as well as the US Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and the EU Directive 2002/58/EC (Directive on privacy and electronic communication). Consent should be obtained through the initial SMS outreach and an opt-out option should always be made available. All information should be encrypted at 256 bits and stored on a secure database, with full message tracking capabilities in order to ensure full compliance with the EU data privacy act. By allowing full message tracking and the generation of delivery reports, the technology not only offers assurance that the messages have been received, but also provides a full audit trail in line with the regulations.With the onset of 3G technology, patient recruitment in future may well involve cell-phone based email and instant messaging, with the further option of using photographs and animated messages. For the moment, however, SMS technology, both in the developed and developing world, remains an important and novel approach to improving recruitment and retention rates. Tim Davis is co-founder of Exco InTouch, a leading provider of global, secure and regulatory-compliant short messaging service (SMS) solutions to the biopharmaceutical and healthcare industries (www.excointouch.com, email: info@excointouch.com)Original artical can be found here: http://www.clinicaldiscovery.com/readArticle.aspx?articleId=112.... Sun, 04 Jan 2009 12:57:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2009/6/30/exco-intouch-epro-solution-is-featured-in-the-daily-telegraph/ Exco InTouch's new software rings the changes in clinical drug trialsAs the recession eats into margins, greater efficiency is a key goal for corporate strategies worldwide, and that is exactly what Exco InTouch says it delivers.By Catherine Wheatley - The Daily Telepgraph - 30th June 2009Text appeal: Exco has doubled its clientsThe five-year-old company has developed mobile software that allows patients taking part in clinical drug trials to record symptoms by text instead of using traditional paper-based questionnaires. Text messages remind participants to take their medication and note how they feel, either by texting an answer or following a link to an e-diary. Some of the Essex-based company’s applications can also process information. For example, one programme recalculates the appropriate drug dose in response to a patient’s changing weight. Another identifies ‘hotspot data’ - or worrying symptoms - and sends a message to call a nurse.“Our software makes drug trials faster and cheaper because it keeps patients compliant,” explains chief executive and co-founder Tim Davis. “Old-style paper diaries are less accurate because people forget to fill them in, or they’re embarrassed to record their symptoms, or you can’t read their handwriting.” Davis reckons that clients save up to 50pc on the cost of trials by removing the need for printing, collection, couriers and data entry.Over the past 12 months Exco InTouch’s list of clients has almost doubled as pharmaceutical giants, biotechnology firms and contract research organisations recognise the benefits of mobile monitoring. Among its 20 customers is the international drug company Pfizer. Last December the group chose Exco InTouch software to communicate with patients taking part in trials across Belgium, Singapore and the US.“Pharma companies tend to be conservative but they are not immune to recession,” says Davis. “These companies need to be more careful about their R&D spending but they also need to drive drugs through their development pipeline faster and more effectively than ever before.”Exco InTouch is expanding rapidly as the sector steps up its efforts to outsource more efficiently. The payroll has doubled in the last 12 months after the company appointed Patrick Hughes to drive US sales from a new headquarters in California and an existing office in North Carolina. Last year the company made a small profit on a turnover that trebled to £1m.Exco InTouch’s key competitive strength is its commitment to providing a secure and reliable messaging service, according to Davis. Texts are sent directly from the company’s servers to recipients’ mobile phones instead of using cheaper routes via multiple countries.“We spend a huge amount of time securing contracts with cellular network providers because we have to make sure that every message we send is delivered. We also need to know that numbers won’t be exposed to spammers or hackers.” The original article and photos can be found here:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/businessclub/6021787/Exco-InTouchs-new-software-rings-the-changes-in-clinical-drug-trials.html.... Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:15:00 BST http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2009/6/14/the-growth-of-cell-phone-technology-in-the-pharmaceutical-indust/ Article detailing how the pharmaceutical industry is leveraging the subject (patient) and care-givers own mobile phone in clinical studies. Improving rates and speed of subject/patient recruitment Reducing lost to follow up and early withdrawal by as much as 40% Aiding protocol compliance using SMS reminders Gathering patient reported outcome data (ePRO) Follow this link to the original article.... Sun, 14 Jun 2009 14:03:00 BST http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2009/12/16/exco-intouch-brings-leading-clinical-technology-innovation-to-hi/ Once owned by King Henry VIII who gifted the property to Anne Boleyn and with grounds dating back to the 12th Century, Pishiobury Manor is the historic new site for the Exco InTouch Global Headquarters. Pishiobury Manor has enjoyed several famous aristocratic and royal owners over the centuries including King Edward I and King Edward IV and is now presided over by the 'Kings of Clinical Technology', Exco InTouch. Bringing leading software and services to the Clinical Research industry, Exco InTouch has enjoyed significant growth over the last 5 years which has culminated in the need to move to these larger premises in the county of Hertfordshire in UK. Exco's BioPharma sponsors, CRO clients and Patient Recruitment Agency partners have seen great return on their investment by employing cell phone technology to improve subject recruitment, retention and compliance which has resulted in reduced loss to follow up and early withdrawal rates of over 20%. In several Phase III clinical trials the re-recruitment savings alone have exceeded $750,000 and clients are now harnessing Exco InTouch solutions across more trials in wider therapeutic areas. Additionally, Exco is not just expanding its office space, the new advancements in its ePRO / eDiary cell phone technology have seen several large pharma sponsors deploy the solution in global clinical trials. The result, more cost-effective patient self-report data without the logistical headaches of deploying expensive devices. All patient interaction and data capture is made using a standard cell phone and patients are so familiar with their own phone that compliance rates are well over 90% no matter what the geographical area or age range of the population. The need to move to a larger, more prestigious residence was precipitated by the commercial and operational growth of the company. Exco InTouch is planning for even more expansion in 2010 following stellar performance during 2009 both in terms of growing its employee base and the ongoing commercial success. These new premises allow for greater headcount, even more security and better hospitality when hosting clients at the company headquarters. Tim Davis, CEO of Exco InTouch is thrilled with the new property, "This office move reflects just how far Exco InTouch has come during the last 12 months. Our clients are delighted by their operational improvements and cost savings driven by better recruitment, retention, compliance and patient data capture and we want to make sure that this is reflected in the experience they have when visiting us for audits and operational meetings. Moreover, the dedication and loyalty of our staff is second to none and we very much wanted them to have a more salubrious working environment so that they can continue to exceed client expectations. Hopefully, none of them will experience the fate of Ms. Boleyn who once resided here, let's just say they won't if they continue to get it right!" Exco InTouch would like to extend an invitation to all industry colleagues to visit its new headquarters and very much look forward to hosting meetings at this historic site in the coming months and years. The company probably won't reside at the property as long as its first owner, Geoffrey de Mandeville, 1st Earl of Essex, but it will certainly be deploying much more cell phone technology in clinical research than the Earl ever did!.... Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:44:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2009/12/16/exco-intouchs-epro-technology-improves-patient-compliance-by-up-/ Exco InTouch, the leading provider of patient communication solutions for the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors, announces that its secure mobile data capture platform, REACT CELL™, significantly improves patient retention and compliance in clinical studies. During a recent clinical trial utilizing Exco InTouch technology for eDiary completion, REACT CELL was proven to improve patient diary compliance by 95% when compared with the number of expected responses. REACT CELL from Exco InTouch is a mobile Internet-enabled data capture technology that can be customized to create electronic patient reported outcomes (ePRO) tools such as eDiaries. Patients receive a text message which contains a link to a secure mobile Internet service containing the eDiary. The patient connects to the service via mobile Internet and enters a unique PIN number to access the eDiary questionnaire. Exco InTouch's technology enables a wide range of questions to be presented and viewed on any mobile phone. In addition, questionnaires can be customized to improve user interface by including widgets such as radio buttons and check boxes. During a recent clinical study, Exco InTouch was asked to create a secure mobile Internet eDiary to collect smoking cessation data direct from the patient. The trial included 200 randomized patients who were required to answer seven questions daily before 9am during a six-month period. The sponsor also required online data access and real-time alerting for key data items, as well as email alerts to sites for potential interventions. Exco InTouch developed an easy-to-use eDiary, integrated with Exco InTouch's patient communication technology, enabling the sponsor to send timed reminders to patients via text message. In response to the sponsor's reporting requirements Exco InTouch also built real-time reporting into the system, which enables the sponsor to view patients' eDiary responses as they are submitted and respond quickly to any issues. Through using REACT CELL technology, all 200 patients completed the eDiary using mobile phones. In addition, the number of actual completed questions was 95% more than the number of expected responses, reflecting the increased patient compliance resulting from the use of Exco InTouch's technology. "Traditional methods of patient reporting such as paper diaries and telephone conversations can have low levels of compliance, in addition to being time-consuming for the sponsor," comments Tim Davis, CEO of Exco In Touch. "It is encouraging to see such great results from the use of REACT CELL in this particular study. Exco InTouch places an emphasis on developing patient communication solutions that are easy to use for patients and clinic staff, and which significantly improve patient compliance.".... Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:46:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2009/12/16/exco-intouchs-epro-seminars-highlight-growing-importance-of-elec/ Exco InTouch, the leading provider of patient communication solutions for the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors, announces that the company's recent Electronic Patient Reported Outcomes (ePRO) seminars highlighted the increasing shift from traditional methods of data collection in clinical trials towards electronic methods. The informative seminars entitled 'The Complete Patient Experience Throughout the Trial Lifecycle' took place in Philadelphia and London and demonstrated the benefits of using electronic technology (e.g. cell phones) for patient recruitment, retention and compliance during clinical trials. The half-day seminars were co-hosted by Exco InTouch and ERT, a leading provider of centralized ECG and eClinical technology, ePRO and other services to the biopharmaceutical, medical device and related industries. Seminars in both London and Philadelphia venues were attended by over 40 delegates from small, medium and large pharma organisations and CRO companies. The seminars addressed the impact of new communication technologies on patient engagement in clinical trials and how these technologies have revolutionised data collection for pharmaceutical companies. Several industry leaders attended the seminars to conduct discussions on the application of these methods for clinical trials, including a keynote address from Dr. Ken Kaitin, Director and Professor of Medicine Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development at Tufts University, Massachusetts. Dr. Kaitin is an internationally recognized expert on the science of drug development processes in the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries. His address entitled 'Pharmaceutical Innovation at a Cross Roads: Economic and Political Perspectives on New Drug Development Process', explored the current economic, regulatory, and political challenges in developing new pharmaceutical products.  Representatives from global pharmaceutical companies also participated in the seminars including Mahnaz Asgharnejad, VP of Clinical Development at CeNeRx BioPharma, a biopharmaceutical company developing innovative treatments for diseases of the central nervous system. Dr. Asgharnejad discussed the application of ePRO to facilitate patient selection and monitoring in clinical trials. During the seminars, Exco InTouch's representatives demonstrated through numerous case studies how their innovative portfolio of communication-based technologies benefits pharmaceutical companies by significantly improving patient recruitment, retention and compliance throughout the clinical trials process. The seminars highlighted how using methods of electronic communication to retrieve confidential patient information greatly improves the speed, accuracy and integrity of data. Several large pharmaceutical companies already employ Exco InTouch's cell phone-based technology as a simple and cost-effective way to retrieve data from patients while maintaining full compliance with strict industry regulations..... Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:46:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2009/12/16/exco-intouch-to-co-host-innovative-seminar-series-showcasing-the/ Exco InTouch, the leading provider of patient communication solutions for the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors, announces that the company will co-host two informative seminars examining the impact new technology has had on patient engagement in clinical trials. The first event will be held at the Marriott Downtown, Philadelphia, US on April 21 2009. A UK event will follow on May 13, 2009 at The Cumberland Hotel in London. Delegates can register for these events by visiting www.regonline.com/ePRO_Philadelphia (Philadelphia) and www.regonline.com/ePRO_London (London). The seminar series is also being led by ERT, a leading provider of centralized ECG and eClinical technology, ePRO and services to the biopharmaceutical, medical device and related industries. The half-day seminars, entitled 'The Complete Patient Experience throughout the Trial Lifecycle', will feature interactive discussions led by key industry figures. Exco InTouch CEO Tim Davis will examine the issues of cell phone technology, security and patient confidentiality and the future of new clinical trial technologies. Exco InTouch will also share several real-world retention and ePRO case studies to demonstrate the benefits of cell phone technology for use in clinical trials. Exco InTouch representatives will be on hand at the seminar to give an overview of how the company is harnessing the power of a patient's own cell phone to deliver eDiaries - a more successful and cost-effective alternative to other methods of data collection. Ken Kaitin, Director and Professor of Medicine Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development at TUFTS University in Massachusetts, will deliver a keynote address at both seminars entitled 'Pharmaceutical Innovation at a Crossroads: Economic and Political Perspectives on the New Drug Development Process'. Other speakers at the event will include John H. Greist, Director at Healthcare Technology Systems Inc, who will be discussing Interactive Voice Response technology in suicidality assessments. Exco InTouch's cell phone-based electronic Patient Reported Outcomes (ePRO), recruitment, retention and compliance offerings have already helped several large pharmaceutical companies to enhance clinical trial communications and substantially improve data capture..... Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:47:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2009/12/16/exco-intouch-to-showcase-innovative-patient-communications-solut/ Exco InTouch, the leading provider of patient communication solutions for the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors will showcase its portfolio of electronic patient reported outcomes (ePRO) solutions at the 45th annual Drug Information Association meeting, June 21 – 25 2009 in San Diego, CA. The Exco InTouch range of clinical trial communication solutions will be showcased exclusively on booth #1039. Exco InTouch will also present a special session at the meeting on electronic patient payment and communication technology. At the DIA annual meeting, Exco InTouch will demonstrate its innovative software and service offerings, which offer pharmaceutical sponsors, CROs and patient recruitment agencies a cost-effective and simple technology to enhance patient communications. Innovations such as Exco InTouch's cell phone-based electronic data capture (EDC), clinical trial management services (CTMS) and ePRO offerings have already helped several large pharmaceutical companies to enhance clinical trail communications and substantially improve data capture. By utilizing simple text message technology, alerts are delivered promptly to the clinical trial subject via their own mobile phone. These text message-based methods are non-intrusive, offering healthcare providers a simple cost-effective, personal and direct-to-patient system of communication. Exco InTouch will also showcase its innovative subject compliance and retention solutions powered by REACT™, the company's flagship communication product on booth #1039.  Using a unique combination of internet and mobile phone technology, REACT™ automatically schedules and delivers cell phone-based text messages direct to the patient in their preferred language. Exco InTouch mobile solutions can also help target, identify, locate and pre-screen subjects prior to a clinical trial through direct communication channels. At the DIA meeting, Exco InTouch CEO Tim Davis will co-host an interactive workshop entitled "Increasing enrolment, retention and compliance through electronic patient payment and communication technologies" on June 24 between 1.30pm – 3pm. The talk will focus on the effect of mobile communications on subject enrolment, retention and compliance. Delegates in San Diego should look out for a unique event hosted by Exco InTouch which showcases the power of cell phone technology in disseminating crucial information to a target audience..... Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:47:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2009/12/16/exco-intouch-announces-enrolment-of-patients-into-electronic-dat/ Exco InTouch, the leading provider of patient communication solutions for the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors, announces the commencement of its full mobile phone electronic data capture (EDC) study using the Western Ontario and McMaster Osteoarthritis (WOMAC) NRS 3.1 index after the success of their pilot study. The initial study is highlighted in Exco InTouch's technical poster, ‘Electronic Data Capture Using WOMAC NRS 3.1 Index: a Pilot Study of Cellular Technology in OA' which is available free-of-charge to download at www.excointouch.com.The preliminary study involved 12 patients and verified the benefits of EDC by asking patients to complete questionnaires via their mobile telephone.   The full study is now live and currently enrolling patients, already enlisting 31 subjects. The aim of the study is to further compare the effectiveness of patient self-reported outcome questionnaires completed on paper with those completed via a mobile phone using m-WOMAC, Exco InTouch's electronic version of the WOMAC Index. The WOMAC index is a validated instrument used for assessing hip and knee Osteoarthritis (OA) and has gone through several validation tests and has been found to be a reliable and responsive measure of outcome in a variety of clinical environments. The index consists of a self-assessment questionnaire and addresses three dimensions of pain, disability and joint stiffness in OA through 24 questions. The index was modified slightly by Exco InTouch for use as a questionnaire application on mobile phones in the pilot study to evaluate the use of cellular technology in capturing the WOMAC NRS 3.1 index. Each of the patients, ten of whom had concomitant hand OA, completed three EDC questionnaires with a mobile phone using m-WOMAC. The completion time was automatically recorded and this method was found to be both convenient and efficient. The initial data suggest that the m-WOMAC is comparable to the traditional paper-based version of the questionnaire. Tim Davis, Co-Founder, Exco InTouch comments: "We were overwhelmed with the success of the preliminary study into EDC using m-WOMAC. With this full study we will examine this electronic method on a broader range of subjects. EDC using a mobile phone offers unique benefits to both the patient and the clinical trial organiser, including simplifying the collection of patient-reported data and improving product-to-market time" Exco InTouch's m-WOMAC is a Java-based application which runs on a patient's mobile phone and facilitates the completion of EDC questionnaires. Using m-WOMAC, questions are sent directly to a patient's mobile phone via text message. Patients are prompted to respond by entering a unique PIN number which ensures that data integrity is preserved. m-WOMAC from Exco InTouch removes the need for paper-based questionnaires and clinic attendance, facilitating EDC for both patients and clinical trial organisers. The m-WOMAC has been approved by the originator of WOMAC Index, and patients have rated the m-WOMAC self-reporting process as 'easy' or 'moderately easy' including those with limited dexterity..... Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:48:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2009/12/16/a-day-in-the-life-of-the-internet/ Did you know that enough information is sent across the global cell phone network to fill 9.2 million DVD’s every day; that is 43,339,547 gigabytes! More food for thought and interesting presentation content can be found here: .... Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:52:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2009/12/16/exco-intouch-named-as-finalist-at-two-prestigious-industry-award/ Exco InTouch, the leading provider of patient communication solutions for the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors, announces that the company has been awarded runner-up accolades at both the 2009 European Outsourcing Awards and the Clinical Research Excellence Awards. The awards follow the company's recognition at the 2008 European Outsourcing Awards, where Exco InTouch won in the category of Best IT Strategy. Exco InTouch was recognised in the category of Most Innovative Relationship at this year's European Outsourcing Awards. The company's entry focused on its relationship with Pfizer and the benefits experienced through using Exco InTouch's mobile phone technology for patient recruitment in clinical trials. Exco InTouch has also been acknowledged in the 2009 Clinical Research Excellence Awards, organised by Informa Healthcare, the leading provider of business information for the biotechnology and medical devices industries. Exco InTouch was recognised in the category of Most Innovative Patient Recruitment Strategy. Both accolades recognised Exco InTouch's work to develop an integrated system to accelerate recruitment. This innovative approach enables sponsors to quickly contact potential subjects via their own mobile phones within 5-10 minutes. The custom system recognised in these recent awards is based on ATLAS from Exco InTouch which is a unique, regulatory-compliant system used to send text messages to any mobile phone. ATLAS can be integrated with a wide range of existing healthcare management systems and this feature is of particular interest to sponsors who specifically required a solution that could be fully integrated with their own volunteer database. Tim Davis, CEO, Exco InTouch, comments: "We are delighted by this recent recognition in two highly respected awards ceremonies. Exco InTouch's technology is innovative and represents a new direction for clinical trials. As such these awards recognize the impact on this industry of these proven recruitment solution. Our range of services are well-received by the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries and we are committed to continuing to develop easy-to-use, cost-effective solutions that can make a real impact on patient recruitment, retention, compliance and ePRO." Exco InTouch is the premier provider of global, secure and regulatory compliant short messaging service and mobile internet technology to the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries..... Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:42:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2009/12/16/cell-phones-used-to-track-festivities/ The UK Department of Health have released a cell phone application to help promote sensible drinking during the festive season. The Units of drink are keyed into the phone to track consumption and graphs are generated to allow users to track their drinking versus recommended units.  It’s great to see the wider adoption of this powerful medium in healthcare communication. Public health minister Gillian Merron launched the "alcohol tracker", which is available from iTunes and www.nhs.uk. It allows drinkers to input how much they are consuming and view graphs of whether they are sticking to recommended units, which are three to four a day for a man and two to three for a woman. The application also helps people work out how many alcoholic units there are in a drink and get personalised feedback on their habits. Ms Merron said: "It is all too easy to lose track of how much you drink. So as the festive parties start to build up, this innovative tool will help people keep tabs on their drinking - wherever they are. "Sticking within the NHS recommended limits means you reduce the risk of serious conditions such as mouth cancer and strokes." Chris Sorek, chief executive of Drinkaware, said: "Trying to stick within the daily unit guidelines will help people avoid the January slump and the long term health implications associated with drinking too much alcohol." People with a standard mobile can access a units calculator by texting the word UNIT to 64746..... Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:52:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2009/12/16/10-cell-phone-clinical-trials/ MobiHealthNews collected up the details of 10 clinical trials being conducted using mobile telephones. The studies are sponsored by a number of different Companies and institutions and in a range of therapy areas. The U.S. National Institutes of Health has an online database called ClinicalTrials.gov that includes a registry of federally and privately supported clinical trials underway or completed. The database currently boasts more than 81,000 clinical trials from some 170 countries. As you might expect a couple dozen of those trials are testing wireless health solutions — mostly mobile phone applications — and their efficacy on health outcomes. MobiHealthNews rounded up 10 mobile phone-equipped clinical trials conducted by numerous academic institutions, world governments and big brand healthcare companies like AstraZeneca. It is often said that wireless health solutions and healthcare mobile applications will not secure reimbursement or market uptake until they are proven to produce positive health outcomes. In the pages that follow, we have collected the studies underway or completed that are evaluating wireless health. Mine them for partners, processes and applications — and be sure to give us your take on the solutions in these trials — do they represent what’s market ready? Do they point to the future of wireless health? View the top 10 here..... Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:55:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2009/12/16/a-day-in-the-life-of-the-internet1/ Did you know that enough information is sent across the global cell phone network to fill 9.2 million DVD’s every day; that is 43,339,547 gigabytes! More food for thought and interesting presentation content can be found here: .... Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:56:00 GMT http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2009/5/19/bioitworld-com-article-the-art-of-texting-in-clinical-trials/ Cell phone technology is a ubiquitous means of personal and professional communication and is now developing into a workable solution for the clinical trials arena. With more than 4 billion cell phone users worldwide, the technology is helping the pharmaceutical and health care sectors maintain direct communication with their clinical trial subjects.Many large pharma companies are implementing cell phone technology as part of the clinical trial communications process—from subject recruitment through to collecting trial data. Text message alerts are a quick and effective way of communicating—with all cell phones having built-in text messaging capability. Using cell phone technology, companies can increase recruitment and retention rates by interacting directly with trial subjects.Here, I examine the current strategies of subject recruitment, retention, and compliance during clinical trials; how problems can be overcome with the use of cell phone technology; and what the future holds for the technology within the pharmaceutical industry. Bridging the Communication Gap Effective recruitment is essential to a successful clinical trial. Conventional forms of recruitment including physician referral have a very low success rate. Advertising in the media, universities, hospitals, and clinics is a popular recruiting method, while some organizations prefer to write letters to potential participants inviting them to take part in studies. Traditional methods can be useful during the recruitment process; however they require the subject to take the first step.Working with communication providers, sponsors can interact directly with subjects in a personalized and cost-effective way. Cell phone technology integrated into the clinical trial communication process at an early stage opens up direct communication channels. Existing advertising campaigns can be enhanced by printing a short code on advertisements, encouraging subjects to text details relating to a specific trial. Potential participants can then be directed to call centers or self-enroll using their cell phone. Recruitment results are delivered instantaneously compared with traditional methods where results might not be seen for weeks or months. Cell phone technology can offer recruitment response rates of over 30% compared with typically 10% for more traditional methods.Non-compliance costs the pharmaceutical industry billions of dollars each year. Significant costs can be incurred by sending out reminder letters or making telephone calls to subjects to ensure they comply with the requirements of the study. This is another area that can be tackled using cell phone technology to distribute automatic reminders directly to the subject. Messages can be tailored to the individual to include information such as dosage, frequency, and how to take the medication safely. Delivery reports or interactive messages can be employed to ensure that messages are received.Ongoing support and motivation is often needed to support participants throughout a clinical trial. Sponsors use various methods to keep subjects involved in a study including providing detailed paper-based information on the medication and side effects at the outset of a study. In order to keep participants well-informed of the aims of the trial and to remind them of the benefits of remaining in the study, short messages can be sent to motivate and enhance confidence in the trial.Cell phone technology offers a powerful method of direct communication and can be used to overcome the most common challenges in clinical studies. Subject reporting via text message can help to improve data quality and effectively determine the efficacy of a new drug. Cell phone communication strategies implemented alongside existing procedures or as a standalone method, benefit from significantly improved overall data quality and optimised use of resources.Of course, security and confidentiality are important considerations and all methods of data collection and evaluations must be developed in accordance with strict regulatory requirements—FDA 21 CFR 11 and HIPAA in the U.S. and EU Directive 2002/58/EC in Europe. Subject consent should be obtained and an opt-out option should always be made available. All information must be encrypted and stored on a secure database in order to ensure full compliance with the EU data privacy act.Analysts predict that text messaging technology will be superseded by new methods of cell phone communication, such as 3G, which enables more detailed and personalized data to be collected. As new cell phone technologies emerge, they will be developed and adapted for use in the pharmaceutical industry. Vendors in the sector will increasingly need to invest R&D activities in mobile technology to provide the most effective and compliant solutions.  Review the full article here.  http://www.bio-itworld.com/BioIT_Article.aspx?id=91542&LangType=1033&terms=excointouch .... Tue, 19 May 2009 13:17:00 BST http://www.excointouch.com/news-and-events/blog/2009/3/31/international-clinical-trials-article-increase-your-text-appeal/ Text messaging technology is widely used in consumer markets with immense success, and is now developing into a useful tool for the pharmaceutical industry, particularly within the clinical trials arena. With more than four billion mobile phone users estimated worldwide, this technology is an ideal means of communication. It can be applied successfully in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries as a form of direct communication with clinical trial subjects. This article will discuss traditional methods of patient recruitment and retention during clinical trials, and how integrated mobile phone technology can overcome some of the issues associated with these conventional methods. The article will also examine the growth of text messaging technology in the pharmaceutical industry, and the regulatory and patient security issues which need to be addressed. Finally, we will look at the future development of mobile phone communication technology within the pharmaceutical industry. RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION The success of clinical trials is directly related to finding high quality volunteers and patients, which can be extremely challenging. Traditional methods of clinical trial recruitment, such as physician referral, have a very low success rate. One popular method of recruitment is advertising, used in a wide range of environments such as universities, hospitals, clinics and in the media. Some organisations prefer to contact potential participants via letter, inviting them to take part in possible future studies; however this can be a slow and time-consuming process. During the recruitment drive, traditional methods can be helpful; however, they all require the subject to take the first step. Ultimately, many good volunteers simply never find out about clinical trial opportunities. Patient non-compliance is another challenge for clinical trials that costs the pharmaceutical industry billions of dollars each year in lost patients. As a result, overcoming patient noncompliance is an increasingly important issue. Patient compliance can be improved through a number of methods, including targeted patient recruitment, the use of electronic diaries throughout the study, and communicating reminders directly to patients. However, significant costs can be incurred by sending out reminder letters or making telephone calls to subjects to ensure that they comply with the requirements of the study. In addition, while these methods can improve patient compliance and retention, they do not require interaction from the patient, and there is a chance that patients may fail to respond to reminders. Many large pharmaceutical sponsors are now implementing text messaging technology as part of their clinical trials communication strategies. This offers unique benefits to clinical trials organisers, and can help to improve patient recruitment and retention significantly. The technology is being used for subject recruitment, communicating with patients and collecting trial data. Text message alerts are a quick, easy and effective way of communicating, as all mobile phones have built-in text messaging capability. New electronic patient reported outcomes (ePRO) developments are also emerging. These enable clinical trials patients to complete diary questionnaires using their own mobile phones, which significantly improves data capture. .... Tue, 31 Mar 2009 13:26:00 BST