(Source: Business Wire)Quintiles, the only fully integrated biopharmaceutical services company offering clinical, commercial, consulting and capital solutions worldwide, and Cerner, a global supplier of healthcare solutions and electronic health record (EHR) technology, today announced an agreement that will provide biopharma sponsors with research and technology services to help them quickly evaluate the benefits and side effects of therapeutic treatments currently on the market.

Regulators and payers are increasingly calling for more post-marketing research, specifically observational studies and registries. These late phase research studies offer opportunities to establish long-term product safety, pursue expanded indications for use, and strengthen the understanding of a product's short-term and long-term value.

"Through Quintiles' collaboration with Cerner, we now can offer biopharmaceutical organizations an integrated solution for conducting patient registries, post-approval and late phase studies, observational studies, and studies to support Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS)," said Dr. Dipti Amin, Quintiles Senior Vice President of Drug Safety and Medical Affairs. "This then marries our clinical study design and operations expertise with their technical depth and understanding of clinical workflows,"

To help cost-effectively manage the data associated with this research, Quintiles will use the Cerner Discovere Late Phase solution specifically designed to deliver an integrated study management solution.

The Web-based platform will allow biopharma researchers to:

Gain a clearer picture of how a product is performing in the real world by easily integrating data from consenting study participants and site researchers;

Accelerate study start up and implementation through intuitive data collection workflow and the ability to pre-populate electronic Case Report Forms (eCRFs); and

Increase data quality by reducing transcription errors.

"Cerner's long-standing expertise in automating processes for healthcare organizations makes us uniquely suited to help Quintiles efficiently manage the vast amounts of data associated with late phase research," said Mark Hoffman, Ph.D, Cerner Vice President of LifeSciences. "The Cerner Discovere Late Phase platform reduces the time required to start late phase studies, provides sites with an easy-to-use system for compiling data and expedites reporting of valuable data back to Quintiles, sponsors and regulators."

The Cerner Discovere Late Phase solution streamlines study build and reduces the time associated with study start up.