A Perth clinical trials company has introduced cloud-based technology to accelerate the development of drug therapies.
Reliance on a paper trail to record and store data on every person in Australia might sound like something from the 1970s, but in fact represents a current challenge faced by those working in or alongside the Australian health system.
Linear Clinical Research chief executive Michael Winlo hopes to disrupt that model.
Based at the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, Dr Winlo said Linear had introduced cloud-based technology and was leading the field worldwide in terms of electronic data capture.
“Today, our modern health system puts most things on paper and traps really critical information,” Dr Winlo told Business News.
“Yet this is the standard for clinical trials and for much of our health system.
“With electronic data capture we can start to analyse clinical data immediately and determine if a medication is working, or whether we need to change the dosage or stop altogether.”
Linear has replaced pen and paper with tablets (such as iPads) and is using electronic forms and a cloud-based system devised by US based tech company Medrio to record data.
“That data is then available immediately for analysis and assessment and we can also have the system flag queries to us in real time,” Dr Winlo said.
“We are the first clinical research centre in Australia providing this kind of technology to major international pharmaceutical and biotech companies sponsoring medical trials.”
Linear has begun using the technology in all new trials, including various classes of cancer-fighting drugs.
“In our other works, though, there’s everything from Sjogren’s syndrome, which is a really challenging autoimmune disorder, new classes of antibiotics to fight antibiotic resistance, and drugs for vaccines for various infections, including herpes,” Dr Winlo said.
The decision to go digital represents a major investment, but is well worth the expense, according to Dr Winlo.
He said electronic data capture would accelerate the process of drug development, increase recording accuracy, reduce the potential for trials to harm patients, further engage patients in the trial process, and overcome language barriers.
Speeding up trial processes could lead to large savings, a major drawcard for international clients to invest in the Perth company.
“Right now, Australia enjoys a reputation as being essentially the go-to place for early stage clinical trials,” Dr Winlo said.
“Our regulatory system is very pragmatic, very experienced and we can start trials six to 12 months faster than in the US or elsewhere.”
He said it was important Australia remained on top of advancements such as cloud-based technology to remain competitive against China, which had plans to progress clinical trials.
“(Using the new technology) we’re upscaling the local health environment because we’re bringing new therapies to doctors and patients,” Dr Winlo said.
“Doctors who work on those trials are right on the front line and I think they will deliver better care to their patients outside of trials because they know what’s available and they’re educated.”
By introducing the cloud-based system to Linear, Dr Winlo hopes healthcare organisations across Western Australia, from suburban GPs to major hospitals, will eventually adopt the model, and to this end said the business would work to engage digitally with healthcare bodies.
“My dream is that as we grow and are able to bring more therapies and trials to WA that we’ll make a real strength of being able to find patients,” he said.
“So my dream is to make anyone who might qualify for a beneficial trial to be able to be found and referred into Linear; right now that’s really manual and very clumsy.
“If we go digital, we can have a discussion with our lab and say, ‘Rather than just faxing us the results, can we have that in a digital format that can be ingested into our system?’ Then we can slowly start pulling together everything we need.
“That’ll improve enrolment into trials and people will get more benefit.
“They’ll be exposed to new medicines, we’ll be able to engage more doctors in trials, we’ll be able to do more work, and sponsors around the world will be more attracted to come to us because they’ll know we can find the people they’re looking for.”
