The Challenge
At the end of 2019, the Turku University Hospital (Tyks), Finland (now part of the wellbeing services county of Southwest Finland, Varha), along with the government-owned Healthcare IT Service provider 2M-IT, approached our local Finnish colleagues with a challenge:
“How do we make it quicker and easier for researchers to start their projects?”
Tyks had a slow, manual, paper-based process to manage the application, assessment and approval for granting the research and data permits and management of funding related to scientific research projects, such as those requiring access to biobank samples and diagnostic data, clinical drug trials and medical device development.
The local Nobly Oy team is a long-time partner to Varha and 2M-IT through its support of the market-leading Hyland OnBase ECM system, integrated to multiple clinical systems and used to manage a wide range of content and workflow services across the Wellbeing region.
The Development
Working with the regions existing OnBase as a platform for development, an initial version of the Clinical Research solution was developed in early 2020. A model of continuous improvement, made possible by the flexibility of the OnBase platform’s rich ECM feature set and standards-based integrations, has enabled the solution to evolve to meet the changing needs of the organisation.
The Result (so far…)
Varha now manages research and data permits across 300+ researchers annually, with the time to make a decision on a project reduced from 8-12 weeks, to 1-2 weeks. Not only is the application and approval process faster, with fewer manual steps, but greater visibility of live project status’ enables better monitoring and support of researchers during the study period. This has improved the chances of a successful project outcome and delivers better value for the region.
The Solution
The Nobly Clinical Research solution creates an electronic environment for the processing of scientific research in the Wellbeing Area.
The device-independent end-to-end solution works after a single sign-on in the browser on the customer’s internal network, or on the external network via strong Suomi.fi authentication.
The solution significantly improves efficiency, both in the clinical facilities and in the administration departments. The Nobly Clinical Research solution can be used to apply for a research or data permit, make official decisions related to the investigations as part of the authorization process.
The solution makes it easier to produce documents, preserves documents on behalf of the researcher and makes it quicker to apply for a follow-up authorization.
The Nobly Clinical Research solution also aims to streamline invoicing relating to research activity. The solution facilitates the management of study-related documents, the monitoring of studies and the production of various statistics and reports.
The benefits of the solution:
- The application, processing and signing of authorizations are all done electronically
- Reducing the time needed for the authorization process
- Eliminate unnecessary steps
- Easier visibility of ongoing applications/investigations
- Research data are safely stored
Improving the efficiency of the authorization process: speed and quality are competitive advantages in commissioned studies.
Electronic approval of permits: permits/attachments are easily accessible, and the status of the permit application process is tracked.
The system guides the examiner: when applying for a permit, metadata is automatically stored – no need to re-enter the same information.
Document management: The Clinical Research solution stores documents on behalf of the researcher, making it easier, for example, to apply for a follow-up authorization.
Knowledge management: speeds up and improves quality using structured knowledge.
Official decisions related to investigations: are made directly in the system as part of the authorization process.
The program automatically retrieves: data that has already been filled in, e.g. responsible researcher, project number, research number.
Decisions are stored automatically: permit documentation safely stored in one place; the solution is a SÄHKE2 approved storage system.
The solution described has been implemented with Nobly and Hyland products and services.
CONTACT INFO
Kari Karmitsa
Head of Sales Finland
kk@nobly.fi
+358 400 451 724
