Velocity Clinical Research makes tech investments to strengthen patient and client engagement in clinical trials

Velocity Clinical Research makes tech investments to strengthen patient and client engagement in clinical trials 

• Tech strategy will set new standard for site integration, supporting a global patient network 
• Strategy includes acquisition of TrierHealth, a digital clinical trials platform 

Durham N.C.: Velocity Clinical Research (“Velocity”), the largest fully integrated clinical site organization, today announces three key tech investments to expand its patient community, increase client engagement, and speed up drug development across all its 30 integrated locations. 

In the past 12 months, Velocity has randomized 25,000 patients into phase II and III studies in the U.S. The tech investments will enable Velocity to be more efficient in managing studies, identifying patients for studies, and increasing the frequency of participation in studies. 

Velocity has partnered with Advarra on a regulatory and compliance tech rollout, using their Clinical Conductor Enterprise-level clinical trial management system (CTMS), combined with eReg and eSource, to access data of over 500,000 patients across its national site network in just a few clicks.  

Secondly, Master Control has been selected to provide its Quality Management System (QMS) —a leader in the industry, it is used by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and many sponsors. Consequently, Velocity’s patients and sponsor partners will benefit from its enhanced ability to support new innovations, improve quality and compliance, and enable greater site efficiency achieved through automated quality processes.   

Finally, Velocity has acquired TrierHealth, a secure platform enabling digital clinical trial execution whose R&D team operates out of Hyderabad, India, to develop patient-focused technology. TrierHealth’s founder, Raghu Punnamraju, will become Velocity’s Chief Technology Officer. 

Dr G. Paul Evans, Chief Executive and President of Velocity Clinical Research, said, “We’re building a global community of patients who are engaged, advocate for participation in clinical research, and actively take part in multiple studies. Building and scaling a truly integrated clinical site business to support this requires a common technology stack to achieve consistency. 

“Velocity is setting a new standard of integration for the research site industry to better recruit and retain patients into clinical research. As the biggest clinical trials market, the U.S. has been the right home for building a world-class integrated site business first, before we take our model international this year. 

The acquisition of TrierHealth means Velocity can develop patient-focused tech that harnesses the power of AI and data science to improve clinical research. The acquisition comes 18 months after collaborating with TrierHealth to build a patient-focused platform to support decentralized visits. The R&D team, based in Hyderabad, will expand to focus on patient recruitment because of the acquisition. 

Raghu Punnamraju, Velocity’s new Chief Technology Officer, said: “Technology touches every part of our lives and clinical research is no different. TrierHealth agreed to be acquired by Velocity because of our firmly held belief that a hybrid model between brick-and-mortar sites, integrated with tech options, will emerge as the premier solution in clinical trials. I look forward to building out the core capabilities to roll out site-centred technologies that primarily focus on patient recruitment and retention.” 

Raghu Punnamraju brings extensive software and industry experience, including eight years with Parexel Informatics, and turns at Intermountain Healthcare in Utah, and GE Healthcare.