Modern CRM platforms are capable of leveraging their powerful toolsets to simplify and streamline medical device clinical trials.
By harnessing the potential of CRM technology, medical device manufacturers can accelerate the development and adoption of innovative medical devices, ultimately leading to improved patient care and outcomes.
In this article, we will explore the benefits and opportunities offered by CRM data analytics in medical device clinical trials.
For help finding a CRM that is right for your medical device manufacturing business, check out our CRM Buyer’s Guide for Med Tech.
What is CRM?
CRM is a software toolset that assists businesses with the day-to-day management of their people (customers and employees), work processes, products, and projects.
Once thought of primarily as a sales tool, CRM has evolved to address the needs of many different business aspects, including marketing, customer service, and project management.
Through the use of advanced automations tools and data centralization, CRM software can help your business improve communication (both internal and external), work more efficiently, and track performance.
The challenges of medical device clinical trials
Marketers in the medical device space face unique challenges when trying to promote their products.
- The regulatory landscape- Medical device companies must comply with the stringent regulations of the different governing bodies of the countries in which they operate.
For example, in the US, medical device manufacturers have to gain approval from the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) before many of their innovations can go to market.
In Europe, the EMA (European Medicines Agency) performs a similar function, but the guidelines that inform their approval process are very different.
For medical device manufacturers running clinical trials, understanding regulation and compliance requirements is essential to proving the safety and efficacy of their devices.
- Data protection- In recent years, data protection and patient privacy concerns have added another wrinkle to this already complicated puzzle.
Compliance standards like those imposed by HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act — in the US) and GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation — in Europe) require that digital patient data be handled in a very particular way.
Not only does this require more training and stricter operational processes to achieve, but it also makes finding software tools that handle patient data harder, as many of these vendors don’t consider the needs of healthcare companies when designing their toolsets.
While these regulations aim to ensure patient safety, they pose a significant business challenge for companies operating in the healthcare space.
For more information on HIPAA-compliant CRMs, check out our article, HIPAA Compliant CRM Software.
- Patient recruitment- Finding an adequate number of eligible patients is a major challenge for a medical device company.
Patient recruitment pools are often limited due to factors such as:
- Patient hesitancy
- Product awareness
- Physician referral requirements
- Strict inclusion/exclusion criteria
- The rarity of the condition or disease
Low patient enrollment rates can lead to extended trial timelines and inadequate sample sizes.
- Data collection- Gathering data from medical device clinical trials is challenging due to the volume and complex nature of the data collected.
Trial data needs to be gathered from multiple sources, and ensuring the quality and accuracy of the data across devices, platforms, and mediums is essential to producing accurate results.
Using CRM data analytics to overcome the challenges of medical device clinical trials
CRM data analytics can help overcome the challenges of medical device clinical trials.
- Patient identification, engagement, and retention- CRM data analytics can use historical patient information to aid with patient identification and recruitment.
What’s more, CRM data analytics can also provide insights into patient preferences and behavior, allowing clinical trial coordinators to create personalized engagement strategies and communications cadences that improve patient participation and retention.
- Data capture and analysis- Clinical trials require the management of vast amounts of data, including:
- Patient information
- Medical device usage data
- Results and outcomes data
- Trial rules, guidelines, and parameters
A CRM can facilitate this data management by capturing, integrating, centralizing, and organizing this data from multiple sources.
CRM analytics tools can then analyze and interpret the trial data, helping trial coordinators identify trends and patterns and produce more accurate results.
FreeAgent CRM is the best CRM for medical device manufacturers
FreeAgent CRM is designed for today’s world of work and our robust toolset is ideally suited to supporting the varied work processes of modern businesses. FreeAgent is:
- Easy to use: FreeAgent works like you expect modern apps to work, providing a user experience that feels fresh and familiar. Teams love working in FreeAgent, leading to high adoption and greater ROI.
- User-configurable: FreeAgent can be configured by you to work the way you do. This means you don’t need outside support to add a form field, adjust a CRM automated workflow, or try out a new process.
- Customizable: With FreeAgent, apps, forms, and configurations are all completely customizable, allowing you to capture and connect your data in any way you like.
To see FreeAgent in action, get a demo, and discover for yourself how FreeAgent can help you have workdays full of impact.
