Fortrea , a leading global contract research organization (CRO), today announced an industry partnership with founding members Veeva Systems Inc., a leading provider of industry cloud solutions for the global life sciences industry, and Advarra, a leading provider of clinical research technology for clinical research investigator sites and sponsors, to deliver an integrated patient- and site-centric solution that streamlines the clinical trial experience.

In an industry faced with complex challenges to clinical trial execution, Fortrea is establishing an alliance of industry partners—beginning with founding members, Veeva and Advarra—to tackle some of these challenges head-on. Many sites are burdened by administrative operations that have multiple, complex technologies with limited interoperability. This impacts their ability to focus on what matters most—the patients—and improving their recruitment and experience participating in clinical studies.

Fortrea, Veeva and Advarra are partnering to offer a seamless, unified technology solution that integrates best-in-class technologies and leverages Fortrea’s process expertise. This will help ease the administrative burden for patients and sites and increase the accessibility of clinical trials for the public.

“We heard from our Site Advisory Board that the multitude of technologies used on a study is one of their greatest challenges,” said Fortrea Chief Operating Officer and President of Clinical Services Mark Morais. “Working with industry-leading partners and founding members, Veeva and Advarra, we’re taking action to remove complexities so we can address the pain points of sites and patients and make a difference. We are leveraging our unique vantage point in the industry that enables us to layer our expertise over the tech and data ecosystems from best-in-class partners—adding to our alliance as we go—to dramatically simplify the experience for patients, sites and sponsors.”

For sites, the partnership is set to deliver:

• a cloud-based, simplified sign-on experience for Fortrea-run studies
• access to study technologies through a single dashboard
• a unified environment with a single repository for study documents and records

For patients, the solution is being designed to offer:

• easy-to-access, step-by-step, visit-by-visit support and education throughout a patient’s trial journey
• a simplified user experience through a single platform
• self-referral functionality to search and find studies in their disease area of interest
• ongoing patient support and education via an online portal or mobile app
• a simplified mobile and web application for consenting and responding to outcome surveys

“Veeva is helping to advance clinical trials with connected applications that reduce the burden of participating for patients, streamline execution for research sites and increase transparency for sponsors,” said Jim Reilly, vice president, Veeva Development Cloud Strategy. “Extending our partnership with Fortrea to deliver Veeva Clinical Platform applications will meet the unique needs of patients, sites and sponsors while significantly improving study data quality and collaboration with sites.”

“Advarra’s mission is to break the silos that impede clinical research, so we are excited to provide our Longboat solution and IRB services as part of this innovative and collaborative partnership aimed at reducing site and patient burden,” said Elisa Cascade, chief product officer at Advarra.  “By leveraging our Longboat solution, Fortrea will deliver a reimagined clinical research experience that will improve both protocol compliance and site and patient engagement throughout the clinical trial process.”