September 17th represents World Patient Safety Day, the WHO’s initiative to boost awareness about the safety of patients across the world. As a clinical laboratory whose focus is to help advance and shape clinical trials and improve patients’ lives in the long term, patient safety lies at the heart of Cerba Research’s mission.
Cerba Research is proud to have supported Health Worker safety directly through a variety of COVID-19 testing projects around the world and support the WHO’s slogan of “Safe health workers, Safe patients’.
As a leading, global clinical trial laboratory service provider, there are many ways in which to put the lives of patients first:
Employee training
Every Cerba Research employee, at all job function levels, experiences the Good Clinical (Laboratory) Practice training. Cerba ensures its entire organization is made aware of the responsibilities with respect to the conduct of clinical trials in order to meet GCP’s objective - making sure that the safety, rights and well-being of human subjects are well-protected.
This is also strengthened in Cerba Research’s company culture, whereby patient safety underscores the company’s core values and mission.
Data security
While data security may not be the most obvious in terms of patient safety, data security is critical to the well-being of patients in clinical trials.
It is essential that the privacy of trial subjects remains secure to guarantee that people cannot be easily identified based on the samples and (medical) data. Like Cerba’s GCP training, all employees go through compulsory training on data security and GDPR compliance.
Company CISO and DSO ensure that Cerba Research’s IT infrastructure is safeguarded and that the appropriate systems and checks are in place to preserve data security on a constant basis.
Sites and sample collection
Cerba Research plays a key role in patient safety as a clinical trial laboratory. The data it generates is crucial to future health care decisions that affect diagnosis or treatment. Therefore, any analytical or diagnostic error has the potential to considerably affect patient safety, thus driving the company’s relentless focus on quality through all processes.
These processes start prior to taking any samples, whereby prudent measures are taken to limit discomfort and pain for the subjects and ensure health worker safety. Cerba Research’s in-house kit-building team and project management team are essential to this process.
Through them, the sites are provided with both instructions on how to take samples and the appropriate equipment to do so, thus building an informed and protected environment for both.
Through accreditation by the major bodies, Cerba Research makes sure that testing is performed to the highest standards on a consistent basis, maintaining accuracy and reproducibility of results.
Cerba’s vast scientific, technical and operational expertise reduces any risk throughout the entire patient journey, from sampling through to reporting, thereby guaranteeing certainty of results.
Towards the future
Clinical trials are constantly evolving, ushering in new conditions and demands, with patient safety as the key focus.
As 2020 demonstrated through the COVID-19 pandemic, clinical trials and their processes must be flexible enough to adapt and overcome unprecedented circumstances.
That’s why Cerba Research is persistent in its search for finding new ways to support these new developments and actively deliver solutions that will help support the lives of patients around the world by allowing them to participate in research in a way that’s flexible and centered around them.
The primary challenge throughout the pandemic has been the restrictions patients and/or healthcare workers have experienced, which has inhibited site visits.
Decentralized trials, whereby the study visit is either partly or completely conducted in a patient’s home, is one way to circumnavigate such issues.
Home sampling is, therefore, a key initiative that Cerba Research is developing to combat this barrier. A package of combined sampling materials and easy-to-follow instructions can be sent directly to the patients themselves. This enables them to take their own samples.
Guided through the process step-by-step with videos and manuals, the need to leave the comfort of their own home to participate in trials can be eliminated.
Not only does this enhance patient safety, but it also allows patients to participate in studies that they might have been unable to before. This means that those patients living in remote areas with little infrastructure, or those who simply do not have the time or means to go to the collection site, can participate.
About Cerba Research
For over 35 years, Cerba Research has been setting the industry standard for exemplary clinical trial conduct. Today, across five continents, with a focus on precision medicine, we are changing the paradigm of the central lab’s role in complex clinical research.
From protocol inception through development and to market, our passionate experts deliver the highest quality specialized and personalized laboratory and diagnostic solutions. Partner with us for the most efficient strategy to actualize your biotech and pharmaceutical products sooner and improve the lives of patients worldwide.
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