Sarah Cannon Research Institute (SCRI) has announced a partnership with AstraZeneca to progress technological integration and operational efficiency in the delivery of oncology clinical trials.

The collaboration will see the implementation of solutions to expedite timelines for clinical trial delivery, alleviate the administrative burden on sites, and refine patient enrolment processes.

Furthermore, the alliance will focus on boosting participant enrolment in the US.

As per the deal, the electronic health record (EHR) data will be integrated with electronic data capture (EDC) systems through the EHR2EDC (E2E) technology developed by precision medicine platform Genospace and SCRI Development Innovations.

SCRI CEO Dee Anna Smith said: “Improving end-to-end research operations will have a great impact on the industry’s ability to increase the pace of drug development without compromising quality.

“Our collaboration with AstraZeneca has the potential to accelerate our mutual efforts to bring novel therapies to more people with cancer, through more physicians, across even more communities.”

This technological advancement has shown promising results by reducing the time required for site-based data entry, cutting down manual labour and monitoring expenses.

Moreover, this approach enhances the quality of the data and expedites clinical trial decision-making.

The E2E system and SCRI's new model aim to synchronise end-to-end clinical research management, linking over 1,300 physicians and providing access to trials for a diverse array of tumour types at more than 250 locations in 24 US states.

AstraZeneca Oncology R&D Clinical Operations vice-president Michele Sample said: “Our ongoing commitment to personalised and effective medical interventions to people living with cancer means we are continually innovating to improve accessibility to trial participation and meet the current and future needs of clinical trial execution.

“Working with SCRI to enhance US enrolment and streamline clinical trial data collection is a tremendous opportunity to increase the diversity of clinical trial participants in the US and accelerate clinical trial delivery timelines.”