Outsourcing Clinical Data Management Services

With almost every American company profiting from the offshoring trend, can American pharmas be far behind? If recent events are anything to go by, most likely not. It's not exactly a mad rush, but slowly and steadily American pharmaceutical companies are waking up to the benefits of offshoring their non-core functions at less than half the price to Indian companies Clinical data management services are increasingly being outsourced to India and every quarter finds news of yet another merger, acquisition or partnership with an Indian company.

Growing Need to Stay Abreast of Healthcare Industry‘s Regulatory Mechanisms

There has been an increasing number of health regularizing government controls in the healthcare industry and it is quite possible that this has spurred the trend. Many an instance of neglect filed in the courts against doctors and medical service providers have emphasized the need for proper medical records. Doctors, health professionals and pharmaceuticals find that keeping an eye on all these minute details takes a toll on core functions. It makes better sense to outsource these non-core activities to specialists in that field and turn their attention to what they do best�healing patients, research, development and marketing. If you are a healthcare service provider who finds data management cumbersome, frustrating and time-consuming, offshoring could be the right option for you.

Why India?

As with previous instances of offshoring in America, even with health service providers, India has emerged as the natural choice. The reasons for this are quite simple:

Skilled IT manpower

• A survey conducted by the McKinsey Global Institute on "Emerging Global Labor Markets," notes that India has more than double the number of people with basic capabilities for jobs in IT and BPO when compared to other countries like China.
• Currently, India produces 2.5 million graduates every year, growing at a CAGR of 6.5 percent per year.
• 25 percent of engineers in India have the basic skills for offshore IT jobs, compared to 10 percent each in China and Russia.
• India has the third largest higher education capacity in the world.

Healthcare Expertise

• India has a large number of qualified medical specialists who are able to make informed decisions and analysis. And this workforce is available at less than 50% of what it would cost in America.
• In India, the supply of MSc graduates and PhDs far exceed the actual demand, because of the sheer numbers of population. This specialized workforce finds that doing the non-core functions of an American company is actually more lucrative than working for an Indian pharma.
• What emerges is a win-win pattern: American companies find qualified graduates at cheaper labour costs, Indian employees find that they earn more working for American companies than Indian companies.
• An American CEO who has had a great experience points out that CDMS demands people with highly advanced domain knowledge unlike other business processes. The higher amount of regulation involved with the mandatory USFDA guidelines also calls for a certain amount of specialization and it‘s not possible for ‘just anybody‘ to undertake it.

Emerging Outsourcing Models

• Preferred Full Service Provider Some companies tie up with Clinical Trial Organizations (CRO‘s) for a basket of services including clinical trial management and data management. Infrastructure is geared to help Indian companies access their global server, software and other infrastructure with additional user licenses to extend their data management business.
• Full Time Equivalent (FTE) Model Another model that is becoming popular is the retained Full Time Equivalent (FTE). Pharma companies outsource development of facilities, offices and human resources to a service provider (a CRO or an IT company) which understands clinical trial data management and biostatistics. The pharma companies provide hardware, software and arrange for their installation and training. This model is essentially an extension to the contract staffing model as the service provider provides the office and manpower. the vendor acts as a Functional Service Provider (FSP) on project/protocol basis.

Some services that you can consider Outsourcing:

• Medical Coding
• Medical Billing
• Medical Claims Processing
• Charge Entry
• Revenue Cycle Management
• Claims Processing
• Accounts Receivable
• Teleradiology
• Medical Animation
• Clinical Services
• Medical Transcription
• Impact Analysis Software
• Patient Record Management and EMR (Electronic Medical Record)

TA has a proven track record of providing customers with customized solutions to manage all kinds of data. In liaison with parent company Stylus. Inc, TA is fully capable of meeting your clinical data management needs.