A local software shop is up for an innovation award for a web app that streamlines the process of finding new patients for clinical studies.
Fortress Medical Systems, which is based in Hopkins, is
one of five finalists for the
Society for Clinical Data Management's 2010 Data Driven Innovation Award. The company makes software for managing clinical trial data, particularly for medical device studies, which require tracking of more variables than drug studies.
"What differentiates us is our flexibility, because medical device trials are really different than pharmaceutical trials," says CEO Mark Jones.
Fortress' customers include a few dozen medical device companies in the Twin Cities, from industry giants like Medtronic to emerging startup companies.
Typically, a company conducting a clinical trial will hire a call center to screen prospective patients. The call center then relays information back to the research company, which then contacts the patient's doctor or hospital about enrollment.
Fortress is up for an award for helping design a web-based software program that lets call center screeners report information directly to the doctors or hospitals.
"The benefits are that it increases the speed at which patients can potentially get enrolled into the study," minimizing the risk of patients changing their minds or being lost in the shuffle, explains Jones.
Fortress was founded in 1997 and has nine employees. The Society for Clinical Data Management will announce the innovation award winner at its annual conference in Minneapolis on October 17-20.
Source: Mark Jones, Fortress Medical Systems
Writer:
Dan Haugen