February 27, 2017 | News, products, and partnerships from around the clinical trial and healthcare community including news from Bioclinica, PAREXEL International, Clinerion, and more. 

Bioclinica has announced the further expansion of its eHealth App xChange, providing clinical researchers more choices in the types of applications they can leverage as part of Bioclinica’s extensive and growing eHealth platform. Applications that enable patient-centered clinical trials make up the fastest-growing App xChange category and include a variety of patient engagement tools. Additionally, partners bringing advanced analytics and machine learning capabilities aimed at reducing risks and improving process and workflow efficiencies are increasingly joining Bioclinica’s App xChange. Established in 2015 to spur clinical trial innovation, App xChange creates an environment for collaboration among technology providers, and allows sponsors to leverage the value of integration within Bioclinica’s secure, validated eHealth Cloud. “Recognizing the shift in the bio-pharma industry to an increased number of stakeholders and differing priorities, we’ve expanded our partner approach to a wider array of technology providers that can help the industry drive transformational change,” says Bioclinica’s Vice President Technology Alliances, eHealth Solutions, Anne Zielinski. Press release

PAREXEL International has announced that the company has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire The Medical Affairs Company (“TMAC”), a leading provider of outsourced medical affairs services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries. The acquisition is expected to close in February. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Founded in 2007, TMAC is a full-service contract medical organization.  TMAC offers strategic and tactical medical science liaison (MSLs) and clinical nurse educator support services in addition to medical affairs consulting, medical communications support, and direct placement services.  TMAC is based in Kennesaw, Georgia, and has approximately 200 U.S.-based employees. After the close of the acquisition, the TMAC management team will remain in place and continue to manage its employees and the services it currently provides to clients. Press release

Clinerion and ASUS Life signed a strategic alliance that, together with the Show Chwan Healthcare System, will deliver innovative services for the efficient running of clinical trials, clinical patient recruitment, market access and real-world evidence in Taiwan. With this collaboration, researchers at hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and contract research organizations gain real-time, EHR-based insight on the Taiwanese patient population. Eligible patients can subsequently be recruited by trial staff at Show Chwan’s 8 hospital sites. The collaboration will also enable the matching of patients with medications for rare and orphan diseases and the generation of data for real-world evidence analyses. Press release

iCardiac Technologies has announced that it has launched QPoint, its next-generation eCOA platform, to address the growing demand for more efficient and innovative eCOA study services in drug development.  In addition to a number of other benefits, QPoint delivers the shortest and most streamlined study configuration and startup in the industry. Electronic Clinical Outcome Assessment (eCOA) services support the collection of observations from patients, clinicians, or caregivers during clinical trials to help assess the impact of a new drug.  iCardiac’s QPoint can measure clinical outcome assessments both directly from patients at home or during trial site visits. “The QPoint platform represents a major leap forward for iCardiac, our sponsors and the eCOA industry as a whole,” wrote Alex Zapesochny, President & CEO of iCardiac, in a statement. “QPoint was built to squarely address the most pressing challenges in the use of eCOA services, and to unleash a new era of productive innovation in the industry for the benefit of drug developers and healthcare consumers.” Press release

Comprehend Systems has closed a $15 million Series C round of venture financing. The round was led by Eminence Capital, with participation by existing investors Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners. The investment brings Comprehend’s total funding since launching its innovative solutions to $44.5 million. Eminence Capital’s Kristopher Koka will join Comprehend’s Board of Directors. The funds will be used to aggressively expand sales and engineering to meet a growing demand for Comprehend’s cloud-based software that enables Clinical Research teams to deliver an order of magnitude improvement in the speed and quality of trial submissions across a portfolio of clinical trials. Press release

Quadax has announced that it has formed a strategic partnership with Ovation Revenue Cycle Services to enhance claim status responses that Quadax retrieves and transmits to its customers. This reduces manual staff intervention by supplying pending payment information, or the exact reason for claim denials, allowing staff to quickly resolve denials and accelerate cash flow. With the new Advanced Claim Status (ACS) solution, Quadax will integrate opt-in payer portal claim status information into the workflow of Xpeditor, its industry-leading claim management system. Richer and more complete information is available through payer portals and complements the EDI Health Care Claim Status Response (a “277”) which Quadax currently processes for providers. This will help to reduce the need for staff to manually and repeatedly track down additional information to clarify a response to a Claim Status Inquiry (a “276”). Press release

KPI Agency has recently restructured and rebranded, both to provide clients with an expanded range of services, as well as to provide their employees with more ownership and influence in how KPI Agency is operated. The KPI Agency, a people-centered clinical trial patient recruitment and retention agency that combines world class creative with deep clinical expertise to create patient recruitment campaigns that actually drive results for biotech, pharma, and medical device companies. Highlights include promoting Brandon Dawson from Chief Strategy Officer to President; Chad Childress (formerly President), is assuming the newly created role of Chief Growth and Innovation Officer; Nico Coetzee remains CEO; and KPI Agency recently began expanding their global presence across hubs in California, Kentucky, Washington, Ohio, Serbia, and South Africa, with plans to expand to Europe in 2017.