eClinical Solutions
  • Products
    • Mapper
    • Data Central
    • Clinical Analytics
    • Operational Insights
    • Sample Management Analytics
    • Risk-Based Quality Management
    • Statistical Computing Environment
    • elluminate IQ
  • Services
    • Clinical Data Acquisition
    • Clinical Data Management
    • Data Conversion and Standardization
    • Biostatistics and Statistical Programming
    • Functional Service Provider
    • elluminate Implementation
  • Clients
    • For Data Management
    • For Clinical Operations
    • For Medical Monitoring
    • For Biostatistics
    • For R&D IT
    • For Clinical Programming
  • Learn
    • Events
    • elluminate Engage
    • Webinars
    • eClinical Academy
    • Blog
    • Tufts Research
    • Client Stories
    • Videos
    • White Papers
    • Roadmap to Digital Transformation Series
  • About
    • Leadership
    • Careers
    • Partners
    • In the News
    • Press Releases
    • Events
    • Webinars
    • Blog
  • Contact Us
  • Request a Demo
  • Products
      • Platform


      • elluminate Clinical Data Cloud

        One platform for data from ingestion to insights

      • Overview
      • Clients
      • Implementation
      • Trust and Privacy
      • Learn
      • Request a Demo
      • Products


        • Mapper – Map and standardize without programming
        • Data Central – Integrated data review and management
        • Clinical Analytics – Clinical and operational analytics across sources
        • Operational Insights – Manage your trial operations with a data-driven approach
          Sample Management Analytics
        • Risk-Based Quality Management – Holistic risk management and monitoring
        • Statistical Computing Environment – Accelerate and automate statistical analyses
        • elluminate IQ – AI-enabled data review
        • For Every Role


          • Data Management
          • Clinical Operations
          • Medical Monitoring
          • Biostatistics
          • R&D IT
          • Clinical Programming
  • Services
      • Services Approach


      • Clinical Biometrics Services

        Expert biometrics services accelerated by people and technology

      • Overview
      • Clients
      • Products
      • Careers
      • Learn
      • Request a Proposal
      • Services


        • Clinical Data Acquisition – Design and implementation for innovative trials
        • Clinical Data Management – Integrated clinical trial data management services
        • Data Conversion and Standardization – Services streamline data analysis and submission
        • Biostatistics and Statistical Programming – Strategic statistical input and programming
        • Functional Service Provider – Flexible and scalable program-level support
        • elluminate Implementation – Dedicated elluminate enablement and success
        • For Every Role


          • Data Management
          • Clinical Operations
          • Medical Monitoring
          • Biostatistics
          • R&D IT
          • Clinical Programming
        • Urovant Integrated Summary of Safety (ISS) Case Study – Urovant streamlines ISS submission prep and planning with eClinical Solutions’ biostatistics and statistical programming services and elluminate
        • View case study
  • Clients
      • Clients


      • Powering Life Science Innovators

        Helping clients digitize and transform clinical data

      • See all
      • Products
      • Services
      • About eClinical
      • Learn
      • Request a Demo
        • Customer Stories


        • Agios Pharmaceuticals
        • bluebird bio
        • Bristol Myers Squibb
        • Cerevel
        • See All
        • Partners


        • eClinical Partners
        • For Every Role


          • Data Management
          • Clinical Operations
          • Medical Monitoring
          • Biostatistics
          • R&D IT
          • Clinical Programming
        • BMS elluminate Clinical Data Cloud Case Study – BMS adopts a unified clinical data architecture with the elluminate Clinical Data Cloud as the foundation for data access across sources
        • View case study
  • Learn
      • Learn


      • Digital Clinical Learning Center

        The latest resources to help you solve data challenges

      • See all
      • Products
      • Services
      • Clients
      • About eClinical
      • Request a Demo
        • Events and Webinars


        • Events
        • elluminate Engage
        • Webinars
        • eClinical Academy
        • Resources


        • Blog
        • Tufts Research
        • Client Stories
        • Videos
        • White Papers
        • Roadmap to Digital Transformation Series
        • See All
        • For Every Role


          • Data Management
          • Clinical Operations
          • Medical Monitoring
          • Biostatistics
          • R&D IT
          • Clinical Programming
        • eClinical Solutions Blog – Stay up to date with the latest posts and perspectives to help guide your digital data transformation strategies
        • Read the blog
  • About
      • About


      • Leading the eClinical Evolution

        Experienced life science leaders driving data innovation

      • Learn more
        • Company


        • Leadership
        • Careers
        • Partners
        • News


        • In the News
        • Press Releases
        • Events
        • Webinars
        • Blog
        • Connect


          • Contact Us
        • Careers at eClinical Solutions – Accelerate your career, shape the future of life sciences and make your contribution to helping bring therapies to patients faster
        • Learn more
  • Request a Demo
  • Contact Us

Driving technology and processes for better data management outcomes

Author: eClinical Solutions
Published: March 2, 2023 5 min read
Share:

Biometrics Services Spotlight Series | Q&A with Robert Altman

As we continue our Biometrics Services Spotlight series, we talk with Robert Altman, Director of Data Management at eClinical Solutions for further insights into how our clinical data management services team is working to support clients in an ever-evolving and increasingly data-centric environment.

In his role, Robert develops biometrics best practices and manages a team of portfolio leads overseeing delivery and driving data efficiencies and standardization. In our interview we discuss the importance of oversight, the technologies having the greatest impact in data management today, and the role of the portfolio lead within eClinical Solutions’ Biometrics Services.

What’s your role at eClinical Solutions, and what’s your background?

As a Director of Data Management, my role today reflects my career experience driving functional improvements through resourcing, process, technology, training, and mentoring across the data management team. At eClinical Solutions, we assign portfolio leads to provide oversight, expertise, and identify and implement efficiencies across multiple studies for a single sponsor. One of my responsibilities is to oversee that team.

Over the course of my career, I have worked for several sponsors and led the transition of processes from paper-based activities to EDC (Electronic Data Capture). While working within the services space, I’ve been part of the continued evolution to a digital model, and now towards decentralized trials. My experience also includes running Functional Service Provider (FSP) engagements for data management, statistics, and statistical programming.

What would you say are the most notable developments you’ve seen in recent years in, in data management across your career?

That initial transition towards EDC was of course a significant milestone. Now with decentralization and increasing patient centricity we see a step change in data volume, speed, and variety which clinical data management groups will need to handle.

Let’s take wearables as an example. That data is being transmitted in near real time –it’s reams and reams of data in significant volume. As a data-centric organization, through our technology and our biometrics services we are well placed to be at the forefront of taking that data and making the most sense out of it for our clients, to help them make better-informed, real-time decisions.

Over your career what’s surprised you most about how data management has evolved?

So, before risk-based quality management came to the fore, we had risk-based monitoring, and from my perspective, the adoption of that methodology seemed to be slow. I’m using this as an example of how, more generally, either for the uptake of a process or technology, – or both, the industry prefers to take a conservative approach – like dipping a toe in the water. This is understandable given the regulatory framework and compliance focus of our industry. However, we also need to be mindful that the data environment is changing extremely quickly, and data is going to be rushing in like a tidal wave.

Handling it all needs different tools and methodologies than simple edit checks. Instead, as data managers, we will need to be looking closely at analytics and trends. To achieve faster adoption of the new approaches for this changing environment, we need to continue to demonstrate their value and importance.

You mentioned that you work extensively with our portfolio leads. Can you tell us a little more about the portfolio model and how it bolsters delivery?

Oversight is critical to ensuring high quality deliverables and is also a regulatory obligation for the sponsor. As subject matter experts, our portfolio leads not only oversee quality, but also pinpoint other issues and enable the client to get ahead of them. There’s a value simply in overseeing the program of studies for a given client and acting as an extra set of eyes.

The portfolio leads apply their specific expertise in biometrics and in clinical trials but take a bird’s eye view in considering the studies from data collection to analysis. Their role helps to squeeze out any workflow bottlenecks, manage standardization and drive efficiencies across the portfolio.

What technology advances have untapped potential?

We are becoming increasingly efficient at making sense of disparate data from this greater variety of sources. There is still potential to increase the breadth of that data that we can handle as an industry through technology and services and become even more efficient at doing so. There are also untapped opportunities to streamline execution of decentralized and hybrid types of trials.

The other area of potential that particularly applies within larger-scale engagements such as FSPs (Functional Service Provider) is improving oversight capabilities for sponsors through technology and processes. Enabling sponsors to show oversight of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and milestones as well as data quality oversight and show evidence of that to a regulator is extremely valuable. These tools and technologies are invaluable for the sponsor directly, but also for the portfolio lead who can more easily oversee the trials and bring issues to the client’s attention. This combination of technology with the portfolio lead approach I’ve described helps to keep everyone on the same page.

In your view, what are the key differentiators of our biometrics services?

We eat, breathe, and sleep data! With clinical development becoming so data-centric now, that holds a lot of value for our clients. Good data management means data quality, data integrity and keeping that focus on the end-to-end data stewardship. With the ability to handle greater data volumes and variety we’re also at the forefront of shifting from a traditional clinical data management role towards clinical data scientist capabilities.

My aspiration for our group is to continue being best in class in helping sponsors to navigate the new data environment with proven tools and methods to get to the best insights and outcomes.

About Robert Altman

Robert Altman
Director of Data Management
eClinical Solutions
With over 20 years of experience within the pharmaceutical industry, Robert has built his data management career within pharmaceutical and biotechnology sponsor organizations as well as service providers. During his time in industry, Rob has experienced the evolution of data processing from paper-based to digital solutions. As Director of Data Management at eClinical Solutions, Robert enjoys collaborating with his eClinical Solutions colleagues and sponsors to continue this trend of advancing clinical research and data processing through innovation and emerging technologies. Rob lives in Wilmington, North Carolina with his wife, 4 children, and 2 dogs. Living on the coast, Rob enjoys fishing and kayaking in the waterways of southeastern NC.

Contact Us

Fill out the form below to schedule a demo and/or speak to an eClinical Solutions representative to learn more about elluminate.

We're committed to your privacy. eClinical Solutions uses the information you provide to us to contact you about our relevant content, products, and services. You may unsubscribe from these communications at any time. For more information, check out our Privacy Policy.

Blog
Clinical Biometrics Services Spotlight SeriesRobert Altman

Related Content

Evolving Data Management in an Era of Decentralization

Posted in: Blog

Driving Quality and Speed in Clinical Data Acquisition

Posted in: Blog

Harnessing technology and cross-functional alignment to enable successful statistical partnerships

Posted in: Blog

Recent Blog Posts

Best Practices for Implementing New Technology and Facilitating Adoption

Summit for Clinical Operations Executives (SCOPE) 2023 – Orlando, Florida

Harnessing technology and cross-functional alignment to enable successful statistical partnerships

  • Products
  • Mapper
  • Data Central
  • Clinical Analytics
  • Operational Insights
  • Risk-Based Quality Management
  • Statistical Computing Environment
  • elluminate IQ
  • Services
  • Clinical Data Acquisition
  • Clinical Data Management
  • Data Conversion and Standardization
  • Biostatistics and Statistical Programming
  • Functional Service Provider
  • elluminate Implementation
About & Resources
  • Clients
  • Learn
  • Events
  • About
  • Leadership
  • Press Releases
  • Careers
  • Partners
  • Contact Us
  • Support

Subscribe to eClinical Insights and News

Get data strategy resources delivered to your inbox

We’re committed to your privacy. eClinical Solutions uses the information you provide to us to contact you about our relevant content, products, and services. You may unsubscribe from these communications at any time. For more information, check out our Privacy Policy.

  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

© eClinical Solutions LLC. All rights reserved. elluminate® is a registered service mark of eClinical Solutions LLC.

  • Privacy Policy
  • Trust and Privacy
  • Legal
  • Contact Us

Upcoming Webinar:
Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Journey: Adopting A Modern Data Infrastructure & Analytics Platform

Register Now
X
Scroll Up