Solutions for a Better Tomorrow: Key Takeaways from ENGAGE 2024 

1. Pioneering Clinical Data & Analytics: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

We were pioneers in creating a software market segment for Clinical Data & Analytics 12+ years ago, giving a ray of hope to the industry struggling with unyielding commercial software and unmaintainable custom solutions. It has been an amazing journey that has cemented our leadership position in this space, evidenced by Everest Group’s PEAK Matrix report in 2023. It took a great vision, commitment, hard work, and world-class talent to get here.  

Bob Arnesen, President and Co-Founder, kicked off the proceedings on Day 1 with Raj Indupuri, CEO and Co-Founder taking us down memory lane and laying out his vision for the foreseeable future. It was great to hear that the recent Growth Investment by GI Partners will enable us to double-down our investments in R&D to eliminate technical debt, modernize the elluminate Clinical Data Cloud, and build pervasive AI capabilities into the platform. We are looking forward to accomplishing these future-forward goals while continually driving operational excellence. Our mission continues to be focused on supporting tomorrow’s breakthroughs and helping our clients re-invent their clinical development to bring new treatments to market faster. 

2. elluminate, the Undisputed Leader in Clinical Data Infrastructure & Analytics  

eClinical’s elluminate Clinical Data Cloud has been leading the way as the catalyst for digital clinical trials. As clinical research becomes more innovative, complex, and challenging, leveraging innovations like AI/ML, Gen AI, Agentic AI, RAG etc. will power the next generation technology. Nathan Johnson, VP Product closed out the second day of ENGAGE with a bang by revisiting all the enhancements delivered in 2024 as part of 24.1 release. 

3. Measuring ROI

It has always been a challenge to measure ROI for technology platforms and you cannot deliver the maximum ROI by focusing on technology alone. A panel discussion led by Jason Housley, Sr. Director Customer Success reiterated this fact and elicited practical ways to not only calculate the ROI for a platform like elluminate but also maximize the benefits and outcomes through a holistic approach with his expert panel including Krista Mullen Jagadish Kumar Dhanraj of Biogen and Kenneth Lima Ganse of Parexel.  

4. Build vs. Buy 

Some of the advances and innovations in technology have certainly made it easier to build solutions compared to the past. However, not many organizations are geared to build software unless you want to commit significant budget and resources to maintain it. Therefore, organizations tend to struggle on the decision of whether to buy or build specialized software to solve specific problems. Our Chief Business Officer, Marty Roche led the expert panel of Ian Shafer of PwC Nisarg Shah of Everest and Bruce Novick of Accenture, bringing important and differing points of view, opinions, best practices, and success factors for organizations to navigate and make the best decision in answering the essential question of build vs buy. 

5. Managing Change 

Chaired by Venu Mallarapu, a panel with Meghan Patterson of Halloran, Manny Lazaro of Kailera, and Sreekanth Gudapati of eClinical, had a lively conversation about how change is hard, but essential, as it is a constant in most of our professional and personal lives. We agreed that change management is often ignored or an eliminated work stream for various reasons, but essential to ensure successful adoption of transformative technology implementations like that of elluminate Clinical Data Cloud. 

6. AI is Your Partner is Handling Data Complexity and Building a Next Gen foundation to support Digital Clinical Trials 

While life science and various industries at large have come to terms with the use of AI/ML/GenAI effectively, it was the big, white elephant in the room throughout the ENGAGE conference. Our panel discussion, moderated by Cassie McGrath of Healthcare Brew, joined by Francis Kendall of Biogen, Simon Yu of Devote Consulting, and   Sandy Ng of eClinical had an excellent discussion on how best to ride the AI wave. They delved into the need for responsible AI that addresses regulatory compliance needs, eliminates biases, and aids in faster decision making to advance human health. They also reiterated the need for having a strategy and frequent review and revision to adapt to the challenges, results, and evolving needs. Practical use cases to ensure successful adoption seem to be the key to increased use and adoption. 

7. Cycle Time is the New Currency to Bring Successful Treatments to Patients, Faster 

Sponsors, CROs, technology vendors and all other stakeholders in the life sciences ecosystem are striving to reduce cycle times so the critical clinical studies are completed fast while assuring safety & efficacy of the treatments. This requires an ‘all-hands-on-deck’ approach to startup, conduct and closeout of studies. Access to real-time data from diverse data sources to make the right decision at the right time is critical for ensuring this.  

The ENGAGE annual conference solidified our industry’s interest and implementation of AI/ML tools to address the growing complexity of clinical trials. Attendees were energized by the conversations hosted by solutions experts, respected thought leaders from leading sponsors, academic institutions, technology leaders, and more. Over the course of the two-day event, it became clear that researchers are looking for practical guidance and ready-to-go solutions to help implement more efficient processes and workflows and adopt approaches to help improve the efficiency of trial data. 

Learn more about the annual Engage conference and watch session recordings.