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RealTime Reports

Survey Summary:
Trial Start-Up, Visibility & Performance Benchmarks

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Survey Summary

RealTime Reports is a recurring survey series that aims to uncover emerging trends, surface best practices, and provide data-driven insights that empower clinical research stakeholders, from independent sites and multi-site networks, to AMCs, hospitals, and health systems. Through direct input from frontline professionals and operational leaders, each edition highlights practical strategies to improve performance in clinical trial execution.

This edition presents findings from a survey of clinical research professionals across independent sites, multi-site networks, and large site organizations (11+ locations). Respondents shared how they manage trial start-up, operational oversight, and performance visibility today, and where the most significant operational gaps remain. The findings establish practical benchmarks for site networks and multi-site operations, with expert insights and actionable guidance to help research leaders close the gap between where operations are today and where they need to be.

Key Findings:

Contract and budget turnaround spans a wide range.

  • Just 5% finalize contract and budget negotiations within a week, 38% within 8–14 days, and 14% within 15–30 days, but nearly a quarter still average 31–60 days.
  • For more than half of organizations, contract and budget negotiations delay study activation at least sometimes.

Oversight data remains fragmented.

  • Across the sector, 76% of organizations rely on CTMS reports, 52% on spreadsheets, and 43% on email or messaging tools, with just 5% operating from a single unified platform.
  • Nearly 4 in 10 professionals report they only sometimes or rarely have a complete view of their trial portfolio.

Pipeline visibility gaps are top operational pain points.

Pipeline visibility gaps (48%) and enrollment visibility gaps (52%) are the top operational pain points across all respondents,  outranking even study start-up delays, a finding that points directly to data infrastructure, given that three in four organizations are still capturing metrics manually or with only partial automation.

Enrollment Rate vs. Target and Time to Activation are the metrics that matter most to leadership.

Enrollment rate vs. target (81%) and time to activation (71%) are the metrics that matter most to leadership, yet 76% of organizations are still capturing those metrics manually or with only partial automation.

The ambition is portfolio-level performance management. The reality is still largely manual.

Download the Full Report (PDF)

Read More: RealTime Reports: Negotiating Sponsor Reimbursement for Site-based Technology

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