In multi-site clinical research, data rarely lives in one place. What organizations call a “system of record” is often a patchwork of tools that capture only fragments of operational truth. Leaders may believe they have a system of record because they use a CTMS, shared drives, dashboards, or project boards. In reality, most organizations operate with multiple partial systems
Why academic and health system research organizations are rethinking “free” platforms Most Academic Medical Centers, health systems, and hospitals don’t lack technology. They lack a unified operating layer governing research execution. Over time, research operations are stitched together from tools that are familiar, accessible, and often free: Systems like REDCap for data capture SharePoint for document management Email for coordination Spreadsheets for
This brief is intended to help AMC, hospital, and health system leaders reframe how operational risk shows up in modern research environments. Most clinical research leaders track budgets, enrollment, timelines, and compliance closely. Yet one of the most expensive operational costs in research rarely shows up anywhere formal. It doesn’t appear in licensing. It doesn’t appear in budgets. It shows up in people. It shows up in the invisible
Legacy CTMS Works. That’s the Problem. Legacy and similar homegrown CTMS platforms do exactly what they were designed to do: Track studies Support compliance Store data But modern research operations don’t break at the point of documentation. They break in the spaces between systems, teams, and workflows where no CTMS was ever designed to look. This creates an
