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RealTime Reports

Survey Summary:
eSource ROI

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

The fourth edition of RealTime Reports presents the findings  from our eSource ROI survey of over 200 clinical research professionals from across the globe. The analysis reveals the current, site-level view of how electronic source documentation is reshaping workflows, improving oversight, and influencing audit outcomes, while also revealing persistent gaps in  integration and data automation.​

Survey Summary

As clinical trials become more complex and data-intensive, the need for efficient, compliant, and patient-centered workflows has never been greater.

Sites are being asked to do more with less: manage more trials, tighter timelines, and evolving regulatory expectations – all while ensuring data integrity and participant safety. In this environment, traditional paper-based and hybrid workflows are no longer sustainable.​

​eSource has emerged as a critical technology enabler for today’s trial conduct, offering sites the ability to streamline data collection, eliminate transcription errors, enable real-time remote monitoring, and ensure stronger compliance from day zero. Sites that adopt eSource are not just keeping up, they’re setting the gold standard for modern site operations.​

Key Findings:

eSource adoption is widespread and deepening. 74% of respondents currently use eSource in their clinical trials, and nearly 40% report using it for 100% of their active studies.​​

Time savings per visit is a key operational benefit. Almost 71% of sites save 6 minutes or more per visit with eSource. Within this group, 28% save 6–10 minutes, 27% save 11–20 minutes, and 15% save more than 20 minutes. Add that up with at just 10 patients per, sites can save over 11 hours per week.​​

The biggest time-saving gains come from early and post-visit processes. Respondents cited the most significant efficiencies in PI sign-off, source document creation, and initial data entry.​

Adoption is driven by both operational and compliance gains. Sites reported compliance benefits including standardized templates (39%), audit trail and version control (38%), real-time PI oversight (35%), and visit window alerts (34%).​

​Audit outcomes are encouraging. Among sites that have undergone audits post-eSource implementation, 65% reported no or only minor findings, and 59% attribute that success in part to eSource.​

Data duplication and transcription remain pain points. Most sites still rely on manual or partially automated methods to transfer data from eSource to EDC, with over 60% spending more than 10 minutes per visit on transcription and cleanup.​

Download the Full Report (PDF)

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