Explore how academic medical centers (AMCs) can integrate clinical research as a care option (CRAACO) using RealTime-Devana’s advanced software platform. By providing a comprehensive roadmap, this document highlights the benefits of CRAACO, addresses common challenges, and demonstrates how Devana can streamline and improve the process of standing up clinical research programs within AMCs. This guide will serve as a valuable resource for academic medical centers looking to boost their clinical research capabilities and integrate clinical trials into their patient care offerings. 
The Role of Clinical Research in Modern Healthcare
The integration of CRAACO is transforming the way clinical trials intersect with patient care, particularly within AMCs. CRAACO emphasizes making clinical research a seamless part of standard healthcare, ensuring that patients – especially those with limited treatment options – have greater access to innovative therapies. For AMCs, this approach not only enhances patient outcomes, but also accelerates medical advancements by expanding trial participation and improving data diversity. By embedding research into routine care, AMCs can drive more efficient study enrollment, improve trial retention rates, and generate real-world evidence that fuels medical breakthroughs.
As the healthcare landscape evolves, CRAACO presents a crucial opportunity for AMCs to bridge the gap between research and treatment, ultimately leading to better, more inclusive healthcare solutions.
Challenges in Implementing CRAACO in Academic Medical Centers
While the potential benefits of CRAACO are clear, many AMCs face significant challenges in fully integrating clinical trials into standard patient care. These obstacles often stem from operational inefficiencies, decentralized management, and a lack of real-time data visibility. Below are some of the most common barriers AMCs encounter when trying to implement CRAACO:
Decentralized Study Management
AMCs often operate in complex environments with multiple investigators, departments, and funding sources overseeing various research initiatives. Without a unified system to coordinate these efforts, inefficiencies arise – delaying study activation, complicating regulatory compliance, and making it difficult to ensure seamless collaboration across departments. A decentralized approach leads to siloed workflows, reducing the overall effectiveness of research integration into patient care.
Limited Visibility into Performance Metrics
Tracking study timelines, patient recruitment efficiency, and site performance across different trial types remains a challenge for many AMCs. Without access to real-time performance metrics, leadership lacks the oversight needed to optimize study operations, identify roadblocks, and make data-driven decisions. This lack of transparency can result in missed opportunities for trial participation and delays in bringing innovative treatments to patients.
Inefficiencies in Feasibility and Trial Selection
Choosing the right trials to align with patient populations and institutional priorities is critical, yet many AMCs struggle with slow and fragmented feasibility assessments. Without a centralized system in place to evaluate past performance, patient eligibility, and site capacity, trial selection becomes reactive rather than strategic. This inefficiency can lead to wasted resources, lower enrollment success rates, and missed chances to offer groundbreaking therapies to patients who need them most.
To fully realize the potential of CRAACO, AMCs must address these challenges with technology-driven solutions that streamline study management, enhance visibility, and support smarter trial selection.
Leveraging RealTime-Devana for CRAACO
As AMCs work to implement CRAACO, overcoming operational inefficiencies and fragmented processes is critical. RealTime-Devana provides a robust, purpose-built solution that streamlines study management, boosts visibility into performance metrics, and accelerates trial workflows. By leveraging automation, data analytics, and seamless integrations, Devana enables AMCs to optimize their research operations and successfully embed clinical trials into routine patient care.
Devana is a centralized, cloud-based platform designed to unify research operations across multiple investigators, departments, and locations. It connects teams in real time, providing a single source of truth for all aspects of study management, from feasibility assessments to trial execution and performance tracking. By replacing outdated, manual processes with automation, AMCs can improve efficiency, enhance collaboration, and eliminate operational silos that often slow down research efforts. Here are some key features that help drive success:
Study Start-up Optimization
Study activation delays are a significant barrier for all trials. Devana automates and standardizes study start-up processes, ensuring that feasibility assessments, contracting, regulatory approvals, and site selection happen faster and more efficiently. Empowered with real-time visibility into current and historical trial performance as well as patient population data, AMCs can make data-driven decisions about which studies align best with their capabilities and patient demographics.
Enhanced Project Management
Managing multiple trials across various departments and locations can be challenging. Devana centralizes project management, offering real-time tracking of key milestones, enrollment progress, and compliance tasks. Automated alerts and role-based task assignments keep teams accountable, ensuring studies move forward without unnecessary delays. This level of oversight is essential for AMCs striving to integrate research seamlessly into patient care.
Advanced Business Intelligence and Analytics
AMCs require real-time performance insights to make informed decisions about study selection, resource allocation, and patient recruitment. Devana’s built-in analytics tools provide detailed reports on study timelines, enrollment metrics, financial performance, and site efficiency. With customized dashboards and data visualization, leadership teams can easily identify trends, address bottlenecks, and demonstrate research success to sponsors and stakeholders alike.
Seamless Software Integrations
To maximize operational efficiency and reduce duplicate data entry, Devana integrates seamlessly with the leading Clinical Trial Management Systems (CTMS) and other key software. This interoperability ensures that data flows effortlessly between systems, saving time and enhancing regulatory compliance. By working more efficiently, employees can spend more time on patient-focused tasks.
With Devana’s powerful automation, analytics, and integration capabilities, AMCs can overcome the barriers to CRAACO implementation by establishing more efficient, data-driven approach to clinical research in general. By embedding trials into routine care, AMCs can expand patient access to innovative treatments while making research more profitable at their organization.
How RealTime-Devana Helped MUSC Gain Performance Transparency
The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) faced a common challenge among leading research institutions: limited visibility into trial performance, making it difficult to align resources for the most promising therapeutic areas. With multiple investigators and departments involved in clinical research, MUSC needed a solution that could provide real-time insights into study performance, streamline site operations, and enhance decision-making.
By implementing RealTime-Devana, MUSC gained a centralized platform to track key performance metrics across its clinical trials. This newfound transparency allowed leadership to assess trial efficiency, improve study selection processes, and better allocate resources to high-performing therapeutic areas. The ability to analyze site performance in real time empowered MUSC to optimize feasibility assessments, accelerate study start-up, and strengthen partnerships with sponsors. As a result, MUSC not only improved operational efficiency but also positioned itself as a leading research institution capable of driving impactful clinical trials with greater precision and success.
Final Thoughts - The Future of CRAACO in AMCS
As clinical research becomes more integrated into healthcare, the future of CRAACO will largely be shaped by advancements in technology. Emerging trends indicate a growing reliance on digital tools to enhance trial accessibility, improve patient engagement, and streamline operational efficiency. Automation and workflow optimization will further reduce administrative burdens, enabling researchers and healthcare providers to focus on patient care. Additionally, telemedicine and remote monitoring technologies will continue to make participation in clinical trials more convenient for patients, increasing enrollment and retention rates.
As these innovations continue to evolve, integrated technology platforms like RealTime-Devana will play a crucial role in helping AMCs bridge the gap between research and patient care. By providing a centralized system for managing trial data, tracking performance, and ensuring seamless collaboration between departments, the right technology will empower AMCs to fully embrace CRAACO, drive profitability, and ultimately, improve global patient outcomes.
As AMCs strive to integrate clinical research into patient care, they face challenges such as decentralized study management, limited visibility into performance metrics, and inefficiencies in feasibility and trial selection. However, with the right technology, these barriers can be overcome.
The time to act is now. RealTime-Devana offers a powerful, centralized solution that accelerates study start-up, streamlines project management, and delivers real-time business intelligence to drive informed decision-making. Through seamless integration with CTMS and other mission-critical software, AMCs can optimize research operations while improving patient access to groundbreaking treatments.
Read More: Leading Clinical Trials with Precision: Tracking Performance that Delivers Results
Read More: How RealTime-Devana Helped MUSC Gain Performance Transparency to Improve Therapeutic Alignment
