Perceptive Informatics survey focuses on role of imaging in clinical trials

Nov 21, 2011 10:07am

With medical imaging playing a key role in many clinical trials, Perceptive Informatics has released the results of a survey it conducted with biopharma professionals on the value of medical imaging metrics in studies. The company, a clinical trials software unit of Parexel International ($PRXL), said today that it took the poll during a webinar on the topic of medical-imaging web reporting.

More than half of the respondents, or 54%, review metrics related to imaging regularly, according to the survey, and 81% of those who review the metrics use them "to inform progress toward the achievement of study milestones," Perceptive said in a release. These respondents said they are looking to imaging-related scores in qualifying sites for clinical trials in which images play a central role and in checking the status of imaging submissions.

It's difficult to draw many conclusions from one webinar poll, but the findings highlight the importance of imaging in certain clinical trials. In drug development, imaging results can be important to studying the efficacy of drugs in patients with forms of cancer and other diseases such as multiple sclerosis--both important areas of research in biopharma. Tools and services that support reviews of imaging data in clinical trials have been a mainstay of contract research groups and clinical tech outfits such as Perceptive. BioClinica ($BIOC) is another provider of imaging core lab services and software for clinical trials.

"Industry-standard performance metrics for imaging core labs have become an important element of effective study management," Kenneth Faulkner, vice president of medical imaging at Perceptive Informatics, said in a statement. "Centralized access to medical imaging metrics for multiple trials and cross-study program monitoring is especially critical for comprehensive analysis."

- here's the release