26 May 2020 - - US-based VirTrial has launched a new service designed to enable virtual site monitoring visits in the clinical trials industry, the company said.

The solution enables pharmaceutical sponsors and CROs to evaluate, qualify and routinely monitor research sites for studies without physical travel.

The service is the industry's first patent-pending virtual site monitoring solution.

Virtual Pre-Site includes delivery of HD live-streaming glasses that enable an on-site Clinical Research Coordinator to provide a remote Clinical Research Associate access to all aspects of the site virtually simply by walking through the site wearing the glasses.

Everything in view of the study coordinator streams to the CRA's computer screen so she/he can verify the site qualifies for, is trained for and is performing the study to protocol standards.

Virtual Pre-Site, which is powered by the VirTrial Virtual Care Management platform, streamlines and standardizes the study startup and routine monitoring process while ensuring consistent information is being collected across all sites.

Virtual Pre-Site's secure, HIPAA-compliant platform enables the CRA to conduct video interviews with both the CRC and the PI to ensure they have the needed patients, appropriate experience, and time to conduct the study.

By eliminating the need for CRAs to travel, Virtual Pre-Site reduces the time required for study monitoring and slashes associated time and costs.

COVID-19 spurred a significant increase in Virtual Pre-Site inquiries to accommodate site monitoring for existing studies and to expedite study startups for COVID and other drug trials.

Early adopters and innovative sponsors and CROs, however, recognized the value well before the pandemic.

VirTrial is a bioscience technology company providing a stable, long-standing telemedicine platform to transform the clinical trial industry.

The Virtual Care Management program combines secure video, audio, chat and messaging allowing pharmaceutical companies and CROs to create patient centric Decentralized Clinical Trials by replacing some study visits with virtual visits.

The vision is for 25-50% of visits to be conducted virtually creating a hybrid model.

VirTrial apps and services are supported on any device (Android, Apple, tablet, phone, computer) and can be used by any site worldwide.

They are hosted in a secure cloud-based environment and are HIPAA and GDPR compliant.

VirTrial enables greater accessibility to trials for patients, higher performance by clinical trial sites, and improved outcomes for pharmaceutical companies. Working together we can bring better medications to market more quickly.