New Release of Central Coding(TM) for InForm(TM) Reduces Time and
Effort Required to Update Clinical Study Data to Latest Industry
Standard Dictionaries
WALTHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 28, 2008--Phase Forward
(NASDAQ: PFWD), a leading provider of data management solutions for
clinical trials and drug safety, today announced Central Coding(TM)
for InForm(TM) 2.0, a new release of a Web-based application optimized
to code clinical data within Phase Forward's InForm Integrated Trial
Management (ITM) electronic data capture (EDC) product to industry
standard dictionaries.
Most companies conducting clinical trials must map the variety of
study data terms they have captured to a set of common terms contained
within industry standard dictionaries, such as the World Health
Organizations Drug Dictionary (WHO-DD) and the Medical Dictionary for
Regulatory Affairs (MedDRA), for adverse events and medical coding.
Sponsors continue to invest heavily in clinical process re-design,
staffing and system applications to support the dictionary coding
management process with the goals of improving consistency, providing
better cross-trial analytics and simplifying the submission
preparation process. The time and cost to code clinical terms are
strongly dependent on the clinical knowledge of the coder, the
management of dictionary and synonym versions and the coding
algorithms used to automatically code clinical events.
The "coding process" offered in many EDC systems can be
time-consuming because simplistic coding algorithms force coders to
manually match the majority of their study data to standard terms. In
addition, the regularity of newer dictionary versions makes it
extremely difficult for companies to recode their clinical data to the
latest standards once the coding process has been initiated using
older dictionaries.
The Central Coding for InForm 2.0 application gives companies the
tools to address these important challenges. In addition to providing
an advanced, centralized multi-trial coding environment that
streamlines the initial coding process, Central Coding for InForm 2.0
now offers tools to reduce the manual coding required to recode
clinical data to reflect the latest standards in multiple
dictionaries.
New features in the Central Coding for InForm 2.0 application
offer users the ability to:
-- Compare the differences between any industry standard
dictionary version
-- Assess the impact a new standard dictionary will have on an
existing study
-- Review and reconcile previously coded verbatims based on
dictionary differences and algorithm matching
-- Review and reconcile synonym lists based on dictionary
differences
In addition, the Central Coding for InForm 2.0 application now
supports Oracle Database 10g.
"Our customers tell us that ensuring adherence to dynamic clinical
term dictionaries presents a formidable challenge," said Phase Forward
Senior Vice President Steve Rosenberg. "We have developed Central
Coding for InForm 2.0 in direct response to this input. The tools and
functionality provided in Central Coding for InForm 2.0 are designed
to help our customers reduce the time required to meet this
challenge."
Launched in March 2006, the Central Coding for InForm application
has been enthusiastically adopted by Phase Forward customers. As the
coding process becomes a more strategic part of new customer trials,
the functionality offered by Central Coding for InForm takes on more
importance. Indicative of this trend, there are currently over 40
Central Coding for InForm trials in live production.
The Central Coding for InForm application is available now as
either an Application Service Provider (ASP) or Enterprise Adoption
(EA) solution for Phase Forward InForm users.
About Phase Forward
Phase Forward is a leading provider of integrated data management
solutions for clinical trials and drug safety. The company offers
proven solutions for electronic data capture (InForm(TM)), phase I
clinic automation (LabPas(TM)), clinical data management
(Clintrial(TM)), clinical trials signal detection (CTSD(TM)),
strategic pharmacovigilance (WebVDME(TM) and Signal Management),
adverse event reporting (Clintrace(TM)) and applied data standards
(WebSDM(TM)). In addition, the company provides services in the areas
of application implementation, hosting and validation, data
integration, business process optimization, safety data management and
industry standards. Phase Forward's products and services have been
utilized in over 10,000 clinical trials involving more than 1,000,000
clinical trial study participants at over 250 organizations and
regulatory agencies worldwide including: AstraZeneca, Boston
Scientific, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Eli Lilly, the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration, GlaxoSmithKline, Harvard Clinical Research
Institute, Merck Serono, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, PAREXEL
International, Procter & Gamble, Quintiles, sanofi-aventis,
Schering-Plough Research Institute, Servier, Tibotec and the U.K.
Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency. Additional
information about Phase Forward is available at www.phaseforward.com.
Cautionary Statement
Certain statements made in this press release that are not based
on historical information are forward-looking statements which are
made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. This press release contains express or
implied forward-looking statements relating to, among other things,
the effectiveness and market acceptance of Phase Forward's
technologies and services, the benefits that may be realized by
customers using Phase Forward's technologies and services, and the
ability of Phase Forward to persuade customers and prospective
customers of these benefits, and the adherence of Phase Forward
products to industry and regulatory standards. These statements are
neither promises nor guarantees, but are subject to a variety of risks
and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Phase Forward's control,
which could cause actual results to differ materially from those
contemplated in these forward-looking statements. In particular, the
risks and uncertainties include, among other things, a lack of market
acceptance of new and existing technologies such as those offered by
Phase Forward, changes in customers' opinions of and experiences with
these technologies and services, the ability of Phase Forward to
convince current and potential customers to order its new technologies
and services, changes in industry and regulatory standards, and
competition. Existing and prospective investors are cautioned not to
place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak
only as of the date hereof. Phase Forward undertakes no obligation to
update or revise the information contained in this press release,
whether as a result of new information, future events or circumstances
or otherwise. For additional disclosure regarding these and other
risks faced by Phase Forward, see the disclosure contained in Phase
Forward's public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission
including, without limitation, its most recent Quarterly Report on
Form 10-Q.
CONTACT: Phase Forward
Elaine Maynard, 781-902-4371
elaine.maynard@phaseforward.com
or
CHEN PR, Inc.
Randy Wambold, 781-672-3119
rwambold@chenpr.com
SOURCE: Phase Forward
