press release: the avoca quality consortium announces new initiatives for 2014
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For Immediate Release Media Contact: General Information: Brittany Hutt Caryn Laermer [email protected] [email protected] 610-‐212-‐1230 609-‐799-‐0511
The Avoca Quality Consortium Announces New Initiatives for 2014
Expanded membership and new process to prequalify providers among 2014 priorities
Jamie Heywood, Co-‐Founder and Chairman, PatientsLikeMe, to keynote annual Summit
PRINCETON, NJ (February 25, 2014) – The Avoca Quality Consortium (AQC) Membership announces a bold new agenda for 2014, which includes standardizing provider prequalification, expanding membership opportunities, and benchmarking approaches to measuring and managing quality. These and other AQC initiatives will be discussed at the annual industry-‐wide Summit May 6-‐7 in Princeton, NJ; May 6 as a Members Only session and May 7 open to the industry. The AQC is led by The Avoca Group, an industry-‐leading consulting and research organization, and includes executives from major biotech and pharmaceutical companies and leading clinical research organizations (CROs). Key initiatives for 2014 include:
• Develop a new standard for prequalification for niche providers. By facilitating the sharing of information, AQC hopes to increase efficiency and reduce the costs associated with prequalification.
• Continue AQC’s efforts to expand the Consortium’s resources and tools for leading practices for quality oversight: focus will be placed on developing principles and tools for Quality by Design and Risk Management.
• Conduct a benchmarking research effort to measure business practices and the status of quality management practices to gauge whether there has been improvement or decline in quality over the past two years.
• Kick-‐off a new collaboration with The Society of Clinical Research Sites (SCRS) to gather sites’ feedback and opinions about quality management practices and sites’ perceptions of sponsors and CROs.
• Launch an educational webinar series focused on quality management practices.
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In an effort to foster even more industry collaboration, for the first time AQC will offer Associate Consortium Membership in 2014 to companies that provide products and services in support of clinical development.
“It is very gratifying to see our Members so engaged in the Avoca Quality Consortium’s efforts and we are very proud of the accomplishments to date,” said Patricia Leuchten, Founder and CEO of The Avoca Group. “We are particularly excited to offer associate membership to niche service providers, as they represent an important segment of our industry and will be important contributors to the Pre-‐qualification initiative that we are launching this year.” Industry professionals are encouraged to participate in Day 2 of the Annual Quality Consortium Summit on May 6-‐7 in Princeton, New Jersey, while Day 1 will be for Consortium Member companies. This year’s Quality Summit will focus on themes that include execution of high quality clinical trials, the drivers of clinical trial participation in different disease populations, the future of the clinical trial enterprise, and achieving progress through collaboration. Jamie Heywood, Chairman and Co-‐founder of PatientsLikeMe, will deliver the keynote address on May 7th. The subject of Jamie’s talk will be, “Subjects No More-‐ Will Your Trial Meet the Patients’ Eligibility Requirements? Bridging to a Collaborative Patient-‐Centered Future.” “The Avoca Quality Consortium has had a positive impact across the industry to create an environment of collaboration between biopharmaceutical sponsors and CROs,” stated John Hubbard, Ph.D., FCP, Senior Vice President and Worldwide Head of Development Operations, Pfizer, Inc, one of the lead sponsors of the AQC. “The work of the Consortium to date, and what we are embarking upon this year, is producing tangible improvements to improve the quality of our clinical trials.” AQC members have access to research, metrics, and guidelines for Quality Oversight and Risk Management through a user-‐friendly online technology platform. They also receive regular reports on quality and trends in clinical outsourcing, published by The Avoca Group. About The Avoca Quality Consortium The Avoca Quality Consortium was founded in 2012 as an opportunity to bring Sponsors and CROs together to accelerate the development of best practices and industry standards for proactive quality management. The Avoca Quality Consortium is led by The Avoca Group, Inc., a Princeton-‐based consulting firm founded in 1999. Avoca’s team consists of pharmaceutical industry veterans and subject matter experts in the areas of large-‐scale organizational change, relationship management, quality management, and survey research. The Avoca Group conducts industry research on trends in clinical outsourcing each year, presenting the results, The Avoca Report, at international conferences and in industry publications.
### For more information about the Avoca Quality Consortium, or to inquire about membership, please contact [email protected] at (609) 799-‐0511, or visit the The Avoca Quality Consortium.