At the time of writing this, I'm aware of exactly three products—three sponsors-oriented products that I'd purchase and endorse for use by my employees and stakeholders (sites and patients) within a clinical trial. Another two, I haven’t tested enough to form an opinion.
These three products - I am not naming - are not enough to cover my vendor list necessary to run an oncology study. But three products are all we got. The rest is subpar.
Subpar work is an inherent aspect of evolution. Quality/performance is the business of the elite, and the elite will always constitute a minority. After all, among all phones, one brand is synonymous with design. Among all AI models, only one immediately comes to mind, and so on...
Meb Faber, the brain behind the Idea Farm, posits:
“In the history of Wall Street, I think there are two types of firms — I think there are firms where you’re putting out products that you believe in, you work your ass off to make them the best possible products, you put your own money in them, and you build a culture that these are things you believe in. Then you have a lot of firms that will put out whatever they can to capitalize and make as much money as they can on the themes of the day.”
This principle applies universally to include non Wall Street firms, encompassing our current HealthTech stack: The eHR systems, established EDCs, imaging software, eISFs…
The old guard of firms thrived on scarcity and lack of competition, building on the theme of the day without a care for end users.
However, life sciences companies find themselves in a predicament. How can they rationalize to an employee, engrossed in their iPhone; streaming on Netflix, shopping online, and managing their banking through apps, that they must log into a mediocre software and spend five hours daily managing data, clicking clunky buttons, and dealing with nonsensical, yet unavoidable queries?
Joining the clinical research workforce was a cultural shock to my millennial self. Now, imagine asking the TikTok generation to run SDVs, answer queries on RAVE, or review CT-Scans on Calyx. Good luck with that!
Sponsors and CROs are actively seeking stakeholder-friendly technology. The question then becomes, "What constitutes human-friendly tech?" Numerous design frameworks expound on human-centric design. However, in the maze of complex frameworks, the lesson remains simple: "A human-centric product is something you want to use."
To builders: "Don't create something you wouldn't want to use."
To buyers: "Don't purchase something you're not enthusiastic about using."
To sellers, I'll leave you with Charlie Munger's wisdom: "Don't sell what you wouldn't buy!"
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