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Calling all assessment authors: Do you want to share your COA with sponsors across the globe?
The IQVIA eCOA Library can help make that happen
Piero Bindi, Associate Director, IQVIA eCOA Library Licensing and Translations
Mar 18, 2022

When an individual or organization develops a clinical outcomes assessment (COA) it is usually intended for a specific application at a specific time. However, these assessments can hold significant long-term value – for both authors and patients.

Electronic clinical outcome assessments (eCOAs) are an important part of the clinical research environment. eCOAs provide investigators with a way to gather more data from the unique perspectives of patients, caregivers and site staff, which gives them deeper insight into their care journeys. And as sponsors shift to decentralized clinical trials (DCTs), eCOAs will become an effective way to capture data remotely throughout the trial.

This has created a unique opportunity for authors who want their assessments to impact a broader patient population. At IQVIA, we host a library that features more than 1300 assessments created by some of the greatest minds in the clinical landscape.

All assessments are welcome

The IQVIA eCOA Library currently features assessments from hundreds of copyright holders, including industry and academic groups, like the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC), and the Clinical Outcomes Team at Oxford University Innovation; along with individual physicians, scientists and experts who want to share their work with the clinical research community.

Sponsors draw eCOAs from the library to support their trials, securing licenses and/or permissions from the authors as required and if fees or royalties are due, they are captured. This approach provides the scientific community with a valid tool to gather consistent and meaningful data in their studies. While sponsors can create their own eCOAs, by working with our team of experts, this library provides instant access to tools that have already been validated and are ready to use.

By pre-implementing assessments electronically through our library, eCOAs become qualified for expedited inclusion in future projects, which can drive a significant increase in their use.

Once the assessment is transformed for electronic use, authors and copyright holders can reuse the design and screenshots for future projects.

How it works

Many authors assume that if they include their assessment through an eCOA library, they have to give up rights to the intellectual property (IP), or that the assessment will be altered in a way that compromises its integrity. But the opposite is true. All of our authors and copyright holders maintain total control of the design of their assessment and the IP. Authors and owners of COAs retain freedom to share their instruments with other organizations and to use them in their own work, even after it is made available through our library.

It’s also a relatively simple process. Ideally an assessment should:

  • be psychometrically validated,
  • have published results of its validity and reliability (such as an article of reference), and
  • be available in English.

If the assessment meets these criteria, our eCOA SME team works with the author(s) to adapt the assessment to an electronic format that will work with all relevant operating systems. It is ensured that when an assessment is implemented electronically it is done so through eCOA migration best practices. Authors have final approval of every screen, including layout, colors, button use and other design elements, ensuring the author’s exact intention is maintained. This process can be complete in as little as a few hours.

Once the final electronic version is authorized for inclusion in the eCOA library by the author, it is made available for sponsors to use in their studies, with any permissions or licenses secured in advance of any application.

If you are an author or copyright holder who would like to learn more about the IQVIA library, or how to partner with IQVIA to add your assessments to the library, please contact me at piero.bindi@iqvia.com.

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