Built by Sites, For Sites: How Site Centric is Rethinking Clinical Trial Technology

What happens when a research site gets so frustrated with disconnected systems that they decide to build their own? In this episode, Jimmy Bechtel sits down with Brian Hunter, COO, and Florin Petrutiu, CIO of Site Centric, to hear exactly that story. Born out of CNS Healthcare over 18 years ago, Site Centric has evolved from an internal workaround into a full CTMS platform now available to sites everywhere. Brian and Florin share how their hands-on site experience shaped every corner of the platform, how they're integrating AI tools without adding operational burden, and why becoming an SCRS Global Impact Partner felt like a natural next step. 

Transcript

Jimmy Bechtel 0:00

Hello and welcome to SCRS talks provided by the Society for Clinical Research Sites. With us today are two representatives from Site Centric, an organization that has really transformed some of the traditional technology that we have in place for sites to use from a CTMS and site efficiency perspective. And I'm really excited to talk a little bit about, the, the background of this platform, this program, this piece of very important software, and Site Centric. Participation in joining in the SCRS GIP program. but before we get into that, we'll get into introductions from our two guests today. first we have Brian Hunter, who is the COO with Site Centric and, Florin Petrutiu, who is the CIO with Site Centric. Brian, why don't you start us off letting us know a little bit more about you.

Brian Hunter 0:48

Thank you Jimmy. Nice to be chatting with you today. I'm always good to connect. yeah, so my background started at CNS Healthcare. I'm still with CNS as Florin and I both are. 20 plus years ago, actually, coming up in August, it'll be 21 years. I started on the clinical side. I was a study coordinator, I was a site director. I did patient recruitment, business development, basically almost everything, having to do a site. Operations. I'm still heavily involved with site operations for our clinical trial sites, to this day actually.

Jimmy Bechtel 1:20

Great. Thanks. Brian. How about you, Florin?

Florin Petrutiu 1:23

Yeah, I started, roughly about three months after Brian has started with, CNS as well, mostly as IT director at the time, of CNS and then. It transitioned about 18 years ago when I was tasked to go out and look for, software solutions that could fit the bill and make us all more efficient, given the state of the market at the time. couldn't really find anything. So we started developing what became today Site Centric. so over the past, decade, decade and a half, it's been an internal system and then. technology, gets a little long in a tooth and there are only so many layers of bandaids that you can put on a piece of technology. you pick up lessons learned along the way and, it just became clear that we needed to rebuild, retool, and, take us into the next decade. So that's how Site Centric came about and, we rebuilt it and now it's available for the market at large.

Brian Hunter 2:19

We didn't set out to build a platform like Florin said. we were really just trying to get our jobs done at our sites. I think it started with frustration and it started with Excel spreadsheets that weren't quite, helping us the way we needed it to. And I think there was a very frustrating day where, two people were trying to edit the same Excel spreadsheet at the same time. There was some cuss words and some tears and some, passionate conversations. And Florin decided that, there would definitely be a better way if perhaps we built something ourself and, as he said, 18 years ago or so. And, that's what got the ball rolling with sight centric.

Jimmy Bechtel 2:58

That's awesome guys. And, and thank you for the background and, and really exciting to hear, you know, anytime that there is a technology born, from sites and, and for sites, it's always a, a unique and and exciting again, opportunity for us to move the needle on some challenging areas, which is exactly what I want to talk about today. And maybe I'll start with you, Florin, because we know that some of the biggest pain points for sites. Really center around managing too many disconnected systems and you have pieces of different elements to do different things. So how do you approach building a platform that covers everything from startup to enrollment and to billing and reporting, and how does that then affect the day to day for a research site?

Florin Petrutiu 3:41

so when we talk about disconnected systems, everybody talks about, you know, oh, maybe we can do single sign on, but really, if you really think about it, that just scratches the surface, right? yeah, sure. We don't have to, you know, we can step away from the top right, drawer problem where we keep our usernames and passwords, for every single, you know, system that we need to access how, but. These disconnected systems truly create like, data silos, right? And beyond the single sign-on, they also, create duplicate workflows because it's not enough that I need to jump from one system to the other, but I have to enter the same information into 4, 5, 6 different systems across the organization. What we saw, however, with Site Centric that, you know, at most sites, each role is clearly defined. This allows us to reduce the complexity of the system, only give access, and the user can only view the data or the modules that are pertinent to their role. This reduces the training needs, so the users only need to understand or be trained, you know, on what they are using, not like the entire ecosystem or the, say, operating system of the site. At the same time, it increases the efficiency that Site Centric provides by the system doing the heavy lifting and eliminates, data and processes duplication, you know, resulting in increased efficiency. To give you an example, you know, a clinician only really needs to be inside the CTMS and the eSource, right? Where they have. They're, you know, they access the clinical data, and maybe, you know, see their protocols or their active version protocols and ICFs. However, the actions that they take, you know, drive finances, informed quality assurance, provide data back to the back office functions like patient recruitment, you know, return on investment, pay stipends and more. And all this can be done. Automatically by the system behind the scenes, they don't even have to worry about it. Another example would be a centralized industry context, kind of like an old fashioned Rolodex, but digital where every interaction with a CRA or medical monitor, regardless who does it within. The site is captured and they're shared with, and everybody knows what was talked about, promised and when, and who needs to be, you know, following up with that contact next. Additionally, at a click away, you can see real time, performance and status of the trial, so that way the most up-to-date information is presented to the sponsor or the CRO, you know, showing that you have ownership of that project.

Jimmy Bechtel 6:21

It's an interesting point, Florin, because I like the approach to that perspective. You create a system that does everything, but you also address the challenge where not everybody needs to be in everything, but having a system that allows the connections and the workflows to happen appropriately for the appropriate individuals assigned to that, I think is an important distinction. An important part with that and likely. From what we understand, a concern that is addressed through this that sponsors and CROs might have with, you know, delegation and access and, effect ultimately an influence on the flow and the information in that trial. So that's great to hear. So, Brian, I wanna shift over to you now and talk a little bit about. the building of the platform and the experience that you bring. I know you as well as many others, both of you really bring decades of hands-on experience at the site. And that really influenced and showed up in how Site Centric was built and how it continues to iterate. So how does having that operations experience involved. In the development process change how you approach and what you ultimately build?

Brian Hunter 7:27

I think at its core, it really kind of speaks to the essence of what we're doing at Site Centric. We are sites first, sites are at the center of everything that we do. Our sites use this platform every single day to get their work done. Whether it's our regulatory people keeping up with the reg binders and monitoring letters and making sure everything's filed correctly, or our finance team invoicing for, dry ice and urine pregnancy tests, like all of the elements that sites have to do, all the workflows that sites have to do on a daily basis. We've tried to address in the platform, literally because we're trying to get our jobs done, as sites, as site personnel. we use our site teams as, as a focus group. You know, they are not shy whatsoever about reaching out and giving us feedback if, there's a need that they have. Or if we build a new thingy into the platform and they go, well, that's really cool, but can it also do this? Or, it would be really nice if this information pulled over from marketing and went into, you know, regulatory or vice versa. and so it's, it's great. Honestly, when we have. People that are using the platform every day, at sites, real live work getting done, and they're giving us that feedback on a constant basis. it's helped. I mean, you use the word iterate. It's exactly what's happened. We will build something into the system, say, Hey, we have this new, new way of getting this job done. And they go, that's great. Can it also do this? And we've used that to kind of keep the process. it's a feedback loop, right? So like the process is helping the platform continue to grow and evolve. and personally I've had to come to terms with that, that, you know, we're never gonna be done with Site Centric. We're never gonna stick a fork in it and say, well that was fun. The platform is built, done because the demands of sites continue. To evolve and our platform, I think is, is hopefully gonna continue to evolve to meet the needs of our sites and our customers Now.

Jimmy Bechtel 9:28

Right, Brian? I mean the, the, that's, so it's, something we talk about with other technology and advice and I guess advice is the nice way to put it, but pressure that we put on sponsors and CROs and how they should approach and service providers, of course, other service providers most importantly, and how they should approach product development. And, you know, we get into this mode of. Wanting to please the customer. but in this case, the customer is the research site, but in some cases it's not. But ultimately the site ends up being the user. And again, in this case, the site is the customer and the user. The valued perspective of your customers in the ongoing influence and the development of that platform. which I think is, part of the ethos of the way Site Centric works, but also, likely part of its ongoing success going forward.

Brian Hunter 10:16

Yeah, and it's, it's been a lot of fun too. So as it's evolved and we've brought more sites in that are using Site Centric and, you know, CNS healthcare is basically brick and mortar sites. We've been doing this for 30 years now. We have our ways of working, but now that we're talking to new customers and new users of Site Centric, that. They operate differently. They have slightly different demands or slightly different ways of working. And, and so it's really kind of helped bring some fresh perspective into the, the workflows that are in the system. and for me personally, it's fun because I'm getting to talk to other sites and, and talk to other people. and, you know, that exchange of I ideas back and forth is part of what, part of what keeps this exciting for me.

Florin Petrutiu 11:00

I'm gonna say this, that I'm semi allergic to the term customer or client here because I truly see all of our, sites using Site Centric as partners. And it's been, you know, piggybacking on what Brian said, it's been an eye-opening experience of the different, different ways of doing things and maybe somebody has a better way of doing things and something, and then of course we can build that into Site Centric and then. bring that, efficiency improvement to all of our partners. and everybody benefits from Teso Collective.

Jimmy Bechtel 11:33

It's a great perspective and I think, again, part of what probably drives the ethos of, and the mission of, what Site Centric is here to do it sounds like it's really exciting. Florin and I wanna stick with you here on this and we. Learned that, Site Centric has recently partnered with, cart Health in bringing AI powered patient screening right into the workflows of the sites. And this is obviously a hot topic and something that's very important to the future of research and how we execute clinical trials. So. From a technical perspective, maybe talk a little bit about your approach for integrating new technology like this in a way that actually helps sites and how you've made sure that it did that rather than adding additional layers of complexity.

Florin Petrutiu 12:16

there are a lot of great companies out there that bring, revolutionary, improvements or potential improvements, with AI or with other tools that, research partners could use. but at the same time, that's yet another system. So. It's always becomes, is it worth it to add that additional level of complexity? So we actively identify, potential technology partners or best in class technology partners that could potentially complement. our technology. So while we built a lot of, native modules and workflows to help sites, eliminate the data silos and make processes more efficient, right? Could bring additional value to our own workflows and enhance them. So bringing, integrating these best in class tools into Site Centric marketplace not only gives access to these tools from like a familiar interface, you don't have to use, you know, a bunch of training time. It enhance. Our existing workflows. It, and further reduces, you know, duplication of efforts and making the overall system more productive, and bringing more value out of it. And I know you mentioned Cardea, but you know, card is not the only one. Such integration we, are in the final stages and already been announced. So I can say this. Samira's agent ai, is brought in, patient negative one will be launched for eSource in the next, two weeks, actually in the next week now. and, A lot of other tools that I cannot mention just yet are being, you know, built in to further enhance. And this is not like one of those things that our partners have to use. All of these technologies, they can pick and choose, you know, what they want to use. Kind of like pick your own adventure, whatever makes, you know, works better for you in there.

Jimmy Bechtel 14:06

It's really exciting, Florin and, and what I really heard from that was building things that are intentionally designed a with the sites in mind as we've really themed this discussion around, and focusing on. How we can add to take away, right? How you add something to a platform or build something in there that takes away some sort of operational burden, or simplifies a process. And that focus again is, I hate to say it, but it, it's great for you guys, but it's unique to our industry and not always the focus that we have. Sometimes when we seem to add something, it helps. One party, but, tends to add burden with others. And that goes, it speaks volumes to the focus that your organization has, but also the, the commitment really to being a site first based technology. Brian, I want to begin to wrap us up here maybe with our final question, but, again, talking about the GIP and the journey that, Site Centric has taken and is embarking upon with SCRS, and we share this common belief that when sites have the right support and. what they need to continue to do their day to day, the entire industry benefits. So what drew you all to becoming GIPs Global Impact Partners, and how does this, align with the community and Site Centric's goals?

Brian Hunter 15:22

so first, I think we've just long time been supporters of SCRS, of the people there at SCRS. going back to Christine, I was fortunate enough to meet and interact with Christine Pierre years ago at my first SCRS, global Summit. I don't even remember how many years ago it was, but I recognized immediately that SCRS gets it. They understand sites, they understand what sites are trying to do and the role of sites within the industry and helping to bring together. The collective site voice. And, I love the role that SCRS has played in elevating sites in the industry, helping to ensure that we are equal partners at the table with sponsors and CROs. the industry doesn't work without sites, being able to do their jobs and do it well. I think also being a technology company, Site Centric that's born from sites means that we're never gonna lose sight of what's important. And, and honestly, that's the patience. CNS healthcare from the top down has been 100% committed to really providing great patient care and collecting really good data, clean, valid data for our industry partners. And, you know, we focused really hard on doing both of those things simultaneously, as I hope every really good site does. So as a technology company, our goal is to create. A platform that helps sites maintain their viability as a business, right? They, they have to have their financial, situation in order. They have to be able to recruit patients, they have to get new studies, they have to do all these things so that they can continue to operate And take good care of patients. It all comes back to that, like, let's make sure that we are staying true to the mission. I don't want our technology to get in the way of sites being able to take care of their patients. We want to facilitate the operations of the site and help to elevate things. And I think that's really in line with what SCRS has been doing for years. so we're really excited To be at a point that we could become, a global impact partner. I hope that our participation in the program helps SCRS continue to build on the mission and, stay true to the things, the ideals that sort of, got us here in the first place and continue to do the great work that they're doing to help support all the sites.

Jimmy Bechtel 17:49

I couldn't agree more, Brian, and thank you for some of those sentiments. I think that's a great place for us to end our conversation, as we wrap up here. So thank you, thank you both for, being here with us today. Really exciting to hear the current and future state of Site Centric and of course welcome you again into the SCRS Global Impact Partnership Program, So again, Florin and Brian, thank you for being here with us.

Florin Petrutiu 18:12

Thanks Jimmy.

Jimmy Bechtel 18:13

And for those of you listening, thank you for tuning in today. We look forward to continuing these discussions and highlighting other partners who are working to make research. Better and stronger for sites and patients. Thanks again for listening, tuning in and until next time.