Case Study: Utilising EDGE custom Forms and Power BI for Expressions of Interest Monitoring
The Challenge
University Hospitals Southampton NHS Foundation Trust (UHS) had been using EDGE for a number of years to record Expressions of Interest (EOIs) that came into the R&D office. However, the EOIs were simply recorded and it was down to contacting individual teams and PIs to find out why there was no response or the EOI was declined.
The reasons for declining or non-response were often valid and easily resolved and managed, however, there was no central overview of the reasons or central plan to improve response rates and acceptance of EOIs.
User Profile
Name: Dr Mikayala King
Job Title: R&D Governance, QA and Sponsorship Manager
Organisation: University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, UK
EDGE user since: 2013
The Solution
EDGE is an extremely rich source of data and information about studies and as it is completely adaptable to enable any field to be created and reported on, it lends itself to being a tool to have oversight of whole areas of process. This in turn allows efficiencies to be made and processes to be streamlined. It also allows the identification of challenges and blocks in the acceptance and opening of studies.
It was the logical place to begin looking at the EOI process in more detail.
The Process
New fields were created in EDGE which allowed teams to enter more information and detail regarding the reasons for declining of EOIs.
These fields were then incorporated into a Power-BI dashboard to allow oversight and review of the reasons for decline and the identification of EOIs where no response was forthcoming.
The information could be drilled down to individual teams and PIs and allows the identification of patterns and resource needs.
The Results
The number of no responses to EOIs decreased considerably and the reasons for decline became clearer and patterns were identified. This has allowed targeted re-deployment of resource and re-structuring of teams to address shortfalls and issues.
The EOI process is now managed and overseen during operations and performance meetings and teams are able to better assess what EOIs they are able to accept and why they might need to decline.
What’s Next?
We hope to continue refining the EOI process to gather as much information as we can and to link that to feasibility and capacity.
We also plan to use the information to target different specialties to grow research in those areas which will make more opportunities available to our participants as well as giving opportunities to staff in those specialties to get involved in research and become the next generation of PIs.
“Since using EDGE to record Expressions of Interest, the number of no responses to EOIs decreased considerably and the reasons for decline became clearer and patterns were identified. This has allowed targeted re-deployment of resource and re-structuring of teams to address shortfalls and issues.”