For Immediate Release

ResearchPoint Releases On-Line RaterTraining 2.0, Focusing on Anytime Training and Real-Time Reporting

AUSTIN, Texas - April 16, 2002 — (BW HealthWire) — ResearchPoint, a contract research solutions provider (e-CRO), the market leader in on-line rater training, has just released On-Line RaterTraining(tm) 2.0.In late 2000, ResearchPoint released its initial proprietary and copyrighted version of On-Line RaterTraining. To date it has helped sponsors meet the challenges associated with rater variability, turnover, ``drift,'' and the wear and tear associated with travel.``Rater drift describes the process of loss of synchronization of technique among the cohorts of raters in a given protocol over time. Once a rater leaves the investigator meeting, memories of conventions may fade. This can cause contradictory messages from training sessions for competing projects, and sponsors tend to erode uniformity of technique among the project's cohorts,'' said David Daniel, M.D., Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at George Washington University and Director of Clinical Trials, Stanley Medical Research Institute, Bethesda, Md.The release of the second version of ResearchPoint's On-Line RaterTraining, which utilizes ASP proprietary technologies, not only maximizes the ability for inter-rater reliability, but at the same time enables expert raters to use ResearchPoint's cadre of electronic communications and training platforms. Expert raters and sponsors can now monitor and manage training programs as well as generate customized reports at any time from anywhere.Expert raters welcome the value ResearchPoint's On-Line solutions provide to sites/raters, sponsors and the clinical program, as well as to the experts themselves. ``A more efficient, economical and effective solution is utilization of the Internet to provide on-line training and retraining to prevent rater drift,'' added Dr. Daniel.``Until recently, the most commonly evoked solution was to periodically re-gather investigators and their staffs for refresher courses. Such meetings occur with great expense to the sponsor and inconvenience and disruption of operations for the site. Due to all these factors, such retraining was too impractical to apply as often as necessary to prevent rater drift.''In a recent clinical program, raters were to be screened and retrained on two depression scales over a 10-month period. Qualifying and retraining of raters were organized into four training sessions. Three of the sessions, an initial pre-qualification and two interim requalifications, were completed on-line. One session served as a baseline and was conducted in the traditional manner at the investigator meeting.At the end of the study, an analysis was performed to determine rater training compliance across all four sessions. There was 100% compliance with the three on-line sessions, versus 81% compliance in the traditional investigator meeting approach.``Through the use of multiple sessions, the opportunity presents itself to grade the raters, have corrective discussions and reappraise the results, thus allowing for initial screening and for their initial qualifications, and even maintaining the qualification through subsequent ratings,'' said Eugene DuBoff, M.D., Principal Investigator, Fellow American Psychiatric Association. ``Utilization of this methodology reduces rater drift by having repeated opportunity to rate and re-rate over time through a standardization of questions and format.''On-Line RaterTraining 2.0 allows for real-time communication and monitoring of training results via this Real Time Trial Management(tm) platform. This enables the sponsor, the expert rater and the project team to keep current with accurate information with respect to training trends and results.``Real-time reporting eliminates the need for data transcription and provides sponsors with instant access to data. To the extent that data transcription increases the probability of recording errors, real-time reporting can greatly reduce or even eliminate this source of unwanted variance,'' said Paul Michael Ramirez, Ph.D, Associate Professor of Clinical Neuropsychology, Psychopathology and Psychopharmacology, Long Island University -- Brooklyn Campus.``Regulatory agencies regularly demand that raters receive training in order to establish uniformity and, in some cases, be certified at a certain level of competency in all efficacy scales being used in clinical pharmacological research. On-line RaterTraining provides an opportunity to offer such training in a user-friendly manner, which is both time-efficient and cost-effective. Moreover, the cost-effectiveness of On-Line RaterTraining enables sponsors to provide more frequent retraining, thus ensuring more accurate data acquisition,'' added Dr. Ramirez.``RaterTraining 2.0 is a welcome addition to our `Real Time Trial Management(tm)' platform, which allows real-time communications and training among sponsors, investigator sites and specialized service providers,'' said Al Oviedo II, Principal of ResearchPoint.