Greenphire Contracts with the University of Kansas to Automate Clinical Payment and Communication Processes
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Greenphire, has contracted with the University of Kansas (KU) to implement Greenphire’s patent-pending ClinCard System.
KU is using the system at its Medical Center and Lawrence campuses to execute patient stipend and reimbursement payments and to deliver critical patient communication across more than 100 clinical trials per year.
The relationship with KU extends Greenphire’s involvement with major research universities, and builds upon the recent success of the ClinCard System at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, the Tufts Medical Center, and the University of Southern California’s Health Research Association.
Use of the ClinCard System improves operational efficiency, reduces costs, mitigates regulatory risks, increases subject retention, promotes protocol compliance, and produces quantifiable results for clients.
Gregory S. Kopf, Ph.D., Associate Vice Chancellor of Research Administration at the KU Medical Center and Executive Director of the KUMC Research Institute, stated “Our use of the ClinCard System will enhance our clinical research enterprise, not only from a financial perspective, but more importantly from a patient and physician satisfaction perspective. We look forward to working with Greenphire on this very important initiative.”
An analysis by KUMC estimated that the ClinCard System would decrease the direct cost of patient payments by nearly 50%. The general administrative costs associated with processing and handling patient payments would also be greatly reduced.
Participants in a clinical trial are now paid in the form of a debit card, eliminating paper checks and cash transactions while ensuring greater security and accountability.
Linda Sadler, Chief Financial Officer for the KU Center for Research, noted that the system works equally well for human subject research studies at the Lawrence campus.
“The first study to use the system here generated 700 cards,” she said. “That’s 700 small checks this office didn’t have to produce. Plus the subjects’ personal information is all controlled at the researcher level. We don’t have to deal with Social Security numbers and tax reporting at all during the payment process. At year-end, we then have access to detailed information to generate any appropriate tax reporting, while maintaining the security of the data.”
KUMC recently received a $20 million Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Kopf believes the ClinCard System will increase patient retention and satisfaction, helping to solidify the university’s position as a leading clinical research institution for new sponsored studies and government grants.
Greenphire CEO Sam Whitaker expressed enthusiasm about the new KU agreement, commenting that “Taking a patient-centric and site-centric approach to improving clinical research is a philosophy that is near and dear to Greenphire’s heart. We are thrilled to be able to launch our ClinCard System for Kansas’ studies, introducing economic efficiencies for our client while implementing a solution that will also directly benefit the clinical patients and site personnel.”
