Geisinger Health System to Deploy Advanced Clinical Software's Study Manager™ to Manage Clinical Trials

Business Wire, March 1, 2006

SEATTLE -- Geisinger Health System, the largest healthcare provider in northeastern and central Pennsylvania, has signed a contract to license Study Manager(TM), the leading clinical trial management software from Advanced Clinical Software (ACS), to manage all clinical trials across the institution.

To support its objective of becoming a national leader in clinical research, Geisinger decided that it needed an efficient, standardized methodology for managing clinical trials across multiple therapeutic areas. Geisinger evaluated several products and ultimately chose Study Manager because of its comprehensive feature set, Web-based architecture, and vendor reputation.

Working closely with software implementation experts at ACS, Geisinger will roll out Study Manager in stages, along with new operational processes that will enable Geisinger to conduct clinical trials with greater safety, compliance, efficiency, and speed.

"In order to stay at the forefront of clinical research and expand our research capabilities to the next level, we realize that we need to enable our health IT infrastructure with the best study management applications available," stated Scott Taylor, Associate Director, Industry Relations, Center for Health Research & Rural Advocacy. "With Study Manager, we expect to see improvements in many areas of clinical trial operations."

Taking advantage of sophisticated new features such as Electronic Data Capture, Geisinger is working closely with ACS to ensure that the implementation of Study Manager allows the health system to move ahead without disrupting existing operations.

ACS (www.studymanager.com) is a privately held company focused exclusively on building solutions for the clinical trial industry. Its flagship product, Study Manager(TM), is used today by over 1,800 organizations ranging from small research centers to major institutions including Baylor College of Medicine, and many others.

Geisinger Health System is an integrated physician-led health services organization serving more than two million residents throughout central and northeastern Pennsylvania, and one of the largest rural healthcare providers in the United States. It includes a 650-member group practice, tertiary/quaternary medical centers, one of the nation's first rural children's hospitals, acute-care community hospitals, adult and pediatric trauma centers, an alcohol and chemical dependency treatment center, two research centers, 40 community practice offices, and one of the largest not-for-profit rural HMOs in the country. For more information, visit www.geisinger.org.