Raising the bar: How our Ophthalmology Academy transforms clinical trials
Introducing Fortrea’s Ophthalmology Academy
The specialized nature of ophthalmology research demands seasoned expertise, dedicated teams and a keen grasp of the distinctive challenges found in front and back of the eye indications, including those where cell and gene therapy (CGT) regimens are being tested.
That's why we created our Ophthalmology Academy – an internal training ground and cornerstone resource designed to ensure our personnel understand how to deliver comprehensive solutions based on the intricacies of your ophthalmology trial.
The risk of inexperienced staff
Ophthalmology trials are unlike typical clinical trials due to the need for unique visual assessments, specialized training, extensive patient assistance, and familiarity with specialised case report forms. These distinct requirements demand properly trained staff, which are often scarce in CROs.
The relationship between research staff and sites can make or break a study's success. When CROs lack deep therapeutic knowledge due to inexperienced staff, they struggle to communicate effectively with investigators and site staff. This communication gap doesn't just strain relationships – it can hinder your trial’s start-up and execution, and put protocol compliance and issue management at risk.
Answering the challenge
With over 20 years of experience in ocular trials, Fortrea's Ophthalmology Academy trains and maintains the expert teams your trials need. This internal training program ensures our staff have a comprehensive knowledge of the ophthalmology arena so they can quickly become true partners for sites - fostering increased trust, heightening engagement, and improving results.
By growing our pool of experts, we stay flexible to meet your trial requirements. This can deliver greater protocol compliance and improved trial key performance indicators like meeting milestones for site readiness, screening, first patient in and financial metrics.
A deeper dive into the modules
The Ophthalmology Academy offers an array of in-depth learning modules, encompassing:
- Foundational modules: providing an understanding of eye anatomy and physiology of vision – ensuring familiarity with ocular assessments and primary endpoints
- Indication-specific modules: including (but not limited to) deep knowledge dives into anterior indications such as dry eye disease, glaucoma and thyroid eye disease; posterior indications such as age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy and macular edema, retinal vein occlusion, and rare diseases like retinitis pigmentosa, Stargardt disease and Leber hereditary optic neuropathy
- Indication-specific modules: tailored to Fortrea roles supporting ophthalmology trials, including clinical trial leads, project managers, CRAs, data managers and statisticians
- Indication-specific modules: leveraging Fortrea’s decades of experience with key vendors to quickly address protocol nuances and align vendor capabilities with trial needs globally
- Advanced therapies – for example cell and gene therapy in ophthalmology
The Fortrea advantage
We recognise the critical need for highly skilled professionals to deliver exceptional trial outcomes from day one, and we do the work to ensure our research team’s preparation is second to none.
From the front of eye to back, we have an exceptional track record of providing agile solutions that meet our customer’ unique needs – including cell and gene therapy trials.
Together, exceptional is possible.