ACRES and HealthCarePoint Strengthen Partnership—HCP’s Pacino Joins ACRES as VP for Collaborative Network
To further the innovative systems-based solutions necessary for the clinical research enterprise worldwide, Al O. Pacino of HealthCarePoint joins the Alliance for Clinical Research Excellence and Safety as VP for Collaborative Network Development.
HealthCarePoint (HCP), a Texas-based healthcare and clinical research networking-technology company, and theAlliance for Clinical Research Excellence and Safety (ACRES), a Cambridge-based non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing quality, safety, integrity and operational effectiveness in drug development and health research, announced a second major step in their previously announced strategic alliance.
HCP president and founder, Al O. Pacino, will join ACRES as Vice President for Collaborative Network Development while retaining his leadership role at HCP. The move strengthens the relationship between the organizations as they pursue a common goal—to develop and implement innovative systems-based solutions benefiting the entire clinical research enterprise worldwide.
In his new position, Pacino will strengthen formal collaborations among ACRES’ many strategic allies who are working to build a shared information infrastructure in support of ACRES Global Network.
“I am excited and honored to be involved with ACRES’ innovative cause,” said Pacino. “Contributing HCP’s time and resources to ACRES benefits the industry as a whole by using technology and the tools of professionalism to dramatically improve efficiencies and quality. By getting out of our silos and setting aside our differences, all stakeholders can work together in a non-competitive space to build a collaborative system that serves everyone–investigators, sites, CROs, sponsors, regulatory agencies and the healthcare industry, and most importantly the public.”
HealthCarePoint previously pledged $10 million in software and technology infrastructure to ACRES, including 10,000 licenses of its proprietary Personal Experience and Training Accounts for Business and Compliance (PET-ABC®) Management Systems, with an option for ACRES to receive additional licenses and technology services as the global network grows. The PET-ABC technology provides a platform-independent repository for archiving and sharing professional healthcare and clinical research provider information maintained at the local level, accessible by organizations for more effective site qualification and study start-up.
Developing standards for site accreditation and interoperability is one of ACRES’ global initiatives. Based on independent industry analyses, by reducing waste and redundancies through a global systems approach that will improve safety, quality and efficiency, ACRES and HCP project potential savings industry-wide of more than $5 billion USD annually within 10 years. Additionally, this system should significantly shorten the time required for a new product to be properly tested and approved for marketing, potential benefits that have attracted investor attention in the biopharmaceutical sector.
”Al Pacino, a long-time friend and colleague, has dedicated his professional career to fostering collaboration. We are delighted to have Al bring this mindset and leadership to ACRES where Al joins a truly remarkable group of experienced and respected leaders who currently comprise ACRES’ executive team, all working together to lead and manage a matrix of initiatives essential to building an effective global system.” said Greg Koski, PhD, MD, ACRES President and CEO.
AstraZeneca Vice-President for Global Medicines Development and Chief Medical Officer, Briggs W. Morrison, MD, a member of ACRES’ Board of Directors, notes that “for too long, the industry has failed to recognize the importance and value of well-established, sustainable, high-performing research sites. Now is the time to take a more systemic approach that promotes site productivity, quality and sustainability, and ACRES, with the support of HCP and its allies, is leading the way. We warmly welcome Al Pacino to the ACRES leadership.”
HealthCarePoint is a private corporation focused on creating and establishing professional user-based tools and cutting-edge business-to-business networking technologies used to streamline business and compliance processes. HCP’s shareable, collaborative networks are seamlessly integrated to simplify daily tasks and activities and to exchange and update information in real time globally, connecting organizations, their employees and contractors. Users also leverage HCP’s collaborative networks to save time and financial resources on millions of products and services used in the everyday supply/service chain management of healthcare and clinical research.
About Alliance for Clinical Research Excellence and Safety:
ACRES is a non-profit organization promoting multi-sector collaborations to address the dysfunctions and inefficiencies in the clinical trials system globally through effectively integrating core processes and promoting cultural transformation. ACRES includes dozens of like-minded allied organizations, including best-of-breed technology companies, products and services providers to the clinical trials enterprise, research site-management organizations, clinical trial networks, standards organizations and advocacy groups, who envision a worldwide network of sustainable professional accredited research sites supported by a robust, shareable, open-architecture information technology platform to improve interoperability, data-sharing, performance, compliance and safety, while enabling remote risk-based monitoring, online-auditing, continual operations improvement and driving regulatory simplification.