The Bio-IT World conference brings together clinical research scientists and IT leaders in the Life Sciences industry to collaborate on the latest IT technologies. It aims to act as a network for precision medicine by uniting clinical research scientists and technical leaders in order to enrich today’s Life Sciences environment.

PCI attended Bio IT World in Boston, MA to develop new relationships within the Life Sciences community. The Biotech industry is dynamic and ever changing. Attending this conference was part of our effort to continue our education about the industry and meet other people/businesses innovating within the sector.

As an exhibitor our goal was to market our Contract IT Organization (CITO) solution which delivers “IT as a Service” to the Life Sciences industry. As an attendee our biggest takeaway was:

Data, Data, and Data.

In general, the accumulation of data is outpacing the capacity to store, disseminate as well as analyze critical R&D and Clinical data.

There is a huge focus on the amounts, types and quality of data within the industry. Clinical researchers are chasing more usable and expletive data. During one of the tracks, Speaker, Vijay Bulusu, Head of Data & Digital Innovation at Pfizer asked the audience,

 “If you had 1 million dollars to spend to improve the quality of data of buy a machine learning platform, where would you spend it?”

Nearly the entire crowd’s response was to spend it on better data.

The ability to manage and access huge amounts of data while attempting to gather more important. Valuable data is an overarching goal and challenge for the industry. In order to leverage the latest Data Analytics technologies that enable access to quality data, you need to ensure the foundation of your IT Systems is optimized.  The steps to get there:

IT Systems Architecture -> Network Optimization -> Data Security -> Access & Identity Management -> Data Analytics

Similar to CRO’s and CMO’s, a Contracted IT services and support model can reduce time to market, solve compliance challenges and allow you to focus on developing meaningful therapies for patients.

The Life Sciences industry is in a special place. Access to capital and to emerging technologies are changing the way research gets done. The industry is familiar with CRO (Contract Research Organizations) however, the need for a CITO (Contract Information Technology Organization) has not been realized by the industry, yet and as new technologies emerge, new roles must be developed alongside.