Satisfied customer speaking: Parnassia Groep

Based on a sense of social responsibility and in order to continuously improve care, Parnassia Groep – the largest mental health care provider in the Netherlands – regularly conducts surveys. They use two ResearchManager products: the CTMS and the EDC. And that to full satisfaction.

Safeguarding administrative responsibility and better organizing investigations

Daphne van Hoeken, Mental Health Research Coordinator, says: “Because we are not an academic institution, our core activity is not to conduct research. In order to better support colleagues whom have to or want to conduct research in our large organization, there was a latent need for a supportive, digital tool. The trigger to really look into this was a visit from the Health Care and Youth Inspectorate in 2017. It turned out that we had not properly administrated which investigations were ongoing at that time and which patients were involved. We therefore wanted to get our hands on a tool with which we could guarantee that administrative responsibility and with which we could better organize the work for colleagues. We found that tool in ResearchManager.”

CTMS, can be configured according to your own needs

One of the reasons why Parnassia Groep chose ResearchManager is the flexibility to set up the software completely according to your own needs. Van Hoeken: “We started with the CTMS and set it up together with ResearchManager. We did run into some imperfections, because it turned out that we did not yet have our processes well-structured. Getting those processes clear eventually became part of the design – a very nice extra result. During the process I had regular and pleasant contact with ResearchManager. Their willingness to think along and help us to make the software suitable for us was – and still is – very nice. And there is another reason why we chose ResearchManager at the time: the easily accessible, Dutch-language helpdesk. We are a healthcare organization, not an IT organization. Also, not all of our colleagues speak fluent English. The fact that we can always ask ResearchManager questions is very valuable to us.”

Optimized the internal approval procedure

The CTMS has now been up and running within the Parnassia Group for about four years. “The most important goals we have already achieved with it? That we now have an overview of all ongoing investigations and that our internal approval procedure has been optimized,” says Van Hoeken. “We now register all studies in the system – both studies that are reviewed by the Medical Ethical Review Committee (METC) and other studies with patient data. When a researcher submits a study in the CTMS, the system automatically forwards the request to the appropriate department. Submitting an application is so quick and easy. In turn, the department has a clear insight into which investigations are ongoing for its patients, which investigations have already been approved and which still require action. The CTMS has advantages for both researchers and administrators. We also use the tool for internal promotion, because we can easily make a print-out of all approved and ongoing investigations. We regularly post this list on our intranet as inspiration for other colleagues. We like to make clearly visible what is happening within Parnassia Group.”

The EDC and the Patient Self Service

According to Van Hoeken, the EDC also has considerable advantages. “This gives us one central and secure location for collecting and recording our own research data – excluding physical data, such as bodily material. Previously, this data was stored in different places on our servers, without a clear overview and proper management. The risk here is that a researcher stores data on a private part of the server, as a result of which this data is no longer accessible after any termination of employment. That naturally makes you very vulnerable as an organization. Although the EDC is not yet used by all our researchers, we have already largely tackled this risk. In addition, much use is made of the Patient Self Service in the EDC. This allows researchers to send fully automated questionnaires to participants from the system at a self-chosen time. The results of those questionnaires are then automatically entered in the EDC, so there is no chance of errors. And if a researcher changes data, or if something is added, that action is properly recorded.”

Pleasant cooperation with ResearchManager

The questionnaires mentioned are built in by Parnassia Group researchers themselves, after a interactive training. “These trainings are mainly followed by colleagues who conduct research as part of their education. Timing is very important here: ideally people follow the training when their research plan is clear and the questionnaires are ready. In the training they learn how to build their own questionnaires in the EDC. Fortunately, more and more colleagues are now also adept at building in questionnaires, so ‘newbies’ can always ask for support internally. It helps to ask a colleague who has experience with mental health research. But thanks to their knowledge of the subject matter, their willingness to think along and the approachability of the contact, the collaboration with ResearchManager is just as pleasant. I recommend it to everyone!”