NACTRC: Northern Alberta Clinical Trials and Research Centre

A Clinical Trial Management System (CTMS) is a web-based software platform used to help manage clinical trials, from start to finish. The system centralizes the administrative aspects of clinical trials including documenting approvals, tracking subjects, managing financials, and reporting. This enables investigators, coordinators, and study teams to conduct studies more efficiently and focus on what matters most—their research.

For investigators and study teams, OnCore enables:

• Simple, efficient, and streamlined administration of clinical trials
• Centralized management of start-up tasks/timelines (no more spreadsheets!)
• Improved regulatory compliance
• Integrations with other systems for information sharing and automation of tasks

For departments and research units, OnCore enables:

• More efficient management of clinical research staff resources
• Improved financial monitoring, including sponsor invoicing

For the University, OnCore helps:

• Streamline our staff’s clinical research workflows to improve efficiency (specifically with study start up and contract/budget negotiations)
• Provide greater oversight and support for the numerous clinical trials conducted across our institution

If you’re conducting clinical research and/or clinical trials—yes! OnCore helps streamline administrative processes and provide a centralized repository for your study information. The most common staff roles that can benefit from using OnCore include research coordinators or assistants, research nurses, regulatory coordinators, and budget/finance administrators. Principal Investigators and other research staff can also benefit from OnCore and are invited to request access.

The studies that benefit most from being managed through OnCore are clinical trials that need to track participant visits and invoice sponsors. If you have questions about your specific studies, please email the Provincial OnCore Support Team (POST) at [email protected].

To request access to OnCore as a clinical trial team, you must sign up to take part in one of the upcoming training cohorts to complete the mandatory training. To learn more, visit the Get Started page.

To request access to OnCore as a new team member, have your manager contact the Provincial OnCore Support Team (POST) at [email protected] with your expected roles. POST will coordinate your training.

Custom integrations allow for information to be automatically transferred between OnCore and other systems.

Currently, this includes:

• University of Alberta Single Sign-On: allowing you to use your regular username and password
• Ethics: automatically transfers information to and from ARISE
• Connect Care: allowing for the retrieval of patient demographics while in the OnCore system

Upcoming integration: Connect Care Protocol & Subject Information

While it is not mandatory to use OnCore, we highly encourage you to use the platform. OnCore streamlines clinical trial administration for research teams and provides tremendous benefits to departments and the University. As more studies utilize the platform, the greater the realization of benefits.

There is NO COST to use the system. NACTRC has licensed the CTMS software on your behalf and Alberta Innovates supported the implementation cost.

The Provincial OnCore Support Team (POST) does this for you. Once you provide the details of your study, they will:

• Create your protocol in OnCore
• Build your protocol calendar
• Set up your negotiated budget
• Review it with you during a protocol handoff meeting.

No! In fact, the CTMS reduces the number of places you store and manage study information.

The CTMS provides a central system specifically built for clinical research that can replace a lot of the work that you’re currently doing in spreadsheets, shared drives, email, and calendars. It creates efficiency and saves time. Most of the CTMS functionality is automated and builds off work you’ve previously done in the system.

In OnCore, you can do things once and have them automatically applied elsewhere. For example, you can build a single protocol calendar and apply it to every study participant. If someone misses a visit, you can adjust the rest of their visits all at once. The CTMS also uses system learning based on tasks previously completed. For example, if you mark a visit as occurred, the relevant charges will be ready for invoicing.

When it comes to other systems that the CTMS doesn’t replace, like ethics, we’re building integrations so that you don’t have to enter information twice. If there’s no integration available, we can offer some tips on how to export information from the CTMS in a way that will still be helpful.