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I would just like to come in for a few moments and share a little bit about my experience
with a partnership that has been also a very positive experience for me.
As Barry introduced, my background is as a researcher and this is my satisfaction in
working at DatStat – it’s working with folks like Sally who are just doing such important
work and getting to be involved in that work as a partner. And we both really nurtured
this project along and watched it grow. It’s been a fabulous experience.
I’d just like to make a few comments as I reflect on my experience working with Sally
and this project about some of the things really stand out to me about it. I think one
of things that…really makes this project particularly interesting to me from my own
background and made it a valuable experience is the way in which Sally is working with
our products not only to facilitate research – and I think people think of us as an organization,
‘that’s what we do, we provide tools for research,’ but our products have been utilized
for that research data collection and as part of the routine clinical care. So, as patients
come in, whether or not they become part of the research process, the data collection
forms are used to collect basic patient information and then eventually those patients are approached
and potentially enrolled. The fact that it’s incorporated both into clinical care and in
the research and that they have all of those data together in one centralized database
– it just makes things so much more efficient.
But we really needed to balance that (the software was) easy for Sally to use as a researcher
to manage this project, but also easy for the day-to-day clinical staff to use to do
things like have emails automatically be sent out to patients so they can complete intake
forms, for example. I’ve also been really excited about the innovation of this project
in going beyond data collection. People think about products like Illume or hear about them
and think, ‘OK, that’s for data capture, that’s what that product is,’ but customers
like Sally who are really innovating with our products are taking our data collection
tools beyond what people think of just as data collection. For example, the intake form
that the patient receives as they come into the clinic – they complete that intake and
then, as soon as it’s completed, it generates a report that gets delivered by email, which
summarizes in a nicely organized way the symptoms, etc. that were reported in that intake. All
of that is using Illume, this “quote” data collection tool, and Illume really expands
your vision of what a tool like that can be used for way beyond just data collection feedback,
interventions, clinical decision making – so that innovation has been really exciting to
me.
And finally, just the partnership, I love that “mind meld” slide and I immediately
clicked with it because that’s how I felt as well. I think one aspect of that mind meld
that really stands out – I think Sally and I both understood – from
the beginning is that a project like this is a living breathing thing. It’s not a
static object. It’s gonna grow, it’s gonna change, it needs nurturing, it needs adjusting.
I think we both appreciated from the beginning that we were going to start one place and
that, a month later, we’re going to be in a very different place. Some of that you’re
gonna be able to predict up-front and some of it you aren’t. Our products and our approach
recognize the nature of this kind of work – it is a living breathing thing that changes,
and grows, and develops, and that requires attention, and requires a partnership approach
with both partners putting that attention into it. And I feel like we worked really
well together to nurture this – if you want to call it ‘our baby’ or whatever you
want to call it – to nurture it so that it’s grown and improved and met the needs
that do change over time. Not only just when you bring in a new technology, but because
you’re growing as an organization and a center like this and you need to be able to
adapt to those changes so working together to grow that has been a rewarding experience.
So, thank you Sally for your excellent work and your openness to our partnership and I
look forward to continuing that partnership. And, that wraps up my comments.