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A New Wave of Clinical Data Innovation: Faster Timelines and Better Experiences
Jun 22, 2026 | Hugo Cervantes
Jun 22, 2026 | Hugo Cervantes
Each year at Veeva R&D and Quality Summit, biopharma, sites, and CROs showcase how their organizations innovate and achieve efficiency amidst growing clinical trial complexity. This year, the momentum centered on a unified mission: breaking down silos to build a truly connected clinical ecosystem that elevates the trial experience for sponsors, CROs, sites, and, most importantly, patients.
We shared key innovations that will finally bridge the current gap between these stakeholders and address the lack of a global standard to connect and map clinical data. For example, with Veeva eSource, sites are in control of the technology and whether they choose to adopt it as their standard. This will help eSource adoption to scale where previous sponsor-owned (and imposed) tools have not.
Risk-based quality management (RBQM) is a capability that has been around for many years, but still with relatively low industry adoption. Veeva RBQM will be delivered within Veeva CTMS and Veeva CDB without adding another system to the clinical technology landscape.
A top 20 biopharma director of data management said that, “Having Veeva CDB as a center for data orchestration and high level management of risk – interlinking with different functions – gives a connected landscape that will provide oversight of the data. That value-driven cleaning in a risk-based approach will be key for assessing quality and driving change.”
By focusing on innovating for value, we will deliver three AI agents this year to automate processes across study build, testing, data collection, and data cleaning. These AI agent-based automations will help reduce burden for sites and data managers.
“I’m excited about Veeva’s AI vision; that you’re leaning into new technology and doing it in a use case-based way.”
These much anticipated innovations will add to the value now being achieved by the industry using the Veeva Clinical Platform:
Modernizing eCOA operations and site experiences
Fortrea: By changing ways of working, Fortrea is accelerating eCOA timelines and improving the user experience.
Across their portfolio of Veeva eCOA studies, Fortrea is delivering consistently with high patient compliance and de-risking the studies. Key results include:
- Kickoff to final specification in ~23 days
- Specification to UAT in ~8 days
- 96% average compliance across studies (reaching 98% for a study running nearly two years)
“Our compliance rates show that eCOA is a product that patients want to use and isn’t a burden to them. That ease of doing something is what makes people come back to the app.” — Clare Campbell-Cooper, Global Head, Digital Health & Innovation
Improving end-to-end efficiency with a connected ecosystem
Top 20 biopharma: Building on the success of its clinical data program, the company scaled up change management and achieved its first Veeva EDC and CDB production trial within eight months. The biopharma will have 100% of study starts in Veeva EDC and CDB in 2027, and has eliminated custom trial integration with metadata-driven configuration. The clinical data team is on course to achieve its goal of a 4-6 week study build time.
The company’s product director says: “We had a trial go from protocol finalization to EDC go-live in 7 weeks. It’s really impressive what the data management organization has done.”
Global ophthalmology biopharma: With ~200 studies in Veeva EDC and ~60 studies in Veeva CDB, the company averages 10 days from last patient last visit (LPLV) to database lock (DBL). The team recently expanded its use of Veeva’s Clinical Platform to include Veeva RTSM and Veeva eCOA.
Veeva eCOA is now mandated for all new studies and the team averages 3-5 days for IRB-ready survey builds, and can shorten that to under a day in critical situations. By leveraging a reusable library and advanced eCOA dynamics, the company has eliminated 90% EDC edits across questionnaires and maintains 95% compliance across studies.
“We don’t ever have to ask for more time. We can deliver and go live, with no quality issues, the next day.”
Boehringer Ingelheim: The company consolidated 40+ systems and 70+ interfaces into a single clinical platform, and saved more than 100 hours on data transfer, monitoring, and support by automating site setup from Veeva CTMS to EDC.
“When you see the end-to-end processes work, it’s like music.” — Julian Righetti, Regions Head, Clinical Development Operations, Boehringer Ingelheim
Gaining clinical data ownership and oversight
Recordati: The company moved from full service outsourcing (FSO) to bringing ownership of systems in-house for the Veeva Clinical Platform: CTMS, Study Training, Study Startup, EDC, CDB, eCOA, and RTSM. Recordati demonstrated how a connected clinical platform supports data accessibility and risk-based decision making, remaining overall cost neutral while achieving faster study build timelines and strengthening inspection readiness, including successful regulatory inspections.
Continuing the journey
Biopharma companies and CROs are achieving faster study timelines and improved patient experiences with a connected platform approach. These outcomes highlight the advantages of focusing on user needs and building strong partnerships. If you’re looking to transform your clinical trials and learn more from industry leaders who are driving change, Veeva R&D and Quality Summit provides the opportunity for insights and connections to start your own platform journey.