|
|
IVR Software Solutions
This technical library presents information and documentation relating to IVR Development and custom IVR software and products.
Toll free answering systems (generally 800 numbers and their equivalent) are very popular for service and sales organizations, allowing customers and prospects to call your organization anywhere in the country.
The PACER and Wizard IVR systems add another dimension to our call center phone system solutions.
What is IVR Software?. An Interactive Voice Response (IVR) processes inbound phone calls, plays recorded messages including information extracted from databases and the internet, and potentially routes calls to either inhouse service agents or transfers the caller to an outside extension.
Contact DSC today. to learn more about our IVR services and IVR application development software.
Optimizing the Supply Chain Through Trial Simulation
Page 2
Monte Carlo simulation5,6 allows such an approach, sampling values for pertinent variables from underlying specified distributions for some of the input parameters. To explain how Monte Carlo simulation works, consider how this technique applies to predicting subject recruitment.
The recruitment for a site is generally modelled to follow a Poisson process7 (this process describes the number of random events over a defined time period). Thus, while the average study recruitment for a group of sites may be 2 subjects per site per month, there is a chance that an individual site may recruit zero subjects or as many as 6 or 7 subjects in any particular month (Table 1).
Monte Carlo simulations account for this variability by using a random number generator to determine the site's recruitment for each month of the simulation (see Figure 1). The process is somewhat similar to rolling a die to mimic real world variability. In reality, though, the random number generator is weighted to return numbers in the proportions that underlie the theoretical distribution. The same concept is applied in the model for other study parameters that add variability into the clinical trial process, such as shipment times or subject variability across stratification factors. In this way, the model can incorporate the variability observed in the real world when performing its calculations.
Using this approach, the results of a number of runs not only show mean values but also the range of possible outcomes with their likelihood, providing valuable information to understand the requirements and behavior of the supply chain strategy under investigation. While deterministic models and simple estimation methods follow an average process that answers "How much drug do I need on average?," the Monte Carlo approach answers "What is the most amount of drug I am likely to need?" or "How can my supply chain perform best with the limited supplies I have available?"
This approach enables the model to answer practical questions and concerns:
- Ideal shipment sizes , to minimize any potential blinding issues versus stock availability at the beginning of the trial
- Optimal trigger/re-supply settings (see sidebar)
- Optimal prediction windows in multiple dispensation studies (see sidebar)
- The impact of trigger and re - supply levels on the number of shipments
- The best time to plan subsequent production runs
- How much material to pack , given a particular study and pack design
- How expiry may impact on a study
- What impact different randomization methodologies will have on the available supply material
- Investigating the use of local depots versus direct - to - site shipments
- Cost benefit of frequent small shipments or fewer larger shipments versus drug cost and availability
- Benefits of using IVR in a trial.
Experience has shown that the simulations can prove valuable both before a study while planning and midstudy. Using the same method to perform midstudy simulations enables sponsors to test their initial assumptions, refine their supply strategy, establish the optimal timing and content of additional production runs, and consider the impact of study design changes-new sites or countries, or modification of treatment arms. The principle of these simulations is exactly the same, but whereas prestudy simulations are "best guesses" based on information from monitors or previous studies, midstudy simulations are based upon a snapshot of the real life medication usage data within the active IVR application database. These simulations employ actual information on subject status and medication location and availability to forecast the likely progression for the remainder of the study. Again, the Monte Carlo approach enables the range of possible outcomes to be measured, instead of one single-line extrapolation.
Page
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
Next Page
Clinical IVR Surveys and Reminder Services
Database Systems Corp. (DSC) offers complete interactive voice response IVR platforms and IVR outsourcing services for clinical testing and voice message broadcasting for reminders and notifications.
Our clinical interactive voice response systems (IVRS) can be programmed to collect data directly from patients for pharmaceutical companies, healthcare organizations, and researchers.
Our IVRS acts as an automatic answering service that collects useful medical information from a caller for clinical surveys and clinical trials.
Patient appointment reminders and prescription refill reminders can be easily sent by phone.
By responding to prompts provided by our IVR call survey system, callers can now respond to clinical trial surveys and our systems will collect this information in an organized fashion. Clinical survey participants in particular can become instantly more productive by letting the phone system gather caller information, verify caller identity, and provide the caller with needed information and instructions.
Contact Database to learn more about our IVR Servers and Interactive Voice Response Phone Servers.
|
