CHICAGO, May 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Click Commerce , a leading provider of compliance automation solutions for research institutions, today announced that The MetroHealth System has selected the company’s Webridge Compliance Extranet to drive their aggressive electronic initiative to replace paper-based submissions for human research review and approval. The project is expected to help them keep pace with their increasing compliance load.
Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) are established under federal regulations to protect the rights and welfare of people participating in research. The MetroHealth IRB is a committee of physicians, nurses, pharmacists, bioethicists, scientists and community volunteers that ensures that all research at MetroHealth is ethical. As a leader in cutting-edge research in biomedical sciences, MetroHealth naturally seized upon the opportunity to increase regulatory compliance efficiency. “Our research load means we have reams of approval paperwork that must be created, transported, copied and filed. The Webridge system eliminates many of the manual steps, reduces approval time and keeps everyone knowledgeable about where things are in the process,” said Thomas Swales, Ph.D., Chairperson of The MetroHealth Institutional Review Board (IRB).
“The documentation required to achieve compliance can be burdensome,” said Michael W. Ferro, Jr., Chairman and CEO of Click Commerce. “Our solutions enable scientists, doctors, and administrators to focus on research with the assurance that their processes are capable of meeting ever-changing regulatory requirements as well as their own high ethical standards.”
MetroHealth’s new compliance management system is expected to be available for research submissions in September 2004. This improvement is supported financially by a Human Research Enhancement Grant awarded by the National Institutes of Health to MetroHealth and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.
About The MetroHealth System
The MetroHealth System is one of the nation’s largest and most successful public health care providers, offering health care for the most critically injured trauma patients to skilled nursing care for the chronically ill. Affiliated with Case Western Reserve University since 1914, MetroHealth continues to build on its longstanding teaching reputation and research excellence, offering vital training and research opportunities for students and physicians. MetroHealth conducts cutting-edge research in biomedical sciences, particularly in the areas of cancer, heart, liver and kidney research. For more information, go to: http://www.metrohealth.org/ /
About Click Commerce, Inc.
Click Commerce provides turnkey software and services solutions that enable global enterprises to transform their business relationships to gain competitive advantage. The Webridge Extranet for Compliance by Click Commerce provides configurable compliance automation software that enables higher education and healthcare research institutions to optimize compliance processes and gain efficiencies in research administration. Six of the top ten research institutions in North America, including Johns Hopkins, University of Washington, and the University of Michigan, use the Webridge solution to automate regulatory compliance processes and manage research project approvals. More information can be found at http://www.clickcommerce.com/ and http://www.webridge.com/ .
Click Commerce, Inc.
CONTACT: Media, Nick Stier of Click Commerce, Inc., +1-503-601-4523,nicks@webridge.com , or Luzon Thomas of MetroHealth, +1-216-778-2541,lhthomas@metrohealth.org , or Investors, Mike Nelson of Click Commerce, Inc.,+1-312-377-3887, mike.nelson@clickcommerce.com
