Every day across the globe, thousands of clinical research coordinators sit down to the same frustrating task: They have an EHR (Electronic Health Record) open on one screen and a sponsor’s EDC (Electronic Data Capture) system open on the other. For the next eight hours, they will manually copy and paste lab results, vitals, and patient data from one screen to the other.
It is inefficient; it is error-prone; and, frankly, it’s a waste of their expertise.
I’ve spent over 15 years in clinical research informatics, most recently as the Senior Director for Clinical Research Informatics at Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK). I’ve seen firsthand how this manual bridge creates a massive bottleneck in bringing life-saving treatments to patients.
Today, I’m excited to share why I’ve moved from the research-site side to become the Chief Product Officer at IgniteData and why I believe our Archer platform is the scalable solution the industry has been waiting for.
The Problem: An Industry Stuck in Manual Overdrive
At MSK, we managed a massive portfolio of trials, but we faced the same challenge with each one: traditional data exchange wasn’t working. We previously relied on a large team of coordinators to manage manual data entry.. Not only was this expensive, it impacted:
- Trial Speed: Data took weeks to move from the clinic to the sponsor.
- Data Quality: Manual typing inevitably led to human error.
- Team Morale: Research coordinators are highly trained professionals; they shouldn’t spend their careers performing manual data abstraction.
We tried several “bespoke” solutions over the last decade, but they were never scalable. They might have worked for one study, one sponsor, or one site, but they failed when applied to the entire portfolio of a major cancer center.
The Turning Point: Why Archer Stood Out
When I first met the team at IgniteData, I realized they were approaching the problem differently. They weren’t just building another middleman tool; they were building a scalable, agnostic infrastructure.
What makes IgniteData Archer different?
- A Scalable Technology Stack: By leveraging FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources), Archer connects directly to the EHR. We can map those resources once and use them across all studies, all sponsors, and all sites.
- A Site-First Perspective: Unlike many commercial vendors, IgniteData’s leadership understands the unique pressures of the research site.
- Proven Results: We didn’t just guess that Archer worked; we proved it through rigorous validation.
The MSK Results: By the Numbers
Before scaling Archer at MSK, we conducted a study (recently published in JAMIA) across five different research trials. The results were undeniable:
- 60% Increase in Efficiency: Coordinators moved significantly more data in less time.
- 100% Data Quality: Electronic transfer eliminated all transcription errors.
- User Satisfaction: Coordinators vastly preferred using Archer over manual entry. It made their jobs more rewarding and helped them focus on what matters: the patients.
Looking Ahead: The Vision for 2026
I joined IgniteData to bring the site voice to the heart of product development. We’ve already mastered structured data such as labs, vitals, and demographics. But the future is even more exciting.
Now, in 2026, our focus is moving into unstructured data. We are already live with pilots to extract complex data points like ECOG performance status from clinical notes. As IgniteData continues to creatively innovate, we can increase the percentage of the trial record moved electronically through the Archer platform.
The Bottom Line: Faster Answers for Patients
When we talk about data exchange, it’s easy to get lost in the technical jargon of FHIR, EDCs, and APIs. But the ultimate stakeholder is the patient.
If we move data faster and more accurately, sponsors save on monitoring costs, drug-delivery timelines shrink, and we get life-saving answers to patients months or even years sooner.
I’m thrilled to be leading the product vision here at IgniteData. We aren’t just building software; we’re building a faster path to the future of medicine.