OpenClinica Community Surpasses 3,500 Members

Popularity Further Establishes OpenClinica as the Most Widely Used Open Source System for eClinical Research Digg this article

(Cambridge, MA) April 22, 2008 -- An increase in the interest and use of open source in clinical research has led to rapid growth of the community surrounding the OpenClinica open source clinical trial software from Akaza Research. In April 2007 this community comprised approximately 1,300 registered members. One year later, this figure has increased by 155 percent to over 3,500.

"The growth of the OpenClinica community has surpassed pretty much everybody�s expectations," said Paul Galvin, OpenClinica�s Project Manager. "When you consider the finite size of the clinical trials industry, this figure represents a fairly substantial proportion of practitioners in the field."

According to Galvin, "the OpenClinica community is adding about 65 new members each week." At this rate, the community could be twice as large one year from now as it is today.

The OpenClinica community was inaugurated in early 2006, shortly after the first public release of the software. Since then the clinical trials software has been downloaded over 10,000 times, leading to adoption in more than 20 countries around the world, translation into multiple languages, and numerous contributions of source code and other improvements from developers in the community.

Indeed, the collective efforts of the community drive value for each participating party. "Many CROs, clinical trial sponsors, and research networks are recognizing the increased value that a well-supported open source solution can deliver," said Cal Collins, CEO of Akaza Research. "We share a belief that a global ecosystem based on open source and open standards is a foundation for the next generation of clinical research."

About OpenClinicaź

OpenClinica is open source, web-based clinical trial software for electronic data capture and clinical data management in clinical research. It facilitates protocol configuration, design of case report forms, clinical data capture, and study/data management. OpenClinica supports HIPAA, GCP, and 21 CFR Part 11 guidelines and is designed as a lightweight, standards-based, extensible, and modular platform. OpenClinica is available for download at www.OpenClinica.org.

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