CROnos CCS is a New Jersey-based company that provides clinically-driven data monitoring services for CNS trials. With the contribution and support of symptom assessment experts, we developed the Accu-Rate System, a platform of sophisticated, instrument-specific algorithms that review all symptom ratings in real-time to identify assessment discrepancies or inconsistencies.

A major strength of the Accu-Rate System is its applicability to both domestic and international studies:  it is not limited by cultural, geographical or linguistic barriers. Regardless of study site location, all data are reviewed by the same algorithms, and our expert clinicians then contact the raters to provide real-time feedback. This ensures that instruments are being utilized consistently and accurately across different study sites and countries, minimizing the impact of geographical region interaction.

Our commitment is to provide a cost-effective data monitoring service that applies consistent standards to all study sites, regardless of geographic location. We believe data-monitoring results in better, more accurate study outcomes and that this can only be achieved by analysis that is independent from the "usual players" in the clinical trial process.  

Meaningful, accurate, and ethical Data Monitoring can not be effectively performed without being an independent party that is uninvolved in rater training or site scorings, and does not have a competing interest with a pharmaceutical company.

We are not a research site, not a provider of rater training, nor an organization with a key stake in the study outcomes. Sites have different incentives and pressures for patients and for raters that we do not have to contend with. Companies involved in rater training also have to resolve conflicts of interest in terms of measuring their own performance.  All these factors create unwanted biases that contribute to failed studies.

Truly independent, third party analysis is what CROnos CCS is all about. This independence allows us to provide objective feedback based solely on the symptom assessment and the expertise of our team of clinicians and KOLs. At CROnos CCS, our service is not restricted by concerns about compounds, protocols or companies, which are all potential sources of bias. Our trainers are also blinded to information regarding visit number, patient age or gender, site location, or rater preference. This places us in the unique position to provide objective feedback without potentially endangering some other service provision as occurs with other companies.

Rater training companies, for example, are responsible for initial instrument training, and because these companies are necessarily invested in their own success, this situation creates incentives for favorable reports of the durability of their training process. Because we do not provide rater training, we are not put in the position of measuring our own performance: we are unbiased in the provision of feedback and remediation to raters.

Our History

It was 2001 but still seems like yesterday when two young research professionals met at Columbia University while working on research studies with mentally ill populations. They were both concerned about the accuracy of the symptom assessment data they were collecting, especially when college students were the raters. They started developing ways to verify that the data was consistent and that the scores were accurate. After several failed attempts, they came to the realization that they could develop methods to remotely check for assessment consistency based on the scores the raters were submitting. As they both were committed to clinical excellence as well as utilizing current technology, they developed a complex set of algorithms that are able to detect assessment inconsistencies. They discussed this new and innovative procedure with the authors of psychiatric instruments, and found that not only were they excited with this new approach, but they even helped to validate the system.  First it was experts with schizophrenia, then bipolar disorder, depression… and the rest is history.  

Today Clinical Data Monitoring is CROnos CCS core and main business, and as such we are the leader in Clinical Data Monitoring with the perfect balance between technology and clinical knowledge with a solid foundation in academic rigor and standards.