Unified for Success: How the Suvoda-Greenphire Merger Streamlines Clinical Trials

Kathy Kohler, Vice President of Customer Success at Suvoda, discusses the strategic merger between Suvoda and Greenphire and what it means for sites and patients. Learn how bringing randomization, trial supply management, and clinical trial payments together on one platform reduces site burden, eliminates fragmented technology, and creates smoother patient journeys. Kathy shares specific capabilities, including automated payments, streamlined workflows, and single sign-on access, while reinforcing Suvoda's ongoing commitment to site advocacy and listening to the voice of the clinical research community. 

Transcript

Jimmy Bechtel 0:00

Welcome to SCRS talks provided by the Society for Clinical Research Sites. Thank you for joining us as we explore the latest insights, trends, and innovations shaping clinical research today. I'm Jimmy Bechtel, the Chief Site Success Officer with SCRS. And I have the pleasure today of discussing this topic around the Suvoda and Greenphire merger and what this really means for sites and patients with Kathy Kohler, who is the Vice President of Customer Success with Suvoda.

Kathy Kohler 0:26

So, hi everyone, I'm Kathy Kohler and I'm excited to be here today. I've been with Greenphire, which now Suvoda Greenphire for a little over 11 years. I originally came from the financial industry and I joined Greenphire and helped build out. Our professional services organization. Over time, I've had the opportunity to grow and lead our delivery and implementation teams. today I have the pleasure of overseeing our customer success groups across the combined organization. for those of you who may not be familiar, Suvoda is a global clinical trial technology company. We're here to make the trial experience smoother and give teams the clarity they need to make confident decisions, even in the most complex moments. So moments that impact both the pace and the integrity of a trial. So like informed consent, enrollment, randomization, drug dispensation, patient payments and reimbursements. And everything we do really is anchored in what I would say is a simple set of three goals. We wanna make it easier for patients to participate and stay in their trials. We wanna streamline the experience for sites so they can focus more on their time on caring for patients and to support, our sponsors with data-driven insights so they can make. Good decisions and run efficient trials and ultimately bring medications to market faster for the people who need them. And then in my role as customer success, I really see us as the voice of the customer. So we're advocating for sponsors and CROs and the research sites, and ultimately the participants themselves. my team's focused on ensuring that our customers receive great service and that they know how to get the most value from our products, and that what we deliver lines up with their needs and their goals. So a big part of that work is elevating the voice of the sites. So we partner closely with our help desk and our training teams who get to hear directly from the sites every day. Bring forward, incredibly valuable insights. So we also gather direct feedback through surveys, attending investigator meetings and industry events, which gives us another important window into the real world, site experience and where we can continue to improve. ultimately I would say our focus is making sure every stakeholder, whether it's a sponsor, a CRO, a research site, or a participant has a smooth, supported and effective experience throughout the trial, and that the products and services we provide truly equip them to reach those goals.

Jimmy Bechtel 2:44

Thanks, Kathy. Really exciting and great to hear a little bit more about the background and the progression that's been happening with Suvoda and Greenphire. So share with us then, now that we, have that background, what inspired this collaboration and how does it reflect where the industry is? heading, given the recent merger and that growing trend towards what we know is this concept of integrated technology ecosystems

Kathy Kohler 3:07

Absolutely. Yeah. The merger, you know, between Suvoda and Greenphire really came from a shared understanding of what's happening in our industry and what patient sites and sponsors truly need. So both companies were already leaders in their respective spaces. Suvoda with randomization and trial supply management consent. And outcomes data. And then Greenphire with clinical trial payments, financial management, and patient support. what inspired this collaboration was the recognition that fragmented technology, it really slows things down. So when systems don't talk to each other, it creates this extra burden for sites. It complicates the experience for patients, and it makes it just harder for sponsors and CROs to move quickly or make confident decisions. We've both seen firsthand how much better trials run when tools are connected and streamlined. So by bringing our capabilities together on a single platform we've been able to support the most critical moments of a trial, not just from an operational standpoint, but from a financial and patient experience lens as well. It's a much more holistic approach that removes friction instead of adding to it. this merger reflects where the industry is heading. Overall, your sponsors and zeros are looking for a unified, patient-centric technology that, reduces the complexity and gives them real time insights. They want fewer handoffs, fewer logins, and more confidence in the data they're using to make decisions. Now operating a Suvoda, we're really well positioned to start a new standard for what a seamless clinical trial experience can look like. at the end of the day, it's about running more efficient trials and getting important treatments to patients faster, and this collaboration really helps make that possible.

Jimmy Bechtel 4:42

That's exciting, Kathy. the focus on sites and patients and bringing two things together kind of logically. what's great about it is it doesn't feel forced. It feels very, logical in that we're bringing two things together with the intention of building and finding efficiencies to produce something that's even more valuable. For sites and patients. It's not bringing two services together and operating them independently. It's bringing platforms, technology services. the suite of offerings That both organizations had to make something even better as a result.

Kathy Kohler 5:14

Yeah.

Jimmy Bechtel 5:14

So in your perspective how can that help sites operate more efficiently and create smoother journeys for patients?

Kathy Kohler 5:22

from my perspective, a unified technology experience makes an enormous difference for sites and for patients as well. sites are juggling so many different systems today. Screening and randomization consent, eCOA travel. Scheduling site payments, like you name it, they're handling it all right? And when all of those tools live in separate places, it just creates unnecessary complexity and increases the administrative burden on already stretched site staff. So by bringing these capabilities together on one platform. We're giving sites a single intuitive experience. They get single sign-on harmonized workflows, and one shared data layer that eliminates duplicate entry and reduces manual errors. So it also enables a system to work proactively on their behalf. So I'll give you an example. If a patient completes a questionnaire and the response indicates they need to be re randomized at their next level, the platform can automatically trigger that notification. That's the kind of intelligence that really supports sites in following the protocol accurately and efficiently on the patient side, right? The impact is just as meaningful. Instead of navigating multiple apps or emails that can manage their entire trial journey from appointments, travel questionnaires, reimbursements, In one place that simplicity really, it removes a lot of the confusion and the logistical hurdles that often contribute to patient dropout. And when you add real time automation like payments triggering right after a visit or a gentle reminder to complete certain tasks, you just create this calmer, more supported experience for everyone involved. So ultimately, what I'd say is a unified experience just reduces the burden for sites, and it gives patient a smoother, more predictable journey, which is exactly what we should be striving for in clinical research.

Jimmy Bechtel 7:11

That's really exciting to hear because it answers a need that we know exists from the patient insight side. those opportunities to create those efficiencies and create those smoother journeys go from A to B with less barriers is something that sites talk about all the time. it's exciting to see more to come and we'll talk a little bit more about that. From what it means from a service and software platform development perspective. But it's really important and great for our audience to hear that that's the direction, the guiding principle behind the work that you all are doing. What challenges then are sites facing that integrated solutions are designed to solve? So again, kind of continuing down this thread and maybe getting a little bit specific about solutions around integrated technology and then also what are some of the capabilities people can look forward to when we talk about solving some of these challenge. So I guess two parts there. What are the. Challenges that are faced that these are designed to solve. But then what do those solution based capabilities look like to solve those challenges?

Kathy Kohler 8:18

Yeah. I'd say one of the biggest challenges we see today is that the sites and the patients are often working across, multiple systems that they just don't connect with each other. sites may have one tool for randomization and then another for consent, another for. Payments another for travel. that fragmentation just slows everything down and it increases the risk of error. And honestly, it just creates a lot of frustration for people who are already under tremendous pressure. From the patient side, the burden's real, right? Many patients face out-of-pocket costs complicated. You know, travel arrangements. Or confusing study requirements, those types of barriers can absolutely impact their willingness to, or their ability really to stay engaged in a trial. We know that if we make participation easier, you know, we remove some of these logistical stresses and financial burdens, retention goes up and then, you know, the overall experience just improves dramatically. and I feel strongly that by unifying s Oda and Greenphire's capabilities on the Suvoda platform, we're really addressing these pain points head on. we can automate patient payments and reimbursements so patients aren't paying upfront or waiting for long delays to get reimbursed. We can handle end-to-end travel coordination, so that the patients and their caregivers don't have to manage those logistics or try to figure out what's reimbursable And then we're also giving, sites and patients that single place for scheduling and reminders and eCOA data collection, which just reduces the back and forth and helps keep everyone on track, from a site sustainability standpoint, you streamline site payments and budgeting. They make an enormous difference in reducing administrative burden and improving, satisfaction. But I'd say what excites me, about where we're headed are the capabilities that we really have on the horizon. bringing more travel and payment features directly into the patient app. Expanding payment options. Delivering richer analytics for sites and sponsors. all of that supports more informed decision making. And it ultimately creates that smoother more connected trial experience at the end of the day, it's about giving patients and sites the support they need exactly when they need it, and removing the barriers that stand in the way of successful participation.

Jimmy Bechtel 10:25

Kathy, I really like how you painted the path here, right? Again, I go back to what I said last time, where we can easily see how the challenges and issues that might have existed at point A. Through connected services and platforms like this help us get to a better place at point B quicker and easier. So thank you for explaining some of the, the forms in which those solutions takes and, and really how that logically can, can help us solve some of these problems. It's great to hear. it's such a refreshing perspective to hear that there's organizations out there like yours that are really taking this. And again, it not being an ancillary sort of benefit where the focus is on something else. It's really kind of driving the primary purpose, the goals and the vision of this. Not only the merger, but more the development of. The outputs from that merger. Right? we could have easily gone in a hundred different directions with this, but you guys chose to focus on site and patient centricity and develop solutions there that fix some of that, which it's awesome. So Kathy, final question here before we begin to wrap up. The voice of the community, Has really played an important role for both Suvoda and for Greenphire. You guys have participated in multiple, initiatives. You've both, had site advocacy groups and Suvoda continues to support the site advocacy group program. So you guys are really ingrained putting in the money where the mouth is, right? And, you're actually, you say you're listening to sites and you actually are listening to sites and you're involved far more than some organizations even. So how does. this merger, strengthen your commitment to groups like SCRS and what are your priorities then for supporting your advocacy partners in whatever form they might take as you continue down this path as a newly formed merged organization.

Kathy Kohler 12:12

Yeah, I mean, as you mentioned, the site community has always been incredibly important to both Suvoda and Greenphire, and that's something that absolutely carries forward in the merger. both organizations have a long history of listening to sites, partnering closely with groups like SERS and then using that feedback to guide how we build and evolve our solutions. what this merger really does is it amplifies that commitment, by bringing our teams and our expertise. Product capabilities together in an even stronger position to address those real world challenges that sites face every day. We have more resources, a broader suite of tools, and a deeper understanding of the full site and patient journey, and that's what allows us to be more responsive and more thoughtful in how we support the community. in terms of priorities, you know, staying connected to sites in meaningful ways, it's just, it's at the top of the list. We'll continue participating in site advisory boards, SCRS leadership forums, industry events where we can hear directly from sites about what's working, where they need more help. That input to us is just, it's invaluable. We also know that, you know, clear proactive communication is critical, especially during transitions. So just being transparent about product changes and integration timelines and the support available to sites is a major focus for us. We want them to feel confident and prepared and not surprised. continuing to invest in tools and services that truly reduce the site burden and that support the financial sustainability. Improve both the site and the patient experience that's been core to Greenphire and Suvoda individually, and it's even more central to our mission now as a combined organization. So, you know, we just remain committed to that, and to flexibility. We know that sites have diverse needs and we're not trying to force like a one size fits all ecosystem. So, maintaining openness to third party integrations really helps ensure that sites can choose, what works best for them while still benefiting from like a unified experience. So ultimately I just say, you know, we wanna be a trusted partner to sites and an advocate for their needs. We know that their voices, you know, they've shaped us in the past. We want them to continue to shape where we're going and they will absolutely continue to do that. We are committed to that and doing all we can to advocate for them and their needs.

Jimmy Bechtel 14:30

I couldn't have put it better myself, Kathy, and it's great to hear that. Really solid and foundational commitment to the sites. I'm sure a lot of our partners will. I hope that they continue to look to your newly formed organization to do just some of the things that you had mentioned on the call and really look forward to opportunities to see, your organization's name come across their desk in whatever form that might take Be encouraged and, look at it in a positive light to say, oh, excellent. I know this organization is going to be site focused. They've made their commitments in a variety of different ways. So again, thank you for being with us and sharing some of the great insights What it means for this newly formed organization as a result of the merger and the direction that you all are heading maintaining that site and patient focus. So thank you for being with us again, and thank you for your time.

Kathy Kohler 15:22

Oh, thank you so much. Great. It was just great to be here, Jimmy. And we really appreciate the opportunity to be able to take the time to talk about our merged organization and where we're heading. And again, just thanks so much for this opportunity.

Jimmy Bechtel 15:34

For sure. No problem. and thank you again. it was my pleasure. And I hope everyone listening makes sure that they check out other site focused resources made available to our entire community on our website, my scrs.org, including other podcasts like this one, opportunities to engage with partners like Suvoda, as well as our Site Solutions Summit, where we bring. Partners like Suvoda and many others together with our site community to work on some of the challenges and develop solutions like many of the ones that Kathy mentioned on the call today. So with that, thank you for listening, tuning in, and until next time.