Tracking outcomes is one of the most important parts of research. More accurate outcomes bring better results, which lead to critical discoveries, life-changing developments, and more funding. But tracking outcomes can put a huge burden on administrative staff. Fortunately, there are some simple things you can do to simplify your outcomes tracking and achieve better results.
Challenges of outcomes tracking
Outcomes tracking in research is a complex organizational challenge with high stakes. Tracking healthcare or technology development outcomes can benefit the world by getting solutions to the public faster — but it’s not easy. Here are some of the top challenges research organizations face when it comes to tracking outcomes:
- Unified communication: Keeping everyone up to date and on the same page is a massive undertaking. Many trials or research projects take place across several locations, adding to the complexity of keeping everyone aligned.
- Coordination and cooperation: Coordinating among teams and integrating data or reports can quickly become messy. Teams need a unified “source of truth” where they know data is accurate and current.
- Quality assurance: Manual tracking leads to errors, duplication, and burnout. Teams don’t always have the bandwidth to stay on top of outcomes in real-time, and errors can delay processes even further.
- Overburdened staff: Administrative burden is a drain on resources, funds, and time. Tracking outcomes the old way can be too much for today’s staff, which may shrink or change on a regular basis.
Tips to simplify outcomes tracking
With all the challenges posing real threats to success, how can you simplify your outcomes tracking? The following six tips can help:
- Keep all your data in one platform. This is critical to streamlining and simplifying. One platform ensures your team is always aligned and updated. You share one “source of truth” for all projects and tracking.
- Get your team on the same page. Explain how your processes have been updated and how the new system is used. Confirm everyone knows the new order of operations and understands how to track their work.
- Facilitate team communication and report access. A single platform also helps with this. No matter where your team works, they should be able to collaborate and communicate with one another and your data easily.
- Go digital. It can feel overwhelming to digitize a paper system, but digital is the way the world is moving. Digital tracking helps reduce errors, provides your team access from anywhere, and automates processes.
- Simplify your processes. Simplifying your reporting structures and workflows is part of going digital and moving to a single platform. This will serve you well later and ensure the success of your efforts.
- Free up your staff. Use tools and automation to reduce the administrative burden on your staff, freeing their time to focus on the most important work.
How Cayuse can help
Cayuse has created a platform to digitize, centralize, and automate all your outcomes tracking. The platform is cloud-based, so your team can access it from anywhere. It also delivers key workflow support to prevent your team from getting stuck or falling behind.
An example of how the Cayuse platform works is the Duke Innovate Portal, supported by Cayuse Inventions. The portal helped Duke University simplify the commercialization of its IP assets. It also provided investigators and research coordinators direct access to a database of current research and license contracts at the investigator or departmental level. Additionally, Inventions can capture online disclosures and facilitate iEdison and AUTM reporting, as well as monitor inventions, patents, and agreement status.
According to the Cayuse Benchmark Report, 33% of research organizations still utilize manual processes for research outcomes. Organizations using a digital platform saw the following benefits:
- Improved efficiency (76%)
- Time savings (64%)
- Reduced errors (52%)
- Increase in research discoverability (52%)
- Improved communication and collaboration (52%)
