Blog Post
We Built a Clinical Trial Industry That Runs on Logins
Loading…
Andrea Bastek
Vice President, Market Strategy
For years, the industry conversation around technology burden has focused almost entirely on sites.
Too many portals. Too many passwords. Too many disconnected systems.
And to be fair, the data absolutely supports that narrative.
In the 2026 State of Clinical Trial Technology Report:
- 46% of site respondents reported using 5 or more internal systems every day
- 50% reported logging into 5 or more study-specific systems for an average trial
That is certainly a fragmented operational environment.
But here’s the part nobody talks about: sponsors and CROs are dealing with the same thing.
Among sponsor respondents:
- 74% reported using 5 or more internal systems daily
- Nearly half reported using 5 or more study systems per study
CRO respondents reported similarly high levels of system sprawl.
The industry narrative has framed this as a “site burden” issue. The data suggests it’s actually an ecosystem-wide operational design problem.
And unlike sites, sponsor and CRO staff don’t just deal with their own systems.
They also:
- provide support to site users on study-specific systems
- troubleshoot study platforms
- manage access requests
- coordinate across overlapping technology stacks
In a recent room full of CRAs, more than half raised their hands when asked whether they felt like professional tech support for sites.
That should concern all of us.
Because this isn’t simply a usability problem anymore. It’s an operational capacity problem.
Every additional login, dashboard, portal, and workflow introduces:
- more training
- more credential management
- more process variation
- more support burden
- more opportunity for delays and errors
The industry often talks about interoperability as a future innovation initiative.
But increasingly, interoperability looks less like innovation and more like operational survival.
The uncomfortable reality is.
We may have spent the last decade digitizing clinical research without actually simplifying it. And the people carrying the operational burden are no longer just sites. It’s everyone.
