Building Software for Sites: Sitebase, by Curebase Joins the GIP Program

Jimmy Bechtel: Welcome to SCRS Talks, provided by the Society for Clinical Research Sites. I'm Jimmy Bechtel, the Chief Site Success Officer with the Society, and today I'm joined by Storm Stillman, who is the CEO of Curebase, one of SCRS's newest Global Impact Partners. And today we're going to get into a little bit of what Curebase does, some of their product, and why they've decided to join the GIP program. Storm, great to have you. Really excited to jump into that. Before we get into the subject of the day today, I'd love to learn a little bit more about you.

Storm Stillman: Yeah, hi, I'm Storm. I've been CEO of Curebase for about a year and a half now. I've been at Curebase for about seven years, most of my time spent on the ops and sales side of things. My background originally started in clinical research on the CRO side, so I definitely hadn't spent much time with sites until Curebase, and we had our virtual site in addition to our CRO and our software platform. And that's where I learned to gain an appreciation for the plight of the sites, you might call it. But good to be here.

Jimmy Bechtel: Yeah, great. Excellent. And I'm excited to learn a little bit more about what you guys do. So let's start there. Storm, can you tell me a little bit more about Sitebase, which I know is Curebase's software platform that is built for sites? And for those who might not know you yet and haven't yet had the pleasure of working with you, can you also walk us through what you do and the problem you set out to solve for the research community through Curebase?

Storm Stillman: Yeah, Sitebase is launching next month, actually. The site has never really been the customer that tech was built for. I think if you look at all the software that's out there, it's not user-friendly, it's not easy for coordinators to use. They're juggling back and forth between systems that are called connected, but they're not. They're actually spending more time doing logistics and mundane work than actually helping participants and patients in their sites. And so the problem we're solving is trying to take back some of that time. We're not trying to get rid of any jobs, we're just trying to increase the amount of time that you can have that human interaction rather than doing things like data entry and things like that. And as part of that, we're offering this software for free for sites. We also know that there's not a lot of money to be made, I think, on the site side of things. There's a lot of sites that don't have a ton of cash flow, and we want to give them something that's just easy for them to use to help with what they need.

Jimmy Bechtel: That's great. It's always nice to see organizations that truly are putting the site side of things first by, for example, offering a platform that they can use to help solve some of their challenges at no cost to them. So when you think about those challenges then, Storm, that they're facing today, the list is numerous, right? We can talk about staffing, data quality, patient burden, or just keeping up with the pace of trials and protocol complexity. So where does this fit in then, and where do you see the biggest opportunity amongst those problems to really move the needle with the path that you all are embarking upon?

Storm Stillman: Yeah, I think there's a lot of places to move the needle, but I think the overarching piece is making it so that people know what to do and when. Our vision is a coordinator logs into Sitebase and they just have a list of everything that they need to do, and it's across their entire workspace. Queries that need to be responded to, patients that need to be called because they're not going to complete their ePRO tomorrow. And by wrapping it into one package and making it easy for them to see what needs to be done, that makes their life easier. And I think also data entry is one of the key pieces, and one of the first things we're going to be launching with is eSource, because we think data entry is one of the biggest burdens in clinical research right now. So making that process easy, making it so that people can work on devices that feel more native to their work, on tablets, things like that. Coordinators, it's very hard to walk around with a laptop, but when they walk into a room with a patient, it's very easy for them to hold a tablet, do what they need to do, enter that data immediately rather than putting it on a piece of paper, transcribing it somewhere. So just making that whole process more efficient and taking back time everywhere that you can.

Jimmy Bechtel: There are so many facets to the quote-unquote challenge that exists around data entry, right? There's the technology piece of it and burdensome technology, right, to your exact point, the problem that you're out here to solve. An eSource platform, we'll use that example, that has not been built with the sites in mind. It's been built with the data portion of it in mind, because the customer has traditionally been the sponsor or CRO. So flipping that on its head a little bit, building something for the sites that works with their workflows and enables them to solve some of those challenges and build some of those efficiencies, right? There's so many different aspects of data entry and process that are burdensome and challenging. So again, kudos to you all to embark down a path that solves some of those.

Storm Stillman: We're really excited about it.

Jimmy Bechtel: Storm, you've been around with us long enough to kind of understand the position that SCRS is in uniquely as an advocate for sites. So what was it about the GIP program specifically that made you feel like it was the right partnership for Curebase, and what then do you hope to be able to contribute to the community and really get out of what being part of the GIP means to you all?

Storm Stillman: Yeah, so to your point, SCRS is the only organization that really speaks purely for the sites, and so we see it as a really good place to actually listen. We were there, I think, the day before that last conference for the GIP portion, where we had the working groups and things like that. Every one of those opportunities is an opportunity for us to learn about what sites actually need, and we don't want to be building in a bubble. We're having conversations with sites regularly. I don't know what's best for a site. I've never worked at a site, and I fully admit that. I can make some guesses, and then we can show things to a site and get feedback on that, but without actually involving sites in that conversation, you're not going to build something that they actually want to use and is helpful, and you're just going to be in the situation we're in now, where people are using the best of the worst instead of building software that people actually enjoy using.

Jimmy Bechtel: It's such an interesting concept, Storm, and it truly does speak to the power of the connection and the community that you're able to really take advantage of as being part of the GIP, right? You mentioned it's a deepening of connection opportunity for those that are interested to hear what the sites have to say. And I think an important other side of that coin is that we have sites that are part of this community that are willing to and set up to be able to personify that mode of feedback, and really work on closing that feedback loop. So I agree with you, it's an excellent opportunity to do that, and I'm excited to hear the number one priority for you guys, right, is to make the connections and listen, be able to listen and position yourselves to listen to the sites. That's excellent. So looking ahead then, Storm, what does success look like for you as a GIP, right? Let's kind of take what you said there and iterate on it further. And what do you want sites listening today to know about Sitebase and Curebase, and how the work that you're doing can really support what they're out here to do, and that's to treat patients?

Storm Stillman: Yeah, I think what sites should know is we are offering that one-stop shop to do everything you need. We're looking to gain feedback regularly and constantly improve the product. I think a lot of companies are out there, and through no fault of their own, they're owned by PE firms, and the goal is to just make money at that point. I think we're in a great place now where we're in product development mode. Our goal is to make the best thing out there. So every site that we bring on board, we're listening to feedback, we're iterating on the product, and what it is today could be dramatically different in two weeks from a usability standpoint. I won't pretend that the audit trails are going to go away. But if you tell us this button is difficult to use, or it should really be over here, you're going to be able to see those changes pretty fast. We're building quickly. I went through Y Combinator with my previous startup, and Curebase is a Y Combinator company, and the whole mantra was building something that people love. If I build something that people don't enjoy using, that's not fun to me. I only enjoy making things that people want to use. So I think you have our vow that we're going to make something that you want to be using, and that we're going to listen to your feedback, and if you don't enjoy using it, we're going to make sure you do start enjoying using it. So really excited to get as many people on the platform as possible, start getting that user feedback, and really just grow the network of sites that are using Sitebase, and just have this critical mass of sites working together and being able to see data across, and see where you're at in the process. Like, how are you compared to other sites that are in studies? Just having a certain network effect that we can gain by a lot of sites being on the same platform.

Jimmy Bechtel: It's a worthwhile endeavor, Storm. I wish I could say it was more common, right? It's great to hear that your focus is on the site and on the product, and making a product that is for the sites and really does work for them, because we've seen so many examples of the opposite being true, right? The sites becoming an afterthought, which is the point that you really did start us out with around the motivators and what's really driving you to do this. So kudos to you all, and I'm really excited to see how Curebase and its subsequent products around Sitebase really do go to advance some of the work that the sites are doing. So thank you for that. I wish we could talk more and learn more and get into the details of what the product does specifically, but we're out of time for today. So thank you for being here with us. Thank you for joining the GIP program, and really looking forward to serving as a conduit for you all to continue onwards and upwards with what you're trying to do.

Storm Stillman: Thanks for having me, and I'll see you in a couple weeks. Everyone should stop by the booth. We're going to have a giant video wall, so it'll be hard to miss.

Jimmy Bechtel: Absolutely. Thanks, Storm, and thanks to everyone listening. For those of you that are listening, be sure to check out other site-focused resources made available on our website, myscrs.org. Not only do you have opportunities there to engage deeper with some of our Global Impact Partners and learn a little bit more about what they do, but also other site-focused resources like other podcasts, webinars, and informational resources. But for now, thanks for tuning in, and until next time.