Top 10 Pharma Company digitizes paper logbooks to increase data accessibility and reduce the burden on compliance

Introduction

A top 10 pharmaceutical producer with strong research capabilities helps to supply the world with life-saving treatments for chronic conditions. With a deep understanding of medical needs, the pharma company has positioned itself as a leader in novel treatments and technologies to address the most urgent global health challenges.

Until recently, many of the pharma company’s operations, specifically logbooks, were documented with pen and paper. This practice generated more paper documentation than could be processed within a reasonable time, so they developed a plan with Tulip to digitize their logbooks.

The pharma company experienced many of the same challenges that other companies face with paper logbooks. They realized that the entire process was time-consuming and error-prone. Most importantly, their data could not be utilized for real-time decision-making.

Each time an operator needed access to a paper logbook in an aseptic room, operators must follow a full gowning and sanitization procedure. This data retrieval process happened often enough that this company began tracking the time spent moving between spaces. They found that their operators would spend hours just gowning and retrieving information in paper logbooks within aseptic rooms.

The issue of inaccessible data is further compounded by the fact that, like many other pharma companies, more data is being generated than ever before. With paper logbooks at every site across the world, this pharma company would need to devote an entire technical team to transfer the data from paper to digital, apply analyses, identify trends, and build reports.

After trying other suppliers, their team saw Tulip’s platform and intuitive app editing as a scalable solution to replace their paper processes, giving them full visibility into their operations.

With Tulip’s e-logbooks solution, the data capture process occurs when the work happens. Tulip applications automatically track who completes the task, when they complete it, if there is an electronic signature, and when, if any, changes happen. Operators also have access to a drop-down menu for things like building location or equipment status to quickly complete their logs which helps prevent data entry errors. Every Tulip interaction across their sites builds an audit trail that reduces the burden of compliance.

An employee of the company jokingly mentioned they no longer have to worry about the loss of VIP (very important paper) from the occasional coffee spill. With Tulip’s digital logbooks, the company had many big wins; they reduced the time spent entering aseptic rooms to access paper logbooks to zero, started sharing real-time data with collaborators across the world, and assured compliance with quality checks and electronic signatures prior to submission. Words of success trickled throughout the company and teams are raising their hands to be next in line for Tulip’s rollout at their site.

In addition to rolling out the logbook apps to additional sites, the next step for this company includes identifying other use cases for Tulip across the company. The team is particularly interested in capturing data from humans and machines for electronic batch records. By removing the middleman and streamlining data entry for operators, there’s a decreased risk of erroneous data entry and this company’s operators can focus their time on the most critical tasks.