Mi-Co, the mobile data capture company, has been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research contract by the National Institute of Health's National Cancer Institute. Under the terms of the contract, Mi-Co will study alternative pen based methods for recording clinical trial data through digital writing processes. Alternatives will include Personal Digital Assistants, Tablet PCs and Anoto Functionality Digital Pens all powered by Mi-Co's Mi-Forms software platform. Radiologists from UNC's School of Medicine will evaluate the pen-based alternatives. Mi-Co expects to show that the best of the alternatives is more efficient, yields a smaller number of errors, gives better user satisfaction, and yields fewer help attempts than an existing web based Electronic Data Capture system.
This project is important to the clinical trials field because most investigators enter data into paper patient files with a pen before filling a paper or electronic Case Report Form (CRF). Many investigators desire to realize the benefits of electronic data capture at the point of participant contact rather than having to record the data twice at the trial site. The goal is to identify which data collection methods will let the user stay mobile and not be confined to a PC, while increasing the accuracy of the data collected and reducing costs by eliminating having to rekey information into a computer system. In addition, some of the pen-based methods allow validations at the point of capture, reducing the number of time consuming and expensive queries.
As the mobile data capture company for digital writing solutions, Mi-Co has conducted extensive research and development efforts for electronic data capture, storage and communication while focusing on the intuitive use of the "pen on paper" process. Mi-Co was formed in March 2000 when a software engineering business emphasizing handwriting capture, compression and forms capture combined with hardware expertise. Jim Clary and Greg Clary joined efforts to provide a software solution that combines digital processing with the convenience of a "pen on paper" interface.
As part of this process, the Small Business Technology Development Center has consistently provided Mi-Co with a wide variety of support including one-on-one counseling, SBIR workshops and conferences, and facilitating the opportunity for interns to work at Mi-Co and provide additional support. Mi-Co also has taken advantage of the SBTDC's proposal review program and SBIR workshops and conferences to become familiar with the SBIR process and to secure Mi-Co's SBIR contract with NCI/NIH.
Phase II plans are already in the works to implement better and faster ways to enable clinicians to collect, record, communicate and store data that is vital to clinical trials. Pen based software and hardware systems are the key to allowing researchers easier ways of collecting data, and Mi-Co's Mi-Forms technology provides an accurate, simple and intuitive way to integrate computers and humans. For many applications, the best interface is one that people have been using for centuries, pen on paper.
About Mi-Co
Mi-Co, the mobile data capture company, provides digital writing software to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the entire process of capturing and using data. Mi-Co's end-to-end enterprise Mi-Forms Software System enables flexible forms design and the capture, handwriting verification and communication of forms based and free-form pen-on-paper data for enterprise users. Mi-Forms supports enterprise data capture using the Tablet PC, the Logitech io Digital Pen, Pocket PCs and signature capture devices. Mi-Co's vertical markets for Mi-Forms Software include healthcare and pharmaceuticals, public safety, and governmental services, and Mi-Co has a growing number of customers in these segments. Mi-Co is headquartered in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. For more information on Mi-Co, visit www.mi-corporation.com.
