Medidata Solutions has announced it is partnering with the Medical Device Innovation Consortium (MDIC) to help medical device makers get their devices to patients faster. Medidata, a top provider of software and analytics for clinical trials, works with almost 850 life sciences organizations.

The company noted that its roster of clients includes 16 of the top 20 medical device developers. Joining MDIC is another signal that Medidata is focused on the medical device industry.

"The breadth and depth of the company's experience and success with clinical trials in the medical device and diagnostic field is an example of the kind of intellectual capital the ecosystem needs to help transform how new technologies are delivered to patients," MDIC CEO Bill Murray said in the release.

MDIC plays a major role in the medical device industry's focus toward real-world data on devices. As the Coordinating Center for the Medical Device National Evaluation System for health Technology (NEST), MDIC will help develop methods for the industry's trials and postmarket studies, with an eye toward patient-centered research.

"Medical device companies of all sizes face unique challenges when bringing their innovations to market," Glen de Vries, president of Medidata, said in the release. "We're committed to providing them with the right tools, data, and analytics to address their specific needs, and are excited to spur meaningful change alongside MDIC."

Medidata, chosen by MD+DI's readers as the Readers' Choice Medtech Company of the Year in 2015, has been helping life sciences companies incorporate digital and mobile health technology into trials. In July 2016, Medidata announced work with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to study movement, behavior, and sleep in patients with multiple myeloma who were undergoing induction chemotherapy.

In an interview in January, de Vries discussed the motivation behind Medidata's partnerships with digital health companies and life sciences companies.

"What I feel like the industry needs . . . is disciplined research that is inclusive of bringing every aspect that we can measure of somebody's health state into a single data set," de Vries said. Noting that some of those measurements can be taken by digital health wearables, he added, "There's complexity in creating that data set . . . our job is to lower the friction, to make it really easy to create an environment where in a rigorous, scientific, and compliant . . . way you can actually make that a reality."

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