Syneos Health reduces time for clinical trial site activation by about 10% with Azure OpenAI Service

Syneos Health wanted to streamline the complex data and documentation demands of biopharmaceutical development to get lifesaving therapies to patients faster.

The company developed a unified data solution in Microsoft Azure and is using Azure OpenAI Service to build and deploy generative AI apps to enhance its data analysis capabilities.

Syneos Health deployed its solution in nine months with support from Microsoft. Thus, the company has reduced the time to select sites for clinical trials, improved predictive modeling, and helped employees to find new ways to engage with customers.

Biopharmaceutical solutions organization Syneos Health stands at the forefront of combining science and data to accelerate drug development, clinical trials, and commercialization for its pharmaceutical customers. Syneos Health provides services and solutions for all aspects of the drug development process to help get lifesaving therapies into the hands of patients and healthcare providers. The company is accelerating the adoption of generative AI to address the scale and complexity of data demands for its customers and clinical trials across the globe and for the pharmaceutical industry as a whole.

“In our clinical organization, at any given time, we’re conducting well over 500 clinical trials,” says Michael Brooks, Chief Operating Officer at Syneos Health. “If you look at just the last five years, we completed 300 studies. Over 190,000 subjects participated in those trials at over 9,000 research sites, and the trials that we’re conducting have significant complexity.”

Syneos Health analyzes large, complex data sets to advance pharmaceutical trials and bring new therapies to market. The company sees generative AI as one of the keys to helping its customers make quicker, more informed decisions. “We’ve evolved into a tech and data insights–enabled organization, where we use AI-driven insights to help our team members and our customers make really good decisions about the design, development, and commercialization of products,” says Brooks.

Incorporating generative AI into a cloud-based ecosystem in nine months

Syneos Health turned to trusted partner Microsoft to modernize the company’s analytical capabilities and optimize workflows with generative AI. The company had already migrated its data estate to the Microsoft Azure environment to incorporate traditional machine learning and quantitative data analytics. Syneos Health uses data storage and analytical products, including Azure Data Lake Storage and Azure Databricks, to securely manage its terabytes of data. What began as a discussion around fundamentally upgrading the company’s data platform has evolved in the last couple of years, and Syneos Health is now experiencing gains in efficiency, time savings, and raw capabilities.

Azure helps Syneos Health deliver scalable ingestion, transformation, machine learning operations, AI, and data quality capabilities across the company.

Syneos Health was eager to include generative AI capabilities in its existing Azure environment to streamline daily workflows, incorporate predictive modeling, and help manage the extensive documentation requirements common in the pharmaceutical industry. The company worked with Microsoft to create a data platform that incorporates Azure OpenAI Service, which helps Syneos Health to build its own generative AI apps.

“The scalable, practical solutions that we can use are helping both our clinical and commercialization teams become better and faster at what they do. That, in turn, not only reduces cost but also allows us to meet our goal: accelerating clinical trials.”

Diana Cucos, President, Functional Service Provider 360, Syneos Health

The company deployed its new analytics solution after nine months of development with Microsoft and is systematically considering how generative AI can improve each step of its processes, from clinical trials to commercialization. “The scalable, practical solutions that we can use are helping both our clinical and commercialization teams become better and faster at what they do,” says Diana Cucos, President, Functional Service Provider 360 at Syneos Health. “That, in turn, not only reduces cost but also allows us to meet our goal: accelerating clinical trials.”

Reducing site-activation cycle by about 10% and empowering employees

The company’s use of generative AI showcases its potential to revolutionize the industry by addressing complex data demands and enhancing decision-making capabilities. Syneos Health is accelerating critical timelines, facilitating predictive forecasting, and empowering employees to find new ways to work. For example, selecting clinical trial sites was previously a painstaking, manual data collection process that took several months to complete. Using AI-driven insights, Syneos Health greatly accelerated this process, now generating an initial site list within approximately 24–48 hours and narrowing down the selection process to a few weeks. “In 2024 alone, we reduced our site-activation cycle time by upwards of 10%,” says Brooks. “Every day that we can accelerate development means more patients can get access to a therapy or potentially receive a lifesaving cure.”

“In 2024 alone, we reduced our site-activation cycle time by upwards of 10%. Every day that we can accelerate development means more patients can get access to a therapy or potentially receive a lifesaving cure.”

Michael Brooks, Chief Operating Officer, Syneos Health

As Syneos Health streamlines the site-selection process, its generative AI solutions are also improving predictive forecasting, alerting clinical trial teams to potential delays so they can take early steps to mitigate problems. The company used the technology to upgrade its forecasting system, so teams now have a more robust system to help them think about various scenarios and approaches to a clinical trial.

Employees at Syneos Health are finding new ways to work and engage with pharmaceutical customers, clinical sites, and patients. Employees are using generative AI–driven tools to walk customers through the implications of various scenarios in real time instead of having to schedule additional meetings. “We feel that AI has a great opportunity to drive more active and efficient engagement across the entire ecosystem that will result in less downtime, less reprocessing, and ultimately improved outcomes,” says Cucos.

Accelerating innovation in pharmaceuticals to deliver benefits to patients faster

These steps are only the beginning for Syneos Health. The company is excited to innovate with new applications to help its customers navigate the complexities of drug development, regulation, and commercialization. It sees enormous potential for generative AI to automate manual processes and help its teams of experts to focus on value-added tasks that ultimately benefit patients.

Syneos Health offers a blueprint for the pharmaceutical industry to harness generative AI and deliver new therapies to patients and healthcare providers more quickly. Its collaboration with Microsoft and adoption of innovative technologies are at the heart of the journey.

Discover more about Syneos Health on LinkedIn.