Frustration, exhaustion, and a sense of being overwhelmed – these are the hallmarks of “portal fatigue”, a growing problem for approved treatment center (ATC) staff in the cell and gene therapy (CGT) field. Juggling a multitude of digital platforms and systems, each with its own unique interface and login credentials is taking a toll on productivity, morale, and potentially, patient care.
This fatigue is particularly acute in CGT due to the intricate nature of the field, characterised by complex supply chain relationships between treatment providers, ATC staff, manufacturers, and other stakeholders. While technology platforms have emerged to streamline and simplify these processes, their rise has inadvertently introduced new challenges, such as communication barriers and process inconsistencies. These issues can lead to confusion, delays, and errors, further contributing to the burden of portal fatigue.
In this article, Dr Akshay Peer, Senior Vice President Product, TrakCel will explore the causes and consequences of portal fatigue in CGT, discuss the need for standardisation and collaboration, and offer solutions and recommendations for mitigating this growing challenge.
The Rise of Technology Platforms in CGT
The complexity of supply chains associated with personalised CGTs, combined with requirements such as ensuring the correct treatment reaches each patient, creates a challenging order-to treatment process. This complexity grows as therapies advance from clinical development to commercialisation, and the number of patients and other stakeholders in the supply chain increases. Manual approaches to supply chain co-ordination and management are difficult, if not impossible at scale. This has led to the development of supply chain orchestration software. Orchestration systems streamline and simplify the CGT process, offering benefits such as:
• Chain of custody and chain of identity: Ensuring the secure tracking of therapies throughout the supply chain.
• Improved efficiency: Coordinating and scheduling activities between stakeholders.
• Automated processes: Streamlining payer approval verification and order-to-cash processes.
• Real-time visibility: Providing updates on the progress of individual therapies.
Almost all commercial personalised CGT therapies are supported by their own custom orchestration platform. However, as an increasing number of CGTs are commercialised, the abundance of platforms has created new challenges, particularly for ATC staff who must navigate multiple systems, each with its own unique interface, login credentials, and processes.
