Lilly and CRIO win SCDM 2026 Innovation Award for Clinical Data Science Implementation Excellence
Solution overview
CRIO’s Central eSource platform replaces paper-based and fragmented site-generated source documentation with a standardized, protocol-driven eSource environment. Sponsors deploy the platform centrally, sites configure it locally, and it captures source data electronically at the point of patient encounter while giving CRAs real-time remote monitoring access and integrating with EDC systems to cut out redundant data entry and traditional source data verification. In collaboration with Lilly, CRIO deployed Central eSource across a global Phase 3 Alzheimer’s disease prevention trial spanning more than 120 sites in five countries and enrolling over 2,000 patients – one of the most ambitious rollouts of its kind the industry has attempted to date.
The challenge
Traditional clinical trial source data collection relies on a fragmented model: paper source documents, disconnected eSource tools, and unstructured EHR data. Each site independently builds its own source templates, introducing variability that complicates monitoring and regulatory submission. Sites also invest significant time translating protocols into source documents before enrollment can begin. Layer on costly on-site monitoring visits, transcription errors from re-entering source data into EDC, and the pushback sites often show toward sponsor-mandated technology, and the result is a persistent friction in trial execution.
The innovation
Rather than eliminating site autonomy, CRIO’s Central eSource model gives sites a sponsor-defined, protocol-driven source template at the moment of activation, while letting sites configure it within sponsor-set parameters. That combination drove voluntary, opt-in adoption that exceeded expectations. Centralizing source data also gave CRAs the ability to monitor remotely, with real-time edit checks flagging data issues at the time of the patient visit.
Impact and results
The Lilly deployment has already produced measurable results: 70% voluntary site adoption across 120+ global sites, a 59% reduction in on-site CRA monitoring visits, 30% lower cost per monitoring visit, site start-up accelerated by 30 days, and a 24% improvement in monitoring effectiveness as monitors review more patient visits per day. The collaboration also includes early integration work between CRIO and Lilly’s Veeva EDC instance, pointing toward further reductions in manual data transfer.
Looking ahead
Lilly has already begun expanding Central eSource to additional studies beyond the original pilot, and CRIO is building on lessons from this deployment in several ways: incorporating experienced sites into core template development to reduce site-level configuration work, advancing the Veeva EDC integration so future studies launch with it active from day one – eliminating SDV for integrated data points, reducing transcription errors, and expanding multilingual support to broaden the model’s geographic reach. CRIO sees this collaboration as a proof-of-concept for how sponsors can deploy standardized source data collection at scale, with the potential to extend across additional sponsors, therapeutic areas, and regions as the industry continues shifting toward risk-based and decentralized monitoring.
Meet the Spokesperson
Erron A. Deloney
Director, eSource Capabilities, Clinical Trial Foundations, Eli Lilly and Company
Erron Deloney is a clinical data management leader with more than 19 years of experience across biotech, pharma, and CRO settings. At Eli Lilly, he sets the end-to-end clinical data and standards strategy for a business unit and therapeutic area.
Erron is the Implementation Owner for CRIO eSource and Direct Data Capture at Lilly. In that role, he has directed platform integration and rollout across studies, delivered the eSource data collection standards, and established the UAT and vendor testing standards that brought a new technology vendor in line with enterprise data standards. He also authored both a Clinical Data Standards library and a CRIO eSource Standards library, giving study teams across the portfolio reusable, governed content that drives consistency from study to study.
Before joining Lilly, Erron was Senior Director of Data Management, Operational Excellence at Loxo Oncology, where he scaled the data management function through the company’s acquisition by Lilly. He previously held leadership roles at Sarepta Therapeutics and Astellas Pharma, where he helped harmonize data management processes across the US, EU, and Japan. He began his career in the CRO industry, spending a decade in progressively senior roles at firms including Premier Research, Outcome Sciences, PAREXEL, PPD, and INC Research (Syneos Health).
His therapeutic experience spans precision oncology and cell therapy, rare disease, immunology, cardiovascular, and endocrine and obesity. He holds a B.S. in Biochemistry and Biology from Monmouth College and an M.S. in Chemistry from Western Illinois University, and has completed MIT Sloan’s AI in Pharma & Biotech program and working on his PMI Certification, expected December 2026.
