Frequently Asked Questions

How are members of The Trust Alliance protecting against fraud?

• Each member monitors for potentially fraudulent responders as well as speeders and bad responders.
• Potentially fraudulent responders are sent to a 3rd party that generates the Universal Trust Alliance Blacklist for the exclusive benefit of the members of The Trust Alliance.
• We are the only member organization to combine blacklists in order to proactively remove potentially fraudulent responders.

In what ways are members of The Trust Alliance being transparent?

• Each member is actively monitoring for fraud, frequent speeders, and bad responders and will report the results of monitoring to the client.
• Each member will work with the client to replace the above classified responders at no cost when instances are found through internal audits.

In what ways are the members of The Trust Alliance improving data integrity?

• Each member has agreed to proactively cross-reference physician recruitment targets against the Universal Trust Alliance Blacklist.
• Each member has a process to verify physicians such as government or association list verification, ISO 26362 certification, phone verification, or 3rd party verification.
• Each member has a process to identify duplicates.
• Each member has a process to pay honoraria within state, federal, and international guidelines.

How are members of The Trust Alliance increasing the responsiveness of physicians?

• Each member has a process to manage their respective physician panel and maintains physician profiles to target the best candidates for research.
• Each member is working to educate clients on best practices in physician engagement.
• Members, working together, are creating and promoting a best practices series for the industry on physician engagement.

What was the quality of data before The Trust Alliance?

• Members had been doing their own diligent process prior to the establishment, so the quality has been good. Now working cooperatively and creating consistencies, the Alliance members are seeking to obtain the highest quality of data collection.

Is this a new industry body that is being founded?

• No, the Trust was founded based on a recognized need to solidify and advance best practices in quality for the greater good of the industry.
• The Trust Alliance is designed to work hand in hand with industry bodies and supplement existing standards organizations.
• All members of The Trust Alliance are CASRO members and adhere to the CASRO Code of Standards.
• The Trust Alliance will be monitoring and cooperating as appropriate in CASRO’s development of the Online Sample Quality Standard.
• We will liaise with PMRG, PBIRG, and EphMRA to address specific industry concerns.

Who can be a member of the Alliance?

• Initially the Founders of The Trust Alliance are AllGlobal, M3, and Medefield who have come together to rapidly respond to industry concerns.
• The current focus is setting the standards to preserve the trust of online physician research.
• The Trust Alliance is working on criteria to allow other organizations to participate.

How do I obtain more information about The Trust Alliance?

• Mr. Allan Bowditch, a well respected pharmaceutical market research industry champion, as our Industry Liaison, is available to answer questions on behalf of The Trust Alliance members.

Is this just a commercial exercise?

• The Trust Alliance is a not-for-profit organisation. Its members remain competitors but we have come together because we are all passionate about the issue of trust in our industry.