Meetings technology provider StarCite has launched a new, industry-specific strategic meetings management solution for meeting professionals in the life sciences field, it announced yesterday at the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) Global Education Conference in Berlin.
Called the StarCite Life Sciences Solution, the new web-based program — designed around best practices from StarCite's top health care, pharmaceutical and life sciences clients — is pre-configured to help companies adhere to increasing regulatory demands like the PhRMA and AdvaMed codes of ethics, both of which were revised last year to promote increased expense tracking and reporting among health care professionals (HCPs), as well as the Physician Payments Sunshine Provision, which was included in the federal government's recent health care reform legislation and requires drug and medical device manufacturers to disclose gifts and payments made to HCPs.
"We advise meetings managers to work closely with their purchasing and compliance officers to ensure that appropriate processes are in place and they can provide reporting for meetings and events expenses," said StarCite Vice President of Enterprise Strategy Kevin Iwamoto. "Implementing StarCite's solution will help life sciences companies assure compliance with HCP requirements while saving time and money in their meetings programs. In the U.S. and across EMEA, getting ahead of changes in legislation and reporting rules resulting from health care reform is a critical concern of meeting managers at pharmaceutical companies, medical device makers and biotech firms since the inability to comply with local and national regulations could end up costing them millions of dollars in fines and penalties."
To help life sciences companies meet regulatory requirements, StarCite's Life Sciences Solution features specialized budgeting, approval and reporting features that integrate with its existing Meetings Management Suite of tools. For more information, visit www.starcite.com, where StarCite plans to host an informational webinar on the new product on Oct. 25.