Transforming how clinical trials are designed, managed, and connected to real-world ICU data 

Playtime Solutions has partnered with the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (ANZICS) Centre of Outcome and Resource Evaluations (CORE) Registry over several years to build the digital foundation that supports intensive care research and data-driven improvement across Australia and New Zealand. 

Our collaboration began with COMET, a national registry system that manages two major intensive care databases — the Adult Patient Database (APD) and the Australian and New Zealand Pediatric Intensive Care Registry (ANZPICR). These registries capture and manage ICU patient data used for benchmarking, research, and continuous quality improvement across the region. 

Building on this foundation, Playtime Solutions developed the PROMs platform, enabling the collection of Patient Reported Outcome and Experience Measures after ICU discharge, giving clinicians vital insights into recovery and long-term wellbeing. 

With these platforms in place, ANZICS sought to expand its ecosystem into clinical trials, creating a new system that would connect seamlessly with COMET and PROMs to support end-to-end research and evidence generation. 

The Challenge

Before this project, ANZICS and its research partners were managing clinical trial data through manual, disconnected processes, and legacy tools. While these tools supported basic trial management, they lacked: 

• Integration with the Registry data within COMET (patient data was re-entered manually, creating duplication and risk of error) 

• A modern, user-friendly interface for research coordinators 

• Built-in controls for ethical compliance, audit trails, and multi-site collaboration 

ANZICS needed a secure, flexible clinical trials management system that would connect seamlessly with existing data platforms, improve data accuracy, and streamline research operations, without compromising governance or compliance. 

The Solution 

Playtime Solutions developed a fit-for-purpose Clinical Trials Platform grounded in regulatory and industry standards. The end-to-end system is designed for managing the full lifecycle of a clinical trial, from candidate screening to data collection and scheduled participant follow-up surveys. 

Built on Microsoft Azure, the platform leverages IRAP-assessed infrastructure to meet the strict security and privacy requirements of healthcare research. 

Key features include: 

• Configurable trial design framework: Enables execution of interventional and observational clinical trials, with support for randomised allocation and both blinded and unblinded study designs with fully configurable eligibility rules, data forms, and consent workflows. 

• Integration with COMET: Enables research coordinators to securely import patient data directly from the ICU registry, eliminating manual data entry and reducing the risk of transcription errors. 

• Integration with PROMs: Links to the Patient Reported Outcomes and Experience platform, allowing surveys to be sent to participants during and after the trial for longitudinal data capture. 

• Granular access control and auditing: Role-based permissions, activity logging, and review workflows ensure compliance with ethics committee requirements. 

• Multi-site capability: Supports trials conducted across multiple hospitals or research sites, with built-in governance controls. 

• Rapid participant screening: Clinicians can use a QR code portal for quick candidate screening and eligibility checks without time consuming credential checks and with authorised user checking the data for accuracy at a later time. 

• Email notifications for key events: Configurable role-based email notifications to the research team to identify and act upon critical events 

• Import data: Form based data import from outside sources like hospital EMRs to allow further flexibility and reduced data collection burden for regularly collected data 

The solution was developed collaboratively with ANZICS, ANZIC RC, and Monash University through a series of event storming workshops and iterative design sessions, ensuring every process from trial design to participant data export was mapped to real-world research practice.  

The Outcome 

The Clinical Trials Platform is now production-ready, representing a major milestone in ANZICS’ mission to advance critical care research through data and digital innovation. 

Developed in partnership with ANZIC RC and Monash University, the platform now provides researchers with a secure, efficient and scalable way to design and manage clinical trials, directly connected to the existing COMET registry and PROMs ecosystem. 

Key outcomes include: 

• Streamlined research operations: Research teams can now design and launch clinical trials quickly, configure eligibility and consent workflows, and collect participant data through intuitive, dynamic forms. 

• Seamless data integration: ICU Patient Registry data from the COMET can be securely imported with a single click, reducing manual effort and improving accuracy. 

• High-quality, compliant data: Automated audit trials, role-based permissions, and consent management ensure every trial meets strict ethical and governance requirements. 

• Enhanced collaboration: The multi-site architecture allows trials to run across hospitals and research units nationally and internationally, with consistent data capture and governance controls. 

• Future-ready insights: Designed with extensibility in mind, the platform can integrate with other registries and analytics environments to support benchmarking and real-time insight generation. 

With the Clinical Trials Platform now live, ANZICS and its research partners have the tools to run compliant, data-rich trials that connect ICU patient care to long-term outcomes, helping transform critical care research across Australia, New Zealand and beyond.