The role of central reading centers - current practices and future directions

• Published in: Indian journal of ophthalmology Vol. 63; no. 5; pp. 404 - 405
• Main Authors: Tan, Colin, Sadda, Srinivas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: India Medknow Publications 01.05.2015; Medknow Publications and Media Pvt. Ltd; Medknow Publications & Media Pvt. Ltd; Medknow Publications & Media Pvt Ltd; Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications
• Subjects: Age-related macular degeneration; Analysis; Automation; Central reading center; Choroid; Choroidal imaging; Choroidal neovascularization; choroidal thickness; Clinical trials; Clinical Trials as Topic; Community; Corporate sponsorship; Diagnostic Techniques, Ophthalmological - standards; Digital imaging; en-face optical coherence tomography; enhanced depth imaging technique; Eye Diseases - diagnosis; Eye Diseases - surgery; FDA approval; Fluorescein; Health screening; Humans; idiopathic juxtafoveal telangiectasis; juxtafoveal retinal telangiectasia; Karnataka Internet-assisted Diagnosis of Retinopathy of Prematurity; lutein; macular edema; macular pigment; macular telangiectasia; Medical imaging; Microscope-integrated optical coherence tomography; Müller cells; Ophthalmology; parafoveal telangiectasis; perifoveal telangiectasis; polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy; Practice Guidelines as Topic; randomized controlled trial; Reading; RESCAN; retinal angiomatous proliferation; retinal dystrophies; retinal telangiectasis; retinopathy of prematurity; spectral domain optical coherence tomography; standard operating procedure; Studies; subretinal neovascularization; swept source optical coherence tomography; Symposium - Retinochoroidal Imaging; telemedicine; Training; Trends; universal screening; vitreoretinal surgery; zeaxanthin; United States; Central reading center; standard operating procedure; randomized controlled trial
• ISSN: 0301-4738; 1998-3689; 1998-3689
• DOI: 10.4103/0301-4738.159866

Central reading centers (CRCs) have several crucial roles in the conduct of clinical trials, providing key input during the study design, preparation of the operations manual, as well as site and photographer certification. They provide objective, standardized grading of images from study subjects, which determines study eligibility, and also evaluate lesion features at subsequent study visits. CRCs need to adhere strictly to Good Clinical Practice (GCP) guidelines, as well as the established standard operating procedures in order to ensure that images are graded properly. The role of CRCs will continue to evolve, and include the use of web-based image transmission and grading platforms.