THURSDAY, July 2 (HealthDay News) -- At the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, a project using focused process engineering has significantly accelerated the development and approval of clinical trials, according to a study published online June 29 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Terre A. McJoynt, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and colleagues assessed the effectiveness of a team project that used the Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control (DMAIC) framework combined with Lean waste-reduction methodologies to identify and rectify problems in the protocol process.

The researchers found that the project reduced the mean turnaround times for internally authored protocols from 25 weeks to 10.15 weeks and externally authored protocols from 20.61 weeks to 7.79 weeks.

"Protocols using the new system are now approaching the goal of four-week and 10-week time frame for areas within the control of the Protocol Development Unit," the authors write. "Using concurrent operations, defining a strategic plan for the staff with deadlines, deploying an electronic measurement and template system, working to equalize work distribution, and eliminating redundancies have been beneficial."

Abstract
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