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Cala Health Picks Medidata Cloud for Observational Study

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Medidata Solutions, Inc. recently announced that Cala Health is adopting the Medidata Cloud to centralize management of a large observational study of its flagship product, Cala TWO. Notably, Medidata Cloud will study the product using Medidata Rave EDC, Edge eTMF and Edge Payments. This is likely to fortify Medidata’s foothold in the healthcare cloud computing market.

However, the latest development could not drive Medidata’s shares, which lost 0.1% to close at $68.80 following the announcement.

For investors’ notice, Cala Health is a California-based neuromodulation platform company which develops wearable therapies for chronic diseases.

Medidata Cloud in Focus

Medidata Cloud helps connect patients, physicians and healthcare professionals.

Medidata Rave is a cloud-based clinical data management system within Medidata Cloud, which is used to electronically capture, manage and report clinical research data. Notably, Rave EDC (electronic data capture) captures, manages and reports patient data including unified EDC and CDMS (clinical data management system).

Additionally, the Edge eTMF platform integrates the entire Medidata Clinical Cloud including Edge Archive, Payments and Rave EDC. Meanwhile, Edge Payments is the industry’s only global site for paying clinical research sites.

It is encouraging to note that Medidata Cloud has seen a slew of developments in recent times.

Last month, Hengrui Pharma of China adopted Medidata Cloud with a view to unify data management and improve patient outcome. (Read More: Medidata's Cloud Platform Picked by China's Hengrui, Stock Up)

In October, the company announced that Pharm-Olam International signed a new, five-year enterprise agreement to unify operational systems supporting study execution on Medidata Cloud.

Moreover, Medidata Cloud was used to streamline the management of medical images for the World Alliance of Societies of Echocardiography’s (WASE) Normal Values Study. (Read More: Medidata Cloud Manages Echocardiogram Images in WASE Study)

In September, Decibel Therapeutics adopted Medidata Cloud to support early stage research in the areas of observational and natural history explorations.

Market Prospects

MarketWatch predicts the global healthcare cloud computing market to reach a worth of $11 billion by 2022, at a CAGR of more than 20%.

Increasing need for regulatory compliance, growing investments from healthcare players and proliferation of high-speed Internet fuel growth.

Hence the latest developments have been well-timed ones for Medidata.

Price Performance

Over the past year, shares of Medidata have rallied 0.3% against the industry’s fall of 14.4%. The current level also compares favorably with the S&P 500 index’s 6.6% decline.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

Medidata carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked stocks in the broader medical space are Veeva Systems Inc. (VEEV - Free Report) , Integer Holdings Corporation (ITGR - Free Report) and OPKO Health, Inc. (OPK - Free Report) .

Veeva Systems’ long-term earnings growth rate is projected at 19.5%. The stock flaunts a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Integer Holdings projects earnings growth rate of 31.2% for the fourth quarter. It currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

OPKO Health’s long-term earnings growth rate is projected at 12%. The stock presently carries a Zacks Rank of 2.

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