FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The healthcare research industry is experiencing increasing levels of attempted fraud. Whereas once there would be an occasional respondent trying their luck, there are now organized groups, often based in emerging markets, attempting to join online panels in order to profit by producing fraudulent responses on an industrial scale. Any falsified response that slips through the net can potentially cost the healthcare industry millions of dollars in skewed research, as well as damaging the reputation of the healthcare research community as a whole. Q One Tech Corp (Q1TC), in association with OMR Globus (OMRG), has developed a free tool, CheckHCP.com, to help detect and eradicate this fraud. For more information please visit HCP verification
Research has shown that the standard industry tools, such as IP geolocation blockers, are no longer effective against these sophisticated fraudsters. This is why Q1TC has created a unique 12 point scoring system to help identify false respondents before they can act. It is based on many separate factors, including verification of medical certificates / phone or face to face verification, history of disqualification from previous studies, evidence of regularly changing profile information, IP geolocation combined with detection of web proxies, rapid withdrawal of honoraria, SMS verification etc. No single test is sufficient by itself, but when combined with all the others a much clearer picture emerges.
Talking about the motivation behind the site, Dexter Chew, Director of Business Development and Technology at Q1TC, said “We already had a number of tests we regularly ran against all our panel members. We began to see groups of panel members using high anonymity web proxies to mask their real country of residence. We realized that it was not enough to just make our own defenses stronger, rather we needed to open our system to the business community as a whole in order to stop these criminals in their tracks.”
Q1TC use a combination industry sources, OMRG panels, historical data and information from partners who have agreed to share their experiences, to calculate the score. “We hope to encourage other panel management companies to share their anonymized respondent verification data with us, to grow CheckHCP.com into an industry standard. Only by standing shoulder to shoulder can we wipe out this organized fraud once and for all”.
Media Contact:
Dexter Chew
Q One Tech Corp
704 N King Street
Suite 500
Wilmington
DE, 19801 – USA
Email: dexter.chew@qone-tech.com
Website: http://www.checkhcp.com/
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