THE HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF VINCENT
Vincent originated more than 10 years ago in Pittsburgh, PA, as a way to pay clinical trial subjects at two leading organizations: UPMC (a world-renowned health care provider and insurer) and the University of Pittsburgh (one of the nation’s top academic medical institutions in National Institutes of Health funding).
The original Vincent system replaced a staff-intensive, cash-based process with a secure, web-based system that met the needs of all the stakeholders: researchers who needed ease of use, auditors
and treasurers who wanted transparency, accountability, and compliance with all regulations, and
trial participants who needed quick and fee-free access to their compensation and expense reimbursement. Since its inception, this system has processed more than $40 million in payments
to over 600,000 research participants.
Vincent is the next generation of software first created for internal use in 2007 as a solution for the compensation of medical study participants. Its unique features and functionality allow for the issuance of anonymous, reloadable, stored value cards. As a result, the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC have eliminated numerous petty cash accounts and other random disbursement methodologies from medical study operations. The system balances centralized accounting and audit controls with decentralized operations. Vincent can accommodate other areas within the university setting to facilitate individual payments of compensation and expense reimbursement in a flexible manner while maintaining appropriate controls and streamlining accounting and reporting.