Does "“sort of moved the study of the disease along quite a bit" mean...?

Does "“sort of moved the study of the disease along quite a bit" mean "more or less pushed the study of the disease forward"?

Context:

Many physicians were encouraged by the results of the clinical trial, even though it did not meet its primary endpoint, says Joseph Zibrak, a pulmonologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts. He used ?-interferon to treat some people with IPF, and says that insurance companies paid for the drug until 2007, when a follow-up trial was ended early because the drug was ineffective. The trial “sort of moved the study of the disease along quite a bit. And it certainly suggested that this was a direction we should continue to pursue,” says Zibrak, whom InterMune paid to tell other physicians about his experience using ?-interferon to treat IPF. He has filed briefs in support of Harkonen’s previous appeals.