Three factors could vastly transform the clinical research industry as we know it. The three factors include: the patient engagement movement, rich data and analytics, and the learning health system model, reported CenterWatch.1
Ken Getz, an industry veteran spoke at the Association for Clinical Research Professionals (ACRP) annual conference in early May. He spoke upon the issues of declining success rate within the drug development industry due to an operating model that is slow and unproductive. The three movements are critical for optimizing development performance, according to Getz.
Patient engagement movement
The patient engagement movement looks to ensure that trials are relevant to all patients and that the patient feels as though they have input. Getz said that trials need to become more “convenient, making them easier for our patients to participate, to stay in these studies, and to create a level of transparency.”1
Throughout the movement patients communicate that they have little interest in having to travel to an investigator site for all visits. Patients look for clinical trials which are convenient, utilizing remote technology and applications.
Data and analytics
Recently, when analyzing data sponsors and CROs look to find more meaningful insights. “How can we analyze that data to predict performance? How can we analyze that information to understand patterns in disease?” said Getz. “That’s a very, very important area with electronic and medical health records at its core.”1
Organizations are now able to look at much larger sets of data, which enables the overall development planning to be enhanced. The field has even progressed to predictive analytics.
Also, analyzing every response a patient has to an investigational drug increases the data collected and enables for more targeted trials and eventually, marketing.
According to Getz, trials will begin to move away from private physicians’ practices and they will develop more in larger health settings as well as research centers, which are able to compile a larger set of data. Getz also predicts that traditional recruitment advertising will evolve by being replaced by EMR and data platforms. Overall, clinical research will shift to become a more “fluid and flexible environment”. 1
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