Paul O’Donohoe, scientific lead, eCOA and Mobile Health at Medidata explores how using digital platforms and remote solutions can give the broadest picture of patient response.
Digital Health
Patient burden – a continuous hurdle
Patient burden in clinical trials remains one of the biggest challenges for the life sciences industry to address. Patient retention and adherence are crucial in the clinical trial process and can dramatically impact the outcome of the trial. Dropout rates are sometimes over 30%, leading to trial delay, additional costs, risk to the validity of the study, and potential failure of the trial. By lessening the burden on trial participants and ensuring they are engaged in the study, dropout rates can be significantly reduced, and patients can generally have a more positive experience. It’s therefore essential that trials are designed with patient centricity at top of mind.
The concept of patient centricity is not new and has been a topic of much discussion in the life sciences industry over the last decade. During this time, we’ve seen the industry begin to engage with patients during the protocol development of a trial. This has had a truly meaningful impact on how studies are designed and conducted, as it gives patients an opportunity to voice what is realistic, viable and important to them. Alongside this, we are also starting to see technologies emerge as key tools in improving the patient experience. While cutting-edge technologies have always been used in clinical trials, the industry is beginning to embrace the potential impact these can have on reducing patient burden and, in turn, delivering the best quality data and broadest picture of patient response to a new drug or treatment.