Paul O’Donohoe - senior director of eCOA Product and Science at Medidata, a Dassault Systèmes company, explains how decentralised clinical trials came to be during the Covid-19 pandemic.
During the pandemic, we all got used to doing things remotely, whether in our professional or personal lives. The same has also been true of clinical trials. As patients and clinicians alike were forced to stay home whenever possible, reducing the necessity to conduct trial activity on-site became a key focus of the drug development industry, driving interest in the concept of decentralised clinical trials (DCTs).
What exactly is a “decentralised clinical trial”?