Blog
Is Your Clinical Trial Technology Disconnected?
Author: Elisa Cascade, Chief Product Officer, Science 37
How to improve patient, site, sponsor and CRO experience through unified technology.
The pandemic expedited the decentralization of many aspects of clinical trials and this trend continues as the availability and adoption of clinical trial technology grows. Despite the growth in technology, most trial sponsors and CROs are not operating decentralized trials at scale. One root cause of this slow adoption is a reliance on a patchwork of technology platforms, apps, and devices to monitor, collect data, and report patient outcomes. This web of piecemeal, disconnected solutions places an unnecessary burden on users that may consequently hinder retention, duplicate efforts, and potentially reduce data quality.
One-stop shopping is a concept embraced across the retail landscape. It not only provides convenience but also saves consumers time and money. The same principle can be applied to decentralized clinical trial technology — delivering a unified experience offers the potential for greater efficiency and a better return on investment.
Employing a strategy that leverages a unified technology platform as the foundation of clinical trial research can alleviate challenges with engagement, retention, diversity, and compliance—while at the same time simplifying the experience for participants and site users. Because unified technology also facilitates the conduct of decentralized trials, deploying a platform at the start of the study offers the optionality of conduct at the site, fully decentralized, and all of the hybrid models in between. Even if the study begins as a traditional brick and mortar site model, having the technology in place enables sponsors to pivot to other trial delivery models should the need arise.
Enhance Compliance and Retention with a Singular User Experience
Decreasing user burden while enhancing user engagement is critical to compliance in a clinical trial. Every data point counts. Sponsors and CROs need to find a way of driving the completeness of data without burdening the user. While disconnected decentralized trial technologies automate individual aspects of the trial there are still hurdles that hinder compliance. Working with disconnected solutions means logging into different applications, switching between multiple devices, and remembering several sets of log-ins/passwords — deteriorating the chances that compliance will be met.
A single, streamlined user experience with a unified platform eliminates the issue of multiple solutions, leading to increased engagement. It allows all stakeholders (patients, sponsors, site staff, CROs) to work within one application for all touch points - ranging from eConsent, eCOA/ePRO, scheduling, telemedicine, and more. Rather than forcing the user to visit multiple applications, a unified platform experience directs and coordinates the collection of all endpoints, even if they are collected using a different clinical technology.
Bringing all technology elements into a single experience for the patient reduces friction and encourages them to stay compliant throughout the study— lowering the chance of drop-out. By increasing compliance and retention, data quality improves, ensuring regulatory viability.
Better Decisions with Data Interoperability
The benefits of technology unification extend beyond user experience and into data harmonization for better decision making. When data is separated throughout multiple components and systems, it is difficult to gain actionable insights in a timely manner.
Collaboration across technology providers to ensure data interoperability for near-time consumption is critical to enabling successful trials. Providing Sponsors and CROs & Sponsors with a complete picture of their trial from a single dashboard not only helps to quickly identify study status and the areas of concern but also may generate new insights based on the combination of data from multiple systems so that they can more rapidly pivot in response to observed outcomes, including adverse effects.
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The benefits of using a unified platform are profound for all parties. Not only do they yield greater efficiency and data collection, but they also enhance a user’s overall experience. To adapt to this new landscape, Sponsors and CROs must ensure participant and site-facing technologies are coordinated to deliver a singular user experience and data interoperability via both a unified platform as well as data interoperability across all technology components used in the study.
To learn more about how Science 37’s unified technology platform can transform your clinical trial by integrating a unified platform, click here.