The recent improvements in technology have aided almost every industry from education to defense. And clinical trials are no exception. Clinical trials are hugely based around data: data is needed to recruit patients, needs to be retrieved from patients during monitoring, and is used to evaluate the effectiveness of the trial treatment. It is estimated that each patient in a clinical trial has 8 billion data points. With these large volumes of information, researchers are presented with the challenge of retrieving and analyzing all of the relevant information. Recent developments in database searching technology, wearable technology, and AI can assist researchers who are looking to retrieve, use, and analyze this mass of information. Check out the top 3 ways that technology is helping researchers move clinical trials forward below.
1. Patient Monitoring
During clinical trials, researchers aim to retrieve information about patient health and lifestyle. Commonly, researchers may ask the patient to record their health patterns and report these to the researchers or may conduct interviews with patients to gain this information. However, recent developments in wearable technologies offer a more reliable and robust method to collect this information. Wearable technologies can keep track of patient sleep patterns, heart rate, and other vital information. The main advantage of clinical trial researchers is that the retrieved information is provided to researchers in real-time. This means that, instead of waiting for the patient to communicate their health patterns to the researchers, researchers can access the information immediately and analyze the data in real-time. The quick delivery of data may help to reduce the length of the trial. Moreover, because the technology reports the data to the researchers, it also limits the scope for patient or researcher bias during information delivery or collection, thus improving the overall reliability of the trial.
2. Medical Adherence
In order to obtain a reliable result regarding the effectiveness of the tested drug, it is clearly imperative that all intended patients actually consume the drug, thereby ensuring drug adherence. However, in some instances, it can be difficult for researchers to definitively have this assurance. In this case, recent developments in AI can help. Facial recognition technology can analyze patient facial expressions and movements to judge whether or not the patient has indeed consumed the drug. If the technology recognizes that the patient has failed to consume the drug, the researcher is immediately informed. This helps to ensure medical adherence and therefore aids to improve the reliability of the trial.
3. Patient Recruitment
Traditional methods of patient recruitment mostly consist of billboards and radio advertisements. These methods attract to the masses: for example, a trial researching UTI’s may create a billboard and ask ‘Do you suffer from recurring UTI’s?’ In doing so, any patients who suffer from UTI's are encouraged to contact the site to participate in the trial. However, researchers will likely have more specific requirements for patients, ie the trial may require all male patients aged between 30-40 years, and maybe even more specific in terms of patient lifestyle choices. Traditional methods are unable to filter out patients who do not meet these requirements, and by targeting the masses, the trial may struggle to gain a sufficient number of patients that meet their specific criteria. This is where technology firms, like Citruslabs, can help. Technology is used to search through health databases and pre-screen patients to find those who meet the specific trial requirements. This means that technology filters out patients that do not meet the specific trial requirements, and provides sites with potential patients, all of whom meet specific requirements.
Partner with accredited companies
Since 2015, our team has been hard at work raising awareness of clinical trials across the globe. A Forbes ‘30 Under 30’ company and a graduate of the renowned Techstar program in New York, Citruslabs is at the forefront of patient recruitment and retention technologies. With over 3 million patients now recorded on our databases, our patient recruitment dashboard is fast becoming the most efficient method of trial recruitment.
Now a #1 health app in 17 countries, our Mindmate app is helping to revolutionize the way we think about healthcare. Mindmate “[takes] senior care into the digital age” (Forbes, 2018) by providing people with the cognitive decline the essential tools to help them rebuild and maintain strong mental health. Trusted by millions of users, our health community continues to grow as the content available expands to the needs of individuals today.
With more than 200 research sites now using the Citrus platform to screen thousands of patients every month, researchers are now well on their way to finding new treatments for hundreds of different health conditions - something that just would not be possible without a technological solution. Make sure that your clinical trial is in the lucky 12% and turn that luck into guaranteed results with Citrus.
Still a little unsure? Check out what our customers have to say about us here.
Comentários