The clinical trial industry is facing considerable problems in terms of patient retention. This has seen research teams and reliable clinical research organization teams like Veristat looking for different ways to ensure the success of the trials. As a result, this has led to significant changes in how research organizations conduct clinical trials.
One of the significant changes we have witnessed is the introduction of decentralized clinical trials. The pandemic has played a massive role in the critical trials designs we are now adopting. Here are some reasons why CROs should consider adopting decentralized clinical trials.
Most patients prefer this trial model
The pandemic led to the digitization of most clinical trial processes. These processes tested how ready patients were to adopt remote technologies and whether they were prepared for decentralized trials. Studies show that most patients preferred the decentralized model. Most patients were ready to take up new technology. The industry is better positioned than ever before to take advantage of digital tools for clinical trials since they’ve shown to be successful. Patients prefer decentralized trials since they don’t have to travel often for inpatient visits. Also, they get to use technology to communicate with the clinical officers from the comfort of their homes.
Increases access to clinical trials
The enrollment for decentralized clinical trials is higher than the centralized ones since you have a wider reach. It is easier to reach your recruitment targets and tackle the patient diversity problem than with centralized clinical trials. Currently, clinical trials are not conducted to fully represent the people and their cultural differences. This is something that the adoption of decentralized clinical trials aims to change. For a successful trial to happen, there is a need to have an enrollment that reflects the population diversity. Decentralization increases the access and efficiency of the trials. It means that you take the study to where the patient is rather than having the patient attend the study Centre, thus reducing the patients’ burden.
Less prohibitive and improves participants retention
Decentralized clinical trials have been proven to work quite well. The model has positively impacted clinical trial recruitment and efficiency in every aspect. Studies have shown that the adoption of televisits and Bring Your Device (BYOD) dramatically contributes to the patient’s comfort during the trial. Studies have also shown that hybrid trials, i.e., a combination of patient visits and remote visits, will reduce 61% of the total study visits depending on the therapeutic areas and protocols. Wearables are disrupting how clinical trial data is handled since the direct data streams are free of human error and are faster to take. The interrelated data from the wearables are used to picture the patient’s overall response to the drugs. In addition, the development of eConsent has also made it relatively easy for principal investigators to obtain patients’ consent through televisits or on the telephone.
Decentralized clinical trials are the future of the clinical research industry. As such, this research model ensures a higher patient retention rate as well as an improved patient experience.
