At a time when the challenges of conducting effective, compliant and successful clinical trials are becoming increasingly apparent, one innovative industry leader is showing pharma companies that they no longer need to rely exclusively upon the traditional model of engaging exclusively with hospitals to operate their trials. Virtual Clinical, a clinical research organisation offering decentralised clinical trials and virtual support, is facilitating a move into a new era for drug development utilising the latest technologies to track and monitor from anywhere, at any time. Recommended by the Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative, decentralised trials are expected to form a strategic solution to some of the biggest challenges affecting today’s clinical teams.
Virtual, or decentralised, clinical trials offer notable enhancements to the more traditional site model. By removing the need for scheduled, on-site assessments and updates, clinical teams can experience a faster set up, improve their recruitment rate, and boost their access to real time, quality data. Remote, ongoing risk-based monitoring is at the heart of these pioneering trials, with IMP administration within the home setting proving to be more representative of day-to-day realities, and negating measurement bias.
Mark Thomas, CEO of Virtual Clinical said, “Technologies such as telemedicine and mobile are already dominating the global healthcare industry, yet clinical teams to date have been much slower in incorporating these advancements into their ways of working.
“Our mission is to promote a more efficient, more effective clinical trials future by bringing together our network of clinical project managers, clinical research associates, mobile research nurses, and country regulatory experts to create a bespoke solution for each individual trial, whether that trial is conducted as a traditional, virtual, or hybrid project.”
While the use of virtual services is anticipated to bring multiple benefits to modern clinical teams, the biggest potential perhaps lies in addressing one of the most challenging factors standing in the way of success: patient retention. With reports finding that around 70% of participants for any given study living two hours or more from the research venue, patient burden has fast become a factor that can significantly contribute towards failure.
Virtual Clinical aims to create a future where there are no or fewer central venues, with appointments taking place at home by highly qualified, experienced nursing teams who can conduct assessments, blood draws, vital signs checks, and IMP administration all within the patient’s home, with no need to travel.
This is achieved through mobile technologies including watches, wearables, and ePROs which safely and continuously gather data at the source, enabling clinical teams to gain access to real time data from anywhere. And for those more complex trials which do necessitate a central hub, Virtual Clinical provides necessary support to allow clinical teams to conduct hybrid trials which combine traditional site investigators with remote participants. This may be required for studies that require specialised procedures such as scans.
Virtual Clinical offers a wide range of services to help clinical teams take the next step towards a more effective and efficient future, including virtual CRO services, supply of virtual clinical associates, decentralised trial management, and virtual helpdesk and protocol support for full, comprehensive support.
To find out more about Virtual Clinical, visit www.virtual-clinical.com
