Innovations in clinical trials are needed to significantly impact and improve key pain points in operational execution.
Improvements in technologies and methods to drive clinical trial innovations have focused on the incorporation of decentralized clinical trials (DCTs)—also sometimes referred to as “remote,” “hybrid,” “virtual,” or “patient-centric” trials (Medidata, 2020). The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly accelerated the adoption of DCTs, which allowed sponsors and CROs to quickly virtualize many trial activities, including remote monitoring, telehealth visits, electronic consent (eConsent), electronic patient reported outcomes (ePRO), electronic clinical outcome assessments (eCOA), and use of wearables/sensors. The uptake in DCTs is expected to continue in a post-COVID-19 world due to the experience gained during the pandemic.
