Hybrid clinical trials
Decentralized Clinical Trials (DCT) is an initiative to reduce the burden on patients and clinical trial sites by introducing and utilizing technologies such as telemedicine and wearable devices. In order for DCT to become a permanent fixture on the clinical trial landscape, it is imperative to balance the convenience of the technology with patients’ individual needs. Astellas aims to design hybrid clinical trials that combine technology with voices from patients.
The initial phase will include “piloting with a subset of patients on an existing trial who would take two assessments instead of just the one—the traditional assessment and then the technology-enabled assessment.” Gathering data this way is key to building the proof of concept necessary to gather momentum and support for the hybrid model. An example of how this could be put into practice is an oncology trial utilizing a wearable and personalized data-collection app. With the appropriate infrastructure in place, the data collected could inform a treating physician of potential medical issues, provide Astellas more robust information of the potential side effects of the product and allow the patient to feel safe in an environment more friendly than a hospital.
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