Clinical trials are critical to the future of the healthcare system. While already a well-established activity, clinical trial protocols and compliance are always evolving. This continual transformation often leans on the most advanced and innovative technologies available to improve trial methodologies, procedures, and results.
Trial compliance, in particular, benefits from many ongoing innovations in the technology sector. It allows trial staff to improve results without sacrificing quality or violating ethical restrictions. From following regulatory frameworks to maintaining quality data to improving patient experiences, here are a few of the top technology forces propelling clinical research compliance forward at the moment.
The Potential of Decentralized Trials
In a traditional clinical trial setting, the patient has always had to bend to the needs of the trial setting to maintain compliance. Moving forward, technology will make it easier to cater to the needs of participants in a more personalized manner, echoing an evolution that is already taking place across the healthcare landscape.
Technology is already able to increase accessibility and allow ideal candidates to participate through remote settings without compromising compliance concerns. While this decentralized approach is already gaining popularity, experts at Just In Time GCP highlight that shifting oversight strategies to leverage these new technologies can increase participant recruitment and reduce patient burden. As a result, clinical trials can become more efficient and patient-centric, ultimately enhancing the quality and speed of medical advancements.
The Ability to Run Adaptive Trials
One of the greatest advantages of modern technology is the ability to access and analyze data in real-time. This has uniquely potent potential for clinical trials. Wearable sensors and remote monitoring devices can provide current information regarding a participant's status throughout a trial lifecycle.
Along with increasing the speed at which trial operators can assess results, this also opens up the doors to adaptive trials that don't compromise compliance or data integrity. Real-time monitoring provides new valuable insights, allowing for the adaptation of trial protocols to optimize resources and minimize trial duration.
According to Deloitte, adaptive trials can reduce the duration of clinical trials, significantly enhancing efficiency and speeding up the innovation process. This flexibility can lead to quicker, more effective outcomes, ultimately driving forward medical advancements.
Improving Data Integrity
Data is a major factor in compliance concerns in a clinical trial setting. Along with considering participant safety and regulatory approval, compliance standards ensure that each trial's results are scientifically valid, ethical, and credible. This starts with data quality-something technological innovation is improving all the time.
One of these improvements in data quality comes through blockchain technology. Blockchain has already been preserving immutable and transparent data for the financial sector for years. More recently, some have begun applying the technology to the healthcare sector.
One study found that blockchain technology was particularly helpful in accelerating clinical trial recruitment. Its decentralized nature and self-executing "smart contract" capabilities have demonstrated the potential to automate traditionally difficult areas, such as subject matching and patient recruitment. This has the potential to streamline trial recruitment while maintaining transparent and accurate compliance.
Using AI in Predictive Analytics
Technology can do more than improve the quality of data. It can also help researchers set up and execute more effective trials moving forward—thanks to artificial intelligence. AI can look at past data sets and create simulations and predictive models. This enables trial staff to create more informed and effective trial designs.
Dr. Khair ElZarrad, the Director of the Office of Medical Policy in the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, recently spoke to this concept and clarified that using AI to inform clinical trial design is not just an option. It is already actively being explored by trial staff as a way to improve and optimize everything from trial diversity to pharmacokinetic profiles.
The Ongoing Influence of Technology on Clinical Trials
From precision and data quality to patient accessibility and trial adaptability, technology is revolutionizing how clinical trials take place. Countless technological trends are reshaping not just the trials themselves, but the ability for trial staff to remain compliant. They foster efficiency, effectiveness, and a heightened focus on patient welfare, all of which are major wins for the rapidly advancing clinical trial arena.
Clinical trials will continue to be a major aspect of the healthcare system. The introduction of increasingly sophisticated technologies will only bolster the impact that these trials have on the medical field. They will empower researchers as they use cutting-edge technologies to maintain compliance as they collect and utilize greater quantities of quality data.
