IoT Clinical Trials Europe

by | Mar 23, 2022 | Blog

[Author:

AMY APOSTOLERIS  |  Global Head, Digital Clinical Trials Solutions]

 

On January 19th, I had the pleasure of moderating a panel of experts in the clinical research arena and participating in a roundtable discussion during an AMG World conference on Integrating IoT and Emerging Technology to Optimize Trials and Patient Outcomes.

Our topic was specifically entitled: Utilizing Technology to Incorporate the Patient Voice in Clinical Trials: Where Do We Go Next?, and the distinguished panel included:

  • Paul deRoulhac, Digital Transformation Lead, Genentech who presented a new clinical trial supply management platform being released to the pharmaceutical industry.
  • Richard Dearden, Head of AI Digital Health, AstraZeneca who discussed regulatory challenges of applying IoT and multiple approaches to ensure privacy while utilizing artificial intelligence to drive efficiencies in clinical trials,
  • Lisa Shafe, Clinical Program Leader, Roche who shared the experiences in utilizing passive connective devices for autism patients in real world data collection; and @Cristina De Juan, Global Clinical Sciences and Operations Innovation Lead, UCB who discussed her experiences and views on the clinical trial operational challenges across EU during the COVID pandemic and the regulatory hurdles being faced.

As part of our dialogue, we discussed the emerging topics in the clinical trial industry around IoT, as summarized below.

  • Clinical trial innovation has accelerated within the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors due to the recent pandemic, forcing the rapid digitalization and modernization of clinical trials. Biopharmaceutical and medical device sponsors see IoT as a key opportunity to derive data points passively and understand the value of the data that can be generated and used to support clinical evidence and safety of their products.
  • The term IoT (Internet of Things), is applied across multiple industries and generally describes the network of physical objects — “things” — that are embedded with sensors, software, and other technologies for the purpose of connecting and exchanging data with other devices and systems over the internet. These devices range from ordinary household objects to sophisticated industrial tools. However, when it applies to healthcare and clinical trials, it must be more humanistic and patient focused, collecting and ingesting data on patient experiences, symptoms, and behaviors during a clinical trial journey and in the real world.
  • The benefits of an IoT clinical trial ecosystem must also be aligned with deriving patient-centric insights for better health outcomes. These include better visibility into the patients’ lives to better understand their disease and study journey, real time interactivity between patient and HCP, as well as better patient connectivity and retention in clinical trials.
  • Identifying the right technology solution that optimizes clinical R&D and facilitates decentralized, hybrid and virtual trials to pull together the patient ecosystem is a continuing endeavor. The tackling of the growing importance of IoT is challenging, as a lot of industry players still do not possess the necessary analytical and technical capacities. Creating and implementing an effective data quality and analytics strategy that enhances connectivity, facilitates timely interventions, and drives positive outcomes requires a unified technology solution.

With more than 7 billion connected IoT devices today, experts are expecting this number to grow to 22 billion by 2025. Sponsors need to assess the value proposition for IoT in clinical trial innovation and develop a roadmap for successful technology implementation. The pharmaceutical development industry in general must manage the mindset and culture shift required for digital empowerment and enable a successful transition towards decentralized clinical trials by aligning their strategy with the evolving vendor landscape to create strong partnership-driven relationships with solutions providers like Medocity.

Medocity’s highly interoperable and composable digital platform supports the many facets of an IoT ecosystem and can ingest and analyze patient data; while digitally optimizing clinical trials to enhance patient recruitment, engagement, adherence, retention, and experience in one digital platform. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and contemplating how your strategy is supporting an IoT clinical trial ecosystem.