Blog posts

Within clinical research, email is not just a compliant and valuable tool, it’s commonly the gold standard when communicating with participants. Read on to find out why.

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With the share of oncology trials continuing to increase, the case for using digital tools in these trials grows with it.

Today, cancer trials are the most commonly researched of all diseases, with their share of clinical trials growing each year. According to research from Tufts CSDD,  the number of cancer drugs “has nearly quadrupled since 2000, to 1,489 trials in 2021, up from 421 two decades earlier.”

Tufts CSDD notes that this growth comes as “oncology drug developers are increasingly shifting toward precision medicine, embracing new molecular targets and improvements in genetic sequencing technologies”

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For the last twenty years, clinical trials have been steadily digitizing. 

As the EDC and eTMF systems of the early 2000s gave way to the eCOA and eConsent tools of the 2010s, site, and participant experiences throughout clinical research were improved. 

Since our inception in 2015, Medable has conducted over 300+ digital and decentralized trials using eCOA, eConsent, telehealth, and more. However, just as a bell curve shows, adoption rates for new technologies can wildly vary across our industry. While some organizations quickly implement new technologies, others take a more cautious approach. 

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In June of 2022, Open AI forever changed the world’s technological landscape with the release of ChatGPT 3.5. The explosion and proliferation of AI tools have become a focal point of interest and curiosity in almost every industry, with commentators in pharma wondering how AI can improve clinical research.

In January 2024, panelists from Syneos, Obvious Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, IDEA Pharma, and GSR Ventures joined Medable’s CEO, Dr. Michelle Longmire, to discuss the purpose, potential, and power this transformative technology offers. 

Here’s what they had to say.

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With BBC Research forecasting that “the global smartphone-based patient monitoring market should reach $21.5 billion by 2027,” it’s safe to say that smartphones, tablets, and other devices have become a cornerstone of modern clinical trials.

Today’s trials use smart devices to help facilitate several important trial activities, like informed consent, data collection, patient feedback, and more. As a result, ensuring device delivery logistics has become a crucial step in getting a trial started and keeping participants engaged throughout its duration.

At Medable, we often handle device shipping for our customers' clinical trials. The team responsible for providing this service, led by Carl Franzetti, SVP of Professional Global Services has a market-leading 99% device shipment rate, with the remaining 1% resulting from normal business operation limitations such as weather outages.

The result? Our customer’s trials start on time and their participants are better engaged. 

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On December 23, 2023, the FDA released guidance for the industry on how digital health technologies (DHTs) should be used in clinical trials. 

DHTs, which the FDA defined in their “Framework for the Use of DHTs in Clinical Trials,” are “technologies such as wearable, implantable, ingestible, and environmental sensors and software applications on mobile phones, among others.”

DHTs can be used to collect data from clinical trial participants more efficiently and objectively than traditional methods. For example, DHTs can collect data on participants' activity levels, sleep patterns, and medication adherence. This data can be collected electronically, which can reduce the burden on participants and improve the accuracy of the data

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With over 3,300 attendees across 850 companies, the 16th annual Summit for Clinical Operations Executives (SCOPE) was a huge success. As previous years have shown, what’s big at SCOPE tends to be big for our industry. Thus, we’re summarizing some key takeaways from this year’s conference to understand where the industry may be headed next.

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Medable has always been, at its core, a platform that enables clinical trial sponsors to collect data and generate evidence to answer scientific questions. 

But from the start, Medable has done things differently. Today, the flexibility, purpose, and build of Medable’s evidence-collection platform is what sets us apart from others in our space.

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Within the context of clinical trials, the "critical path" refers to the sequence of activities, tasks, or events that, if delayed or extended, would directly impact the overall timeline for the trial.

These essential steps and dependencies must be completed in a specific order to ensure the trial stays on schedule. Any delay in the critical path can potentially lead to a delay in the entire trial, affecting its completion date and potentially increasing costs. Identifying and managing the critical path is crucial for efficient trial management and timely delivery of treatments to patients.

For a simpler example, take a look at how Monday.com describes the critical path within the context of building a house and their visual aid in Exhibit 2. “For example, if you’re building a house, the critical path might include digging the foundations, building the walls, and installing the roof. If any of these critical activities fall behind schedule the whole project gets delayed.”

‍Over 8,000 participants from all corners of the globe descended on San Francisco this week to attend J.P. Morgan's 42nd Healthcare Conference, taking place at the Westin St. Francis hotel,.

With JPM known for its ability to offer previews of the year ahead, we took the time to summarize the news, trends, and highlights that made waves during this year’s conference. 

We at Medable are often asked in webinars, requests for proposals (RFPs), tradeshows, etc. just how exactly eCOAs and ePROs foster better patient compliance with submitting data. 

Since you asked, our answer is below, courtesy of Jessica Dolfi, VP of Solution Consulting. 

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