Future of Clinical Research
The right tool for the job: General AI vs clinical trial AI
The clinical trials industry is at an operational inflection point. Despite decades of process refinement, drug development timelines have continued to lengthen, and manual workflows still account for a significant portion of skilled operator time across key trial functions. The emergence of large language model-based AI platforms has introduced a new variable into this equation, with multiple vendors now positioning their technology as a solution to these structural inefficiencies.
Two categories of vendors appear frequently in sponsor and CRO evaluations. The first are general-purpose AI platforms, whose large language model capabilities have become some of the most widely benchmarked in the industry. The second are purpose-built clinical technology platforms with an established operational presence across decentralized and hybrid trial environments.
Both have made substantive investments in life sciences AI in 2026. Their approaches, however, differ significantly in architecture, regulatory readiness, and deployment scope. This analysis examines those differences to help sponsors and CROs assess which type of platform is better suited to their operational requirements.
What does the new European Medicine Regulatory Network recommendation paper on decentralized elements in clinical trials tell us?
Learn what impacts the new European Medicine Regulatory Network recommendations paper means to your clinical trial operations.
New EU Regulatory Recommendations for Decentralized Trials Keep Focus on Patients and Sites
As clinical trials rapidly modernize, government regulators work to evolve even as the same core principles apply. Still, decentralized clinical trials are – simply – clinical trials, as all research today is decentralized in some way, yet we lack global harmonization of regulations.
Back to basics: How digital and decentralized clinical trials enable trial diversity
The advancement of decentralized clinical trials (DCTs) allows patients to participate without having to travel to a trial site, removing many barriers that may have hindered people of diverse backgrounds from participating.
Back to basics: How hybrid and decentralized technologies impact each phase of the clinical research journey
Clinical trials require volunteers to assess medical products like devices, vaccines, or medications for efficacy and safety. For health equity to be achieved, it’s imperative that clinical trials include people from diverse backgrounds so as to represent the global population of patients using the products.
2023: The year of the site. We are listening.
As 2022 rounds the bend, the life science industry is at a critical juncture in the adoption of the decentralized clinical trial (DCT) model.
Report: Medable named #1 Leader in DCT for second year by Everest Group
For the second consecutive year, Medable has been named Leader decentralized clinical trial products per the Everest Group’s PEAK Matrix® assessment, which evaluates DCT products from 24 companies based on vision, capability and market impact.
DCT takes center stage at DIA 2022 with new Tufts CSDD Study
DIA 2022 provided four days worth of content spanning over 13 talk tracks and hundreds of speakers with three major takeaways.
Improving diversity in clinical trials: An industry leader talks progress and surprises
We sat down with Rosamund Round, VP, Patient Innovation Center and Decentralized Trials at Parexel, about the challenge of improving diversity in clinical trials and what Parexel is doing to meet it.