The Technology Express Magazine | Edition: August 2022

BIOTECH
DECENTRALISED TRIALS
What are Decentralised Trials?
Decentralised trials are one
of the ingenious ways of adopting
technology in the realms of
healthcare. It is a process of reducing
the participation of patients in visiting
checkup centres, clinics, or trial sites.
Rather, it introduces and brings to life
the kinds of technologies that would
accomplish its tasks, like wearable
digital devices, patient apps,
smartphones, etc. Such alternatives
bridge the gap between the patient
and the doctor by enabling them
to collect the data (virtually) while
ensuring steady communication
between the two. For instance,
Decentralized Trials incorporate
the use of telemedicine and mobile
healthcare providers, which allows
the medical professionals to study
the patient while interacting with
them.
Decentralized Trials somehow
reduce the financial burden and
provide real-time data in less time.
It monitors the patient and even
streamlines the admission process
for them.
Sometimes, examining a patient
might (not limited to) require frequent
visits to the sites for collecting the
data, whereas decentralised trials
try to reduce their costs and help
patients get better medication more
efficiently.
Virtualization of Decentralized Trial
Decentralized trials have
embarked on a journey to make
clinical trials more efficient and
faster for patients and doctors. In
addition, it has transcended the
traditional paradigm and involved the
use of digital technology in increasing
the proportion of trial activities on
patients. In light of this, Covid-19 has
witnessed a surge in the adoption
of such trials and catalysed this
technology, which has been done
remotely or in patients’ homes.
As far as the healthcare system
is concerned, this technology has
been the biggest boon, especially
during the pandemic, when physical
distancing was introduced and visits
to trial sites were reduced by 80 per
cent. On the contrary, it also noted
how The number of monthly trials
started to decline 50 percent from
January 2020 to April 2020, and 60
percent of investigators reported a
significant reduction in trial activities
in May 2020.
Besides this, even after
witnessing disruption, medics
quickly preserved the idea of such
technology and began to adopt virtual
faculties like patient monitoring,
videoconferencing, etc.
Fact: In one survey, up to 98 per
cent of patients reported satisfaction
with telemedicine. In another study,
72 percent of physicians reported
similar or better experiences with
remote engagement compared with
in-person visits.
Benefits of decentralised trials
With the onset of COVID 19,
decentralised trials have come to
the spotlight and moved beyond the
traditional trials. Hence, let us closely
look at its benefits
Real-time communication with
patients: unquestionably, effective
communication is indeed a need
of the hour, especially between
doctors and patients. Hence, medics
adopt DCTs with ePRO (electronic
patient reporting outcome) to ensure
smooth communication between
the participants. Such technology
is adopted to convey or report any
issue or symptom, to minimise the
degree of missed data points. For
instance, telemedicine is yet another
effective way, in which individuals can
look at their study personnel at their
convenience.
Enriching Data Diversity:
Decentralised trials have a way to
surpass geographical boundaries
and study patients from different
backgrounds, ranging from ethnic
minorities to those living in
remote regions. Regardless of the
boundaries, the aim is to support
clinical trial participation and collect
the patient’s data to help them with
the required results and medical
examination.
Improved Patient Recruitment:
Decentralised trials have a way to
improve the recruitment as well
as the retention of participants.
Undeniably, successful retention is
the ability to keep the patients (in
study) intact, engaged, and motivated
until its completion. The problems
of the patients have to be carefully
addressed and dealt with. If there is
an increase in the problem, then it
might lead to frequent visits to the
trial sites. Also, the trial must adopt
digital technology while preserving
strict standards for patient safety.
-feature@thetechnologyexpress.com
80
/ AUGUST 2022
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