Trialbee CEO Matt Walz and John Reites, CEO of THREAD discuss the importance of leveraging analytics to improve data quality and increase enrollment in Decentralized Trials.
Increase data quality with a data-driven approach to enroll a more diverse and global patient population.
Access to traditional clinical trials is the most common hurdle that participants have to overcome. Decentralized Clinical Trials aid in recruitment because they are built to be more conducive to people’s lifestyles.
How can leveraging analytics increase diversity in the enrollment in DCTs?
For starters, DCTs can see an increase in participation when there is more reach with awareness of the trial itself.
“How do you break down these access barriers?… If you have a target for your diversity cohort and set that upfront, then analytics can help you measure how you’re performing against it. This allows you to adjust your spending to those channels and vendors.”
Matt Walz, CEO, Trialbee
“We look at different KPIs to see if this person’s engagement in our app is trending down. This allows us to reach out to those patients prior to the study. One of our corporate visions is to make studies five times more inclusive and that includes diversity and making them more available.”
John Reites, CEO, THREAD
With DCTs, expanding the geographic footprint of the trial becomes possible, which then, in turn, increases the data quality. This is due to being able to test investigation products on people more representative of the actual target populations and not having to rely on needing to geo-fence around sites. This breaks down a barrier found in traditional clinical trials and allows expanded access while driving up awareness.
When asked the question on how data quality can be increased, John Reites answered that there are three main objectives when approaching potential participants:
- Recruiting the right participants
- Retaining those participants
- Capturing data more frequently and continuously between visits
- Empowering study teams with real-time data
With the right participants, DCTs can allow for capturing source data and compiling more data than in traditional clinical trials. According to THREAD CEO John Reites, decentralized clinical trials are 5x more inclusive than traditional trials. This means that companies such as Trialbee and THREAD can help trials meet their diversity targets.
Expand access to a global pool of patients leveraging real-world data
Expanding access and increasing diversity are goals of many clinical trials, and DCTs can decrease site burden by allowing for patients to have remote access to healthcare providers and trial staff. Trialbee CEO Matt Walz points out that a patient can have a telehealth appointment with a medical professional that speaks the local language of the participant, and who knows the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Pre-qualifying patients creates more study-ready patients to refer to sites: patients that are motivated, understand what it takes to participate in the trial and the greater good it serves, and are clinical matches for the given protocol. This also reduces the end burden of the site.
According to THREAD CEO John Reites, more than 70% of potential clinical trial participants live more than two hours away from the main clinic. Expanding the access to more patients directly relates to more data and higher rates of diversity. Using tools like telehealth visits, remote sharing of medical records, and telehealth staff that speak the language of the participant, the patient pool can be expanded globally. This means the best available data from the most diverse pool of patients.
Lower costs with an analytical patient matching and enrollment approach to decentralized clinical trials.
The comprehensive model of DCTs helps to lighten the workload of sites. Trialbee CEO Matt Walz wants sites to see that much of the heavy lifting has already been done when considering patients sourced from a recruitment vendor like Trialbee:
“When I see a Trialbee patient, I know that patient’s well-qualified, they may have their medical record, they’ve spoken to a nurse, they’re comfortable participating, and they want to participate with you.”
Patient engagement and motivation can be maintained through remote means, such as mobile app engagement, which means that fewer participants may drop out of the trial. Keeping these patients remotely engaged means more data is collected and the investment of sourcing patients from decentralized patient vendors is worthwhile for sites.
For more insights, view the webinar on demand.
