New Technologies Enhancing Transparency Between Patients and Researchers

How are you leveraging your background in digitalization and logistics in the development of new technologies to enhance communication and transparency between patients and researchers throughout the clinical trial process, fostering trust and informed decision-making?

So, my background, I've been in clinical research since about 1999. So, what, coming up on 25 years? I have always been in and around different clinical systems and logistics systems. And then in 2018, I think I pivoted more towards the digital world. And one thing that constantly comes out through the whole of my journey here is that you have to have stress, and you have to, and you have to, you have to have informed decision making within the entire cycle, regardless of where you are within the element of science and clinical research. So, putting the level of communication at the forefront, is so important. And but then when you look at how the world, the digital world has changed since like 1999, through to now and the speed, also with which it's changing. And, and some of those life events that we've all come through. I mean, I'm sure everybody remembers COVID back in 2020. And it almost COVID forced a certain situation upon us.

Within the world of decentralized tiles, we pivoted very quickly as an industry to make sure that remote patient monitoring was put in place. And the use of wearables and remote visits, all of those bits, all of those components started to come to the forefront. And that was it like that was a situation that was forced upon us. But actually, having now been through that and you reflect, I do think that actually having a one size fits all is simply not feasible. And I talk a lot about the empathy with the patient as well as the protocol design. And I always do like very deliberately because you can't have one without the other than in order for one bit to work you have a dependency and the other part and so, having, having flexibility within your digital health technology, for example. And that really allows you to maximize how you are, how you are engaging and how you how you're communicating with the patient and act We then start to add in a personal touch.

So, there are various flexibilities to how apps are, how content within an app is rendered is surfaced, there are various considerations about making sure that is the right open channel available, do patients feel supported? Do they have the right information available at their fingertips? And is it easy to access it easily accessible. And then also, then just acknowledging that not every patient is the same, I'd say we are all human. And in us being human, we're all individual. And so, what works for one person is not necessarily going to work for somebody else. And, and therefore developing a communication plan within the study protocol. And within the study design, that really, which is based around the needs of the patient. To me, that's really important. And we increasingly have busy lifestyles, everybody is crazy busy. But it's that balance. So, what we have within digital trials now is that you have that flexibility to include a wearable and have remote monitoring, and an information at your fingertips within your device.

You also have telehealth, and you have remote data capture, whereby you can bridge those two worlds together. So that you can still in have that element of trust and flexibility between the patient and the caregiver, or the physician rather. And you, you are also then able to capture the value of the data, whilst ensuring people are well educated and well informed rather, around what they need to do, and when and how they interact. So, for me, I think did the digital world has been about the best of both events, it's given us flexibility to adapt around the lifestyle of the patient, whilst also ensuring that that trust, and that relationship between the physician and the doctor is well maintained and is non-negotiable.