SCOPE Europe 2023 Roundtable: eCOA- and ePRO-Centricity in a Digital Health World

In a roundtable discussion at SCOPE Europe 2023 in Barcelona, Spain, industry leaders gathered to address the current landscape of data collection in clinical trials. Specifically, the roundtable focused on eCOAs, ePROs, and how they fit into a digital health world. A video of the entire discussion can be found below.

The participants in attendance were Estrella Garcia Alvarez, PhD, senior director, global clinical operations, R&D, Almirall SA, Scottie Kern, executive director, eCOA Consortium, Critical Path Institute, Bryan McDowell, vice president, eCOA clinical science & consulting, eCOA science, Clario, and Bart Roofthooft, head of digital health solutions, EBIS/DHCoE, Janssen R&D. The roundtable was moderated by Andy Studna, editor, Applied Clinical Trials.

To open the conversation, the first topic proposed was the industry’s current views on eCOAs/ePROs and digital health technologies (DHTs). There seemed to be a gray area around whether industry considers them to be similar entities, even though they both have the same goal of collecting high quality, patient-centric data.

Following, there was a healthy discussion around terminology in this space and the intensive work industry should be looking forward towards in order to achieve harmonization. The panel also touched on how they are seeing digital tools being used to drive patient centricity. To conclude, the participants gave their thoughts on what the audience should be keeping top of mind in this space as the calendar moves to 2024.

With the remaining time, the panel addressed one question from the audience on how patients are viewing the rapid technological advancements in clinical trials and if it is something they are truly comfortable with.