Survey seeks to chart adoption of decentralized trials, future plans

18-Oct-2021 - Last updated on 21-Oct-2021 at 13:52 GMT

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A study from Climedo Health aims at revealing the growing influence the decentralized format is enjoying across the industry and what might lie ahead.

Software provider Climedo Health has released a survey aimed at revealing insights about the current and future use of decentralized clinical trials. The survey is geared toward contract research organizations (CROs), pharmaceutical firms, medical device manufacturers, and hospitals.

"Our last survey on challenges and opportunities in clinical trials showed that companies struggle with time constraints, lack of staff, high costs, and lack of digital processes," said Veronika Schweighart, COO and co-founder of Climedo Health. "Digital solutions – if used correctly – can help alleviate these problems. This is something we witness over and over with our clients; at the same time, only about one-fifth of respondents at the time had already worked with decentralized solutions."

Schweighart added that the new survey aims to gauge on an international level what various companies have already achieved after having incorporated decentralized trials, in addition to what might still need to occur in order for virtual studies to become more widely used.

While decentralized clinical trials already had been gaining traction by the time COVID-19 arrived, the pandemic and associated challenges have driven wider implementation of the format. According to Climedo Health, the survey aims to explore the percentage of firms already using decentralizing, and what benefits they see in them; the firm also intends to check in with companies that have not yet gone decentralized about their views and plans.

According to the company, the survey consists of 10 questions and will take respondents about five minutes to complete. The questions touch upon the following topics:

Experience with traditional studies, compared to decentralized
Assessment of the benefits of decentralized studies
Barriers to adoption and use of decentralized trials
Importance of decentralized studies in the future of clinical research
Technologies that are already being used in the context of decentralized.

For more information or to access the survey, visit https://bit.ly/DCT-Survey Climedo Health plans to offer survey respondents analysis free of charge, upon request.