Florence Healthcare, a clinical research software company, has released its annual ‘State of the Clinical Trial Technology Report’. Compiling the document involved the technology company reaching out to 455 clinical research sites, sponsors, and contract research organizations (CROs) to answer survey questions.
The principal aim of the survey was to determine how the industry plans to invest in software during their 2023 clinical studies. As part of the report’s executive summary, Florence Healthcare outlined that the survey found that there was increasing competition for patients to participate in clinical trials, and this has led to sponsors ‘revaluating’ their partnerships with research sites.
In terms of how this relationship will change, the report suggested that sponsors were more likely to choose technology solutions that prioritize the needs and experiences of research sites.
In providing examples, the report states that sponsors are more likely to deploy electronic investigator site files (eISFs), with 78% of respondents planning to deploy eISFs by the end of the year. This represents a large jump from 2021, when only 11% of sponsors reported deploying eISFs at study sites.
Other examples of site enablement technologies being adopted include study startup (78% expecting to adopt by end of year), eConsent (72% by end of year), and eSource (72% by end of year).
The report concluded, “While site enablement technology provides clear benefits to sponsors in terms of faster timelines and reduced costs, it also helps them achieve ‘sponsor of choice’ status by
enabling sites with best-in-class technology that enhances their workflows. Therefore, the use of these technologies will continue to grow in the coming years.”
Another trend noted by Florence Healthcare centers around the broad shift to decentralized trials, brought about by the necessity of implementing such measures during the widespread pandemic lockdowns.
Sponsors ranked ‘enabling remote monitoring and regulatory document access’ and ‘enabling remote source access’ as the first and second priorities when implementing new site-facing technologies.
Ryan Jones, CEO of Florence Healthcare said: “In 2023, sponsors and CROs will ask sites what platforms they have and what platforms they need to accelerate their trials. And when sponsors give sites technology, they’ll look for platforms designed for sites’ needs—those that cut back on administrative work and let sites focus on patients.”
Jones added that nearly one quarter of clinical trials fail because of slow or broken processes, and that site enablement technology is one solution to address this. In particular, this includes being able to add automation to processes, and improving collaboration between sites and sponsors.
On automation, the report found that, for the fourth consecutive year, the most important factor in technology selection was automating repetitive tasks – with 62% of sites responding in this way.