ACRP: Unique Considerations for Patient Retention in Decentralized Clinical Trials

By Sanskriti (“Sans”) Thakur, CGO. As we celebrate Women’s History Month this March, the world takes a moment to recognise women’s accomplishments, while also highlighting the inequity that remains. When it comes to women’s health, those inequities are stark. And a contributing factor is the lack of women in clinical trials. When population representation falls short, medicines are less safe and effective. Measures such as the US Congress’s proposed DIVERSE Trials Act are helping drive equitable representation, but that’s just the beginning.

By Hady Khoury, Chief Development Officer, Medable. The life sciences industry has been talking about improving diversity in clinical trials for years. Historically, this talk has amounted to a lot of hot air. But the situation is urgent: while racial and ethnic minorities comprise nearly 40% of the US population, they only account for 2% to 16% of clinical trial participation. Within oncology, Black Americans constitute around 22% of cancer cases, but less than 5% of trial enrollees. This isn’t just a US issue; globally, 76% of patients enrolled in oncology trials are white. And this challenge exists within a research landscape where nearly 80% of trials fall short of enrollment targets to begin with.

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By Musaddiq Khan, VP DCT Solutions. The pace of development for new medicines has traditionally been slow and burdened with lengthy enrollment, conduct, and analysis timelines. However, COVID-19 was a catalyst to adopt novel approaches to drug development that have harnessed technology to create new, accelerated processes for conducting clinical trials. Technology-enabled hybrid and decentralized clinical trials (DCTs) are now moving from the periphery into starring roles across many areas of research—with a notable exception.