Medable Inc., the leading technology platform for clinical trials, today announced that Steve Jones, Medable’s vice president of data analytics, achieved the silver award in the Decentralized Solutions Individual of the Year category at PharmaTimes International Clinical Researcher of the Year awards gala in London on May 18, 2023.

“Steve is one of the most innovative and experienced data scientists in the life sciences industry,” said Michelle Longmire, CEO and co-founder at Medable. “We're honored to have him at Medable and thrilled that this award recognizes the impact he has had on the industry and patients who participate in clinical research.”

To apply for these awards, Jones entered a rigorous, 3-stage process that included a Good Clinical Practice review, submission of a 1000-word essay outlining how best to decentralize an oncology trial, and an interview. Jones was one of the four finalists in the “decentralized solutions'' category – notably, the first year for this category. He presented a fictional protocol design to drive trial efficiency, saving time and cost through a decentralized approach, including electronic consent and patient-reported outcomes (ePRO) assessment technologies. 

Jones’s essay focused on basket trials and designing iterative protocols that test a theory with a small group of enrolled patients, analyze the results, and build the trial from the results by expanding or adjusting the hypothesis. This iterative approach enables a seamless transition from Phase I through Phases II and III, and allows for data required to perform statistical power calculations to be collected holistically across phases from the outset of the study – recently identified by the FDA as a future requirement.

“As a professional statistician, it means a lot to win a non-statistical award for my work in clinical research,” said Jones. “Medable has afforded me an amazing opportunity to go beyond the data and apply it to help advance clinical research and mankind. Behind every data point is a patient. It’s important to have that kind of respect and not waste data as you design and analyze data to ensure a successful NDA in the fastest possible time.” 

Steve Jones is a statistician and data scientist who joined the Pharmaceutical Industry 35 years ago, starting his career at Boots Pharmaceuticals, before joining a small Contract Research Organisation (CRO) and spending 24 years working at Covance (now Fortrea) as a Director of Biostatistics and Statistical Programming. Jones eventually led the team and applied statistical skill sets to critical research functions, such as patient recruitment. 

Launched in 1999, the PharmTimes International Clinical Researcher of the Year awards competition is a real-world competition that attracts entrants from all over the globe. It offers a unique opportunity for research professionals to benchmark their skills against their peers in a friendly learning environment and then be judged by an independent steering group of high-level industry leaders. Visit the website for a complete list of 2023 winners. 

Medable has deployed its software-as-a-service platform via more than 300 decentralized and hybrid clinical trials in 70 countries, serving more than one million patients and research participants globally. Medable’s customers have achieved impressive results with decentralized and hybrid trials – including 200 percent faster enrollment and 50 percent cost reductions. A recent 2022 financial modeling of DCTs using industry benchmark and Medable data conducted by the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development shows that, on average, decentralized trials can achieve net financial benefits ranging from five to 13 times for Phase II and Phase III trials, due to reduced trial timelines and other factors.

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About Medable

Medable is on a mission to get effective therapies to patients faster by transforming clinical drug development with disruptive technologies. The company’s digital platform streamlines design, recruitment, retention and data quality for decentralized trials, replacing siloed systems with integrated digital tools, data and interfaces to accelerate trial execution. Medable connects patients, sites and clinical trial teams to improve patient access, experience and outcomes. Medable’s software has been named a Leader in the industry by both Everest Group and IDC. Medable is a privately held, venture-backed company headquartered in Palo Alto, California.

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