UNITED STATES—When the pandemic struck the world a few years back, it brought about significant changes and challenges in the clinical trial industry. Even in the medical sector, the impacts were devastating, given the disruptions it came with. Like any unprecedented change, however, it’s important to look at this as one from a positive perspective, with the glass half full. Those significant challenges and changes should also be considered as a chance for innovation.
Today, lessons have been learned, and indeed, innovation has only gotten even better. Through maintaining this mindset, clinical trials and studies have shifted to new trends that shape clinical trials for the better. This is needed to help advance the treatment and cure of diseases and viruses, both old and existing ones, and new ones alike.
With that, here are five key clinical trial trends slated to be embraced and built on from 2022 and moving forward.
- Higher Transparency For More Patient Trust
One of the challenges clinical studies and trials will face from 2022 is the need for more patient trust while banking on data privacy. It’s therefore expected that a major trend in clinical trial trends is to have higher transparency to gain that patient’s trust. Patients today are getting more skeptical and thorough about the clinical trials and studies they submit to, as information is now almost always readily available to anyone who requests it.
Health sectors and industries that are in the business of performing clinical trials are aware of the very fact that not gaining enough patient trust can easily cause problems in trial recruitment, or even greater scrutiny in research. The key is to be able to regain the trust of patients-customers by showing them that the whole purpose of conducting clinical trials is simply for the patients’ benefit.
- Decentralized Clinical Trials
Decentralization of clinical trials means that the clinical trials shift from reliance on a central research site for clinical trials. With decentralization, the possibility of monitoring remote trial data is higher. In turn, trial participants can then play an active role, as they go through clinical trials from different locations.
Essentially, the decentralization of clinical trials can help improve the reach and effectiveness of clinical studies, as well as now being more able to accelerate clinical trials. More participants can join, across various demographics and geographical locations. The results can often be more conclusive when participants aren’t just limited to one class of citizens.
- Increased Need For Human Connection
Advancements in technology don’t mean that patients’ communication and connection are left only to machines. There’s nothing that replaces human connection, and this is truly evident in how the need for human connection is greater. Most of the participants of clinical trials prefer to talk with human doctors and scientists, rather than be left to an AI tool, for instance, to monitor their health and vital statistics.
Likewise, this higher need for human connection is also seen in the post-clinical trial period. Sponsors of clinical research, trial, and study should open follow-up services that aren’t just human but are also personal. This brings the medical industry up a notch higher by now being able to offer more personal medical services, as a diversion from the usual one-size-fits-all medical approach.
- Shortening Timelines
Industries and companies across various sectors are uniformly faced with one challenge: the demand and turnaround time of finished work is now faster. Deadlines are shorter, despite also the added challenge to ensure, with no chances of errors, that results in clinical trials and research are of the best quality.
Pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology industries, in particular, are the most affected. They’re constantly striving to create all the necessary compounds which meet the rising needs of society. This fact is again fueled by the pandemic. No one was ever prepared for the medical challenges it brought, which all boils down to the creation of treatment, medicines, and even vaccines at quite a speedy rate.
- Increased Focus On Precision Dosing
Despite the heavy study that’s done on medical drugs, there’s no denying the fact of how adverse drug events or ADEs account for over thousands of deaths and injuries in the United States alone. You can only imagine what the number would be on an international scale. Because of this fact alone, there’s going to be an increased focus on precision dosing for medications. This is the only solution found to radically reduce the likelihood of those injuries happening again.
Final Thoughts
In closing, it’s important to highlight the fact that the list above isn’t meant to be exhaustive. As you go further with studying and researching more on clinical trial trends, you’ll find that there are so many more not covered. But the items here are those which are slated to become the most popular ones in 2022. If you happen to work in clinical research and study, it’s up to you to be ready to come face-to-face with the clinical trial trends like those above.
