Digital Strategies to Guide the Future of Clinical Research

This is an amazing time of progress and transformation in the life sciences industry.

We have seen how global cooperation and innovation can drive the development of a vaccine with unprecedented speed. 

While the Covid-19 vaccine is certainly an accomplishment to be celebrated, the life sciences industry must apply the learnings from the past year. In order to build on our successes and push forward with new therapies, we must focus on improving efficiencies throughout the trial process.

As eClinical Solutions’ CEO and Co-founder, Raj Indupuri, noted in his recent article for Clinical Research News, “In the last decade, we have made revolutionary discoveries and advancements in science and technology, but only in their realms. Owing to impediments with business models, obsolete processes, and regulatory challenges, we have yet to make consistent progress in leveraging technology-enabled innovations to deliver valuable drugs and therapies to patients faster.” 

The key to forging a new path forward in clinical studies is to adopt the processes from the pandemic and make them sustainable. Technology will be an essential accelerator in this new way forward, with organizations taking a data-first approach to tap into the true potential of patient-centric and decentralized trials. Upskilling across all clinical development teams will also be critical. 

As the life sciences industry moves into this post-pandemic era, here are three key strategies to guide our way forward:

1. Strengthen Collaboration and Partnerships

The pooling of resources across governments and industries was critical during the pandemic to accelerate trials. This shared focus allowed pharmaceutical companies, clinical research teams and government bodies to collaborate effectively and achieve milestones in drug development. With this continued sense of partnership, there is great potential for more treatments for other serious illnesses to be developed faster.

2. Build Modern Infrastructures and Data Strategy

The increased adoption of decentralized trial models, combined with the availability of new streams of data, have created massive amounts of clinical data that must be processed throughout a trial. To manage this data deluge, building a modern data infrastructure and adopting a platform-centric approach must become a top priority. This will lay the foundation for the application of AI and machine learning models, which can help scale processes, transform valuable data into actionable results and drive faster approvals.

3. Focus on Technology Upskilling

Digital transformation in the life sciences industry has put an even greater emphasis on finding ways to leverage new technology. This enables clinical researchers to focus on critical functions while these tools manage more time-consuming processes. To increase overall trial efficiency, it is now essential for clinical leaders to empower their teams with the skills and knowledge to maximize the usage of new digital tools. By developing skills sets in data sciences, organizations can advance data intelligence and improve data and analytics to accelerate trial timelines. 

For more on digital strategies to accelerate clinical trial processes, read the full article on Clinical Research News.