Exploring Clinical Trial Design and Data Collection in a New Environment

As COVID-19 spread across the globe, life sciences organizations were forced to quickly change their approach to clinical trials. With travel restrictions and lockdowns, physical access to patients became almost impossible. Organizations accelerated their plans to shift to decentralized clinical trial models that leverage remote data collection technologies and processes to engage with patients, rather than in-person visits.

To better understand how organizations are adapting to this new clinical trial environment, Informa Pharma Intelligence and Oracle Health Sciences conducted a survey of biopharmaceutical companies, contract research organizations, and medical device companies involved in clinical trials around the world.

The vast majority of respondents indicated that the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated their adoption of decentralized clinical trial methods. Three in four said that at least some of their trials were decentralized, with many indicating they use this approach for more than half of their trials.