Spotlight on Cardiology: Advancements and Clinical Trial Implications

Heart disease has remained the leading cause of death in the U.S. for over 100 years, as highlighted by the 2024 American Heart Association's heart disease and stroke statistics. As we observe American Heart Month, the crisis continues to impact many communities. However, advancements in cardiology are bringing new hope for better heart care. Innovations such as gene and cell therapies, next-generation anticoagulants, and minimally invasive procedures are enhancing heart function, reducing hospital stays, and personalizing care for improved patient outcomes.

In this article, we explore key breakthroughs in cardiology and how technology is driving these advancements forward.

The following innovations are reshaping the treatment of heart disease and offering new hope for patients: 

1. Gene and Cell Therapies

Emerging gene and cell therapies are paving the way for more targeted treatments, offering potential long-term solutions for heart failure and myocardial infarction. These therapies hold promise for repairing damaged heart tissue at the cellular level, potentially reversing some of the effects of heart disease. 

2. Next-Generation Anticoagulants

Newer anticoagulants are providing safer and more effective options for preventing and treating thrombotic events. These medications carry fewer side effects compared to traditional blood thinners, offering more tailored approaches to managing blood clot risks. 

3. Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR)

This minimally invasive procedure offers a transformative treatment option for aortic valve stenosis. TAVR significantly reduces recovery time and is now widely used for both high- and low-risk patients, improving their quality of life with quicker procedures and fewer hospital stays.

4. SGLT2 Inhibitors for Heart Failure

Originally developed for type 2 diabetes, SGLT2 inhibitors have emerged as a key therapy for heart failure. These drugs not only reduce blood pressure and fluid retention but also improve cardiovascular outcomes, making them essential in managing heart disease.

5. Mitral Valve Clips (MitraClip)

This non-surgical device is used to treat mitral regurgitation by restoring proper valve function. MitraClip reduces hospitalizations and has shown to improve long-term survival for patients who are otherwise at high risk for surgery.

6. GLP-1 Agonists for Cardiovascular Health 

Medications like Ozempic and Wegovy are now recognized for their dual role in regulating blood sugar and reducing cardiovascular risk. By promoting weight control and lowering the risk of heart attack and stroke, these drugs are becoming essential in managing cardiac health.

7. Advancements in Percutaneous Procedures

Innovations in angioplasty and stenting are enhancing blood flow and providing effective alternatives to open-heart surgery. These procedures not only reduce recovery times but also offer patients less invasive options for treatment.

The Future of Cardiology Innovation

The future of cardiology is shaped by advancements in biomaterials, nanotechnology, and precision medicine. These innovations are making treatments more effective and less invasive, but their integration into clinical practice requires evolving clinical trial methodologies. The growing complexity of treatments demands adaptive research frameworks to ensure safety and accessibility.

Adapting Clinical Trials for Emerging Therapies

As cardiology treatments advance, clinical trials must keep pace with more complex protocols. Today’s trials require precise biomarker tracking, selective patient recruitment, and the management of large-scale data. Additionally, stringent regulatory oversight necessitates meticulous documentation to comply with global standards. Addressing these factors is critical to accelerating the approval of innovative therapies.

Enhancing Clinical Trials with Technology

Technology plays a crucial role in addressing the evolving demands of cardiology clinical trials. Cloud Concinnity’s SaaS platform centralizes oversight, automates regulatory compliance, and leverages AI-powered analytics to improve trial efficiency. With the launch of Cloud Concinnity® 3.3.0, we're introducing several updates to further enhance clinical trial coordination. This latest version brings streamlined meeting scheduling, smarter tools for staffing transitions, and enhanced security features, including upgraded two-factor authentication.

Click here to see more and discover how these updates can optimize your trial management. If you'd like to experience these updates firsthand, click here to request a demo.

Let's continue building on these advancements, ensuring that innovative therapies are swiftly brought to patients. By refining clinical trial processes and embracing new approaches, we can accelerate the future of heart health.

Spotlight on Blindness: Novel Therapies and Implications for Clinical Trials

The fight against blindness has reached a pivotal moment. Advances in therapies are revolutionizing the treatment of diseases such as glaucoma and macular degeneration, offering new hope to millions worldwide. Diseases are now being addressed with innovative treatments that promise not only to halt progression but also to restore vision. These breakthroughs, while offering hope to patients, bring unique challenges and opportunities to the clinical trial landscape. Harnessing these breakthroughs demands not only cutting-edge science but also unparalleled efficiency in trial coordination.

Promising Therapies Addressing Leading Causes of Irreversible Blindness

1. Sustained-Release Drug Implants: Glaucoma, a leading cause of irreversible blindness, affects over 4 million people in the U.S. alone, with African Americans and Hispanic populations at higher risk. Characterized by optic nerve damage, glaucoma’s progressive nature, and, unfortunately, often delayed diagnosis, it requires timely intervention. Intraocular pressure (IOP) is the only known modifiable risk factor for glaucoma and thus the primary target for treatment. A component unique to glaucoma management is that a heavy portion of the burden is placed upon patients, with treatment response predicated on daily eyedrop therapy and compliance. Sustained-release drug implants can deliver consistent medication over months, significantly reducing variability in IOP as well as simplifying the treatment regimen for patients.

2. Intravitreal Medications: Nearly 20 million people in the United States are affected by macular degeneration. This disease notoriously affects central vision predominantly, making it particularly debilitating. The first anti-vascular endothelial growth factor therapy (anti-VEGF) was only approved for wet macular degeneration as recently as 2004. Since then, the sector has exploded with available intravitreal medications within this class of drugs, for use in both macular degeneration and diabetes. But only very recently, in 2023, was the first pharmacologic treatment for dry macular degeneration (a complement C5 protein inhibitor) approved for clinical use.

3. Gene and Stem Cell Therapies: Limitations of many current treatments across both the glaucoma and retina subspecialties are the duration of action (requiring redosing) as well as the failure to prevent vision loss (only to delay or slow). Simply put, treatments rather than cures. Because both glaucoma and macular degeneration have known hereditary components and genetic factors, solutions within this area are particularly compelling. While stem cell therapies are more commonly being utilized for childhood retinal disorders, they represent a promising treatment strategy across ophthalmic diseases.

Implications for Clinical Trials

These breakthroughs bring unique challenges to clinical trial design and execution. Here’s how they reshape the landscape:

1. Complex Protocols: Advanced therapies require multi-phase trials involving intricate endpoints, including visual acuity, IOP metrics, and biomarkers

2. Patient Recruitment: Identifying and enrolling participants with specific genetic profiles or disease stages necessitates targeted outreach and robust inclusion criteria

3. Data Complexity: Trials involving gene and stem cell therapies generate vast datasets, demanding sophisticated platforms for real-time collaboration and analysis

4. Regulatory Scrutiny: Novel therapies often face heightened regulatory requirements, necessitating meticulous documentation and compliance oversight

The Role of Technology in Clinical Trials

For industry leaders aiming to dominate the ophthalmology space, technology is a key enabler. Our SaaS platform transforms clinical trial coordination, offering:

• Centralized Oversight: Seamlessly manage multi-site studies and track trial progress in real time.

• Streamlined Collaboration: Facilitate secure, efficient communication among independent safety committees and Data Monitoring Committees (DMCs).

• Regulatory Compliance: Automate documentation workflows to align with FDA and EMA guidelines, reducing administrative burdens.

• Actionable Insights: Leverage AI-powered analytics to uncover trends, optimize protocols, and accelerate timelines.

A Call to Innovators

As we stand at the intersection of scientific discovery and technological innovation, the opportunity to redefine ophthalmology is clear. For innovators in this domain, investing in tools that enhance trial efficiency is as critical as advancing retinal therapies themselves. Cloud Concinnity can offer you a universal solution to streamline your clinical trial process by bringing you the 3Cs: Centralization - saves time by centralizing documentation activities, Collaboration - increases trial workflow efficiency by facilitating collaboration for key decision-making, and Compliance - ensures compliance to maintain quality in work.

By embracing this innovation, we can not only accelerate breakthroughs but also ensure they reach the patients who need them most. Together, let’s illuminate the path to a future where blindness is no longer irreversible.

2024 in Review: Transforming Clinical Trial Coordination

As the year draws to a close, we at The Concinnity Company are proud to celebrate an extraordinary 2024. Fueled by our commitment to address Centralization, Collaboration, and Compliance challenges in clinical trials, we’ve worked alongside the world’s largest CROs and sponsors to transform clinical trial oversight with process intelligence. This year has been a testament to our mission of streamlining processes and advancing clinical trial coordination.

Milestones That Defined 2024

1. Geometric growth in Platform Adoption: 250+% growth.

Our sponsor count surged by an impressive 260%, reflecting the growing trust in our platform as a solution for managing increasingly complex trials. This milestone underscores our strengthened market presence and the growing demand for centralized, compliant trial oversight. Fueled by a 254% increase in active studies, for 320% more unique users, our platform has become the preferred choice for clinical trial coordination. This exponential growth not only reflects user trust but also strengthens the collaborative power of our growing network.

As digitalization of trial processes accelerates, Cloud Concinnity continues to lead the way by centralizing documentation and processes, eliminating the use of disparate point solutions that are inefficient and increases the risk of data leaks/compliance issues.

2. Top Pharma Tech Software Provider Recognition

For the second year in a row, Cloud Concinnity was recognized by multiple industry leaders as a Top E-Clinical Trial Management Solution, further solidifying our standing as an industry leader and a trusted partner in clinical trial management.

Ensuring seamless coordination among multiple stakeholders is complex and resource-intensive. Cloud Concinnity enables a unified process of conducting independent safety review, avoiding cumbersome and time consuming document collaboration with emails and/or various document repositories.

3. Partnering with Industry Leaders to Improve the Platform

User feedback has been central to our success in continuously expanding and improving the platform. In 2024, we delivered quarterly software updates, enhancing functionality, performance, and user experience. These updates ensure our platform remains scalable, meeting the demands of a rapidly evolving clinical trial landscape.

4. Sustaining Part 11 Compliance

Compliance is integral to our mission, so maintaining Cloud Concinnity as a validated Part 11 compliance platform is important to us. In 2024 we completed rigorous audits, both internal and external, demonstrating our meeting of those requirements.Every software update adheres to exacting regulatory standards, ensuring trust and reliability for our clients.

Regulatory/compliance teams and study requirements are unique and must follow FDA and Charter specs. For organizations to be ever audit-ready, Cloud Concinnity provides a secure, centralized, and compliant foundation for reporting.

5. Expansion of Academic Medical Center Solutioning

This year marked a significant milestone as we partnered with a leading academic medical center research institution. Through this collaboration, Cloud Concinnity demonstrated its versatility across multiple use cases, showcasing its potential to revolutionize clinical research within academia. As we expand our academic partnerships, early adopters will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of trial coordination and gain exclusive access to tailored implementation support.

6. Strategic Team Growth

To support our expanding client base and the growing recognition of the imperative to digitalize trial processes, we grew our team this year with new industry expertise in functional areas and on our Clinical Trial Advisory Council, ensuring delivery of the best software and service for organizations transitioning to technology supported clinical trial oversight.

A Vision for 2025 and Beyond

As we reflect on the progress made in 2024, our focus now shifts to the future. With every partnership and every update, we are shaping a world where centralization of processes, collaboration across stakeholders, and compliance with regulations drive better outcomes for clinical trials.

By continuing to harness process intelligence and fostering innovation, we aim to empower our clients to stay ahead in an ever-changing industry. Together, let’s build a smarter, more efficient future for clinical trial coordination.

Here’s to an exciting 2025!

The Concinnity Company Announces latest release of Cloud Concinnity, its award winning eClinical Trial Management Software

NASHVILLE – November 18, 2024 

The Concinnity Company has announced the release of Cloud ConcinnityⓇ 3.3.0. Cloud Concinnity is an integrated process management platform for clinical trial oversight. Concinnity was recently named a Top Ten eClinical Trial Management Solution Provider.

Clinical trial sponsors and clinical research organizations (CROs) manage dozens of ongoing clinical studies simultaneously throughout the year. Each of these studies requires centralization of data to create a single source of truth, and to both facilitate and control access.  Vast teams of people collaborate across geography and time zone requiring the ability to work asynchronously on information and also meet as required by FDA and study protocols. Cloud Concinnity has become the go-to solution for centralization, collaboration and compliance challenges for hundreds of users managing processes crucial to improving global health and well being. Their usage of our platform and commitment to their work means Cloud Concinnity gets better and better with every release.

Cloud Concininty’s 3.3.0 release further enhances our meeting scheduling functionality. It is designed specifically for scheduling meetings among sponsors, committee members and other required parties. Selection of available times are now even easier to select from calendar views.  And we’ve solved a time zone issue for teams with users in several different time zones.

The workforce challenges in the industry, availability and turnover, challenge security, efficiency and training.  Cloud Concinnity has enhanced features to facilitate staffing changes, both temporary and part time, that ensure ongoing consistency, efficiency of compliances of required processes and services.

Additional enhancements include our system generated reminders features and changes to two factor authentication across challenging geographies.

 Concinnity is 21 CFR Part 11 compliant platform is architecting the paradigm of tech-driven clinical trial oversight. The ecosystem has grappled with inefficiency and outdated technology for far too long. Current solutions rely on manual efforts and multiple tools. This approach is simply unsustainable. 

Cloud Concinnity brings centralization, collaboration and compliance to mission critical clinical trial processes. The result?  Process standardization & optimization and enhanced capacity & controls that drive efficiency, growth, and preventive compliance.  Cloud Concinnity’s powerful, integrated workflow engine ensures better outcomes at lower cost. 

To Learn More about Cloud Concinnity Contact:

[email protected]
(615) 988-1501

About Concinnity:
Cloud Concinnity® is an integrated software platform for clinical trial oversight.  As a single, secure platform to manage, execute and record key processes, it drives a higher level of efficiency, speed and risk mitigation. Cloud Concinnity also unlocks the value of big data buried within multiple systems. The result is better product lifecycle management and decision-making. Concinnity transforms information flows, communications, and processes. By standardizing and automating these activities, treatments can reach patients faster and at a lower cost. We are dedicated to harnessing the power of process, innovation, and technology to create a stronger, healthier world. For more information on how we are building a better future one clinical trial at a time visit  The Concinnity Company.com

Bridging Expertise: How Sponsor-CRO Collaboration is Shaping the Future of Clinical Trials

Ever wonder what fuels the success of a clinical trial? It boils down to collaboration—bringing together diverse teams of sponsors and Contract Research Organizations (CROs), often spanning multiple geographies. Sponsors take the lead by setting the course, securing funding, and ensuring that every regulatory requirement is met. They are responsible for designing the trial protocol, selecting sites, and making critical decisions to keep the trial on track. 

On the other hand, CROs offer specialized expertise in managing the intricate processes involved in executing a trial. These teams include project managers, research assistants, site contract managers, quality managers, clinical research associates, clinical trial assistants, regulatory affairs managers, heads of clinical operations, data managers, statistical programmers, and biostatisticians. Each of these roles is vital in ensuring a successful trial outcome. 

Rising Complexity and Shifting Models in Clinical Trials

As the pharmaceutical industry continues to evolve, clinical trials are becoming increasingly complex. The globalization of R&D has introduced new challenges, with 51% of drug developers citing trial complexity as a significant hurdle and 46% identifying regulatory demands as a close second, according to a survey by Thermo Fisher Scientific. To manage these growing demands, pharmaceutical companies have increasingly turned to Contract Research Organizations (CROs), with nearly three out of four clinical trials now managed by these organizations.

Traditionally CROs have offered full-service outsourcing (FSO) models to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to support clinical trial operations. However, a significant shift toward functional service provider (FSP) models has been gaining traction. This shift is not just a trend; it’s becoming the new norm. The top 10 pharmaceutical companies have adopted FSP models, and nearly half of the companies ranked 11th to 20th are using a combination of FSP and FSO models. This change is being driven by several market forces, including a focus on bolt-on M&A strategies, the need to reduce costs, improve operational efficiency, decrease cycle times, provide specialized services, and maintain more strategic control over clinical trials.

Technology: The Key to Improved Clinical Trial Coordination

As the FSP model becomes more widespread, both sponsors and CROs are increasingly relying on technology to streamline clinical trial operations. While CROs traditionally made most technology-related decisions, now sponsors are also taking a more active role in selecting and leveraging technological solutions. This shift towards integrated platforms is crucial for fostering collaboration and ensuring efficient trial coordination.

This is where cloud-based platforms like Cloud ConcinnityⓇ play a crucial role. By streamlining workflows and enhancing communication, these platforms enable more efficient collaboration between sponsors and CROs. Cloud technology facilitates smoother interactions, aligning all stakeholders and driving better outcomes throughout the trial process.

Explore our blog to learn how cloud-based platforms and automation are revolutionizing clinical trial coordination.

A Case in Point: Tackling Inefficient Clinical Trial Collaboration 

To highlight the impact of collaboration and technology, consider the challenge faced by one of our customers: inefficient document management and communication delays. Their trial leaders struggled with a high volume of emails and multiple document versions, making it difficult to track changes and maintain version control across platforms. This inefficiency significantly impacted their overall trial timelines.

The Solution: Streamlined Collaboration and Document Management

We provided a real time collaboration platform that addressed these challenges by enabling better communication and simplifying document management. The platform’s key features included:

• Centralized Document Repository: All documents were consolidated into a single, secure location, eliminating the need to manage multiple versions across different platforms

• Real-Time Collaboration: Stakeholders could now collaborate on documents simultaneously, ensuring real-time updates and reducing confusion caused by conflicting versions

• Version Control: Automatic version tracking ensured that the most recent document was always accessible, minimizing errors due to outdated information

• Role-Based Access: With secure, role-based permissions, only authorized users could view or modify documents, improving document integrity and confidentiality

The Impact: Improved Efficiency and Accuracy

The results were immediate. With less time spent on document management and email exchanges, teams were able to focus on more critical tasks. The platform's role-based access and integrated signature requests sped up the approval process, ensuring that only authorized personnel could review and approve documents swiftly.

Moreover, by reducing clerical errors and ensuring clear audit trails, the platform simplified documentation processes. This created more accurate records and a reliable, efficient audit process.

Closing Thoughts

By fostering collaboration among diverse opinion leaders, our platform played a pivotal role in transforming the clinical trial management system. Not only did it improve coordination, but it also accelerated trial timelines, ensuring that different perspectives were integrated seamlessly into the process.

The importance of collaborative trial management cannot be overstated—especially in today’s increasingly complex and competitive landscape. As clinical trials become more intricate, fostering collaboration across various experts is essential for achieving breakthroughs and maintaining a competitive edge. Technology, like Cloud Concinnity, enables this collaboration, making clinical trials more efficient, responsive, and aligned with the industry's evolving needs.

In the world of clinical trials, effective collaboration isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s a must for success.

Improving Safety Reviews in Clinical Trials Through Tech-Enabled Centralization

Imagine having all your data seamlessly integrated in one place! A recent Oracle survey revealed that 50% of clinical data managers rely on up to five different data sources, making it challenging to draw meaningful insights from trial data. The complexity of managing multiple platforms creates data silos, isolating information and making it difficult for data managers to achieve a comprehensive view. This fragmentation not only increases the risk of data inconsistencies but also slows down the decision-making process, hampering the overall efficiency of clinical trials. 

Beyond data consolidation challenges, the use of disparate systems leads to broader operational complications. Disparate solutions designed for specific tasks are often not scalable or adaptable to new technologies, requiring costly modifications to remain compliant with evolving regulations. Additionally, managing communication through unsecured methods like email increases the risk of data privacy issues—a critical concern in today’s digital transformation in healthcare, and corporate cross-contamination. This fragmented user experience undermines operational quality and increases inefficiencies, as more time spent on management and training drives up costs and reduces trial management effectiveness. However, with Cloud Concinnity®, costs could potentially be reduced, leading to a 30-50% ROI and enhancing overall efficiency.

The pharmaceutical industry is moving away from traditional point systems—discrete tools designed for individual tasks—towards centralized cloud platforms. These unified platforms centralize all trial-related data, eliminating inefficiencies and improving data integrity. This shift represents not just a technological upgrade but a fundamental rethinking of how trials are managed, offering the potential to enhance overall research quality. 

Cloud Concinnity® is at the forefront of this transformation, serving as a centralization hub for safety review activities. By offering streamlined access to essential tools from any location, Cloud Concinnity effectively resolves the complexities of managing multiple disparate systems. Its key features include:

• Automated Task Alerts: Keeps teams aligned with timely reminders, ensuring tasks are completed efficiently and on schedule

• Time-Saving Safety Listings: Streamlines safety data review, reducing manual effort and speeding up the process

• Document Distribution via Standard Workflows: Automates the distribution process with consistent workflows, minimizing administrative workload

• Role-Based Access Control: Ensures secure access control and seamless user transitions while minimizing data breach risks. Cloud Concinnity also includes a 21 CFR Part 11 compliant login with 2-factor authentication for enhanced data security

• Robust Notification Center: Sends automated reminders to keep teams informed, enhancing coordination across dispersed teams

• Centralized Dashboard: Provides a real-time overview of all studies and processes

Cloud Concinnity’s centralizing features offer several overarching benefits, like.

• Seamless Collaboration: Teams across different locations can collaborate in real time with unified access to up-to-date data, speeding up decision-making and fostering greater coordination

• Data Accuracy and Consistency: Centralized management eliminates redundancies and ensures data integrity, so every site operates on accurate, updated information without duplication or confusion

• Data Safety: By mitigating breach risks and maintaining regulatory compliance, Cloud Concinnity safeguards sensitive information, ensuring secure data handling throughout the trial process

• Faster Execution: With automated alerts and faster safety reviews, Cloud Concinnity reduces the time spent on manual tasks, accelerating the clinical trial process 

• Cost Savings and Resource Optimization: By reducing administrative burdens and avoiding duplicative work, Cloud Concinnity helps streamline operations, ensuring that trials remain on budget while improving overall outcomes

There has always been a clear need for centralized platforms in clinical safety review processes, but sponsors were hesitant to adopt them due to various factors, particularly data privacy concerns. Impact of COVID-19, however, drastically changed this perspective. With social distancing and remote work becoming widespread, the limitations of fragmented systems became apparent. Centralized platforms quickly emerged as the more reliable and efficient solution, offering streamlined data handling, and a cost-effective approach. As a result, leveraging centralized technologies has become critical for the future success of clinical trials. 

Looking ahead, the future of clinical research will be increasingly shaped by the integration of advanced technologies, with AI in Healthcare and machine learning playing a central role. These advanced technologies will enable automated data quality checks, statistical analysis, and visualization techniques, rapidly identifying patterns, inconsistencies, and missing data. Centralized platforms, powered by AI and automation, will play a pivotal role in making clinical trials faster, more reliable, and more secure, ensuring that research adapts to the growing complexities of the healthcare landscape.

Platform Update: Improvements to Tasks and Workflows

As the premier clinical trial oversight solution provider, we welcome feedback from our active user base and use this feedback to enhance and improve our cloud-based platform. We are proud to announce improvements to the tasks and workflow functionality within our Cloud Concinnity Platform.  

Time to Get To Work With UI/UX to The Tasks Functionality 

Tasks are a critical feature and function of the Cloud Concinnity Platforms. In an increasingly decentralized space, our task functionality empowers teams with insights into each other’s workloads along with the collaboration tools to meet their obligations. 

We’ve made a host of updates to the Tasks user experience that makes managing and creating tasks now, even more, user-friendly for our current and new customers. How? 

1. We’ve eliminated clicks - now each task’s details are visible from the Task page.

2. We’ve improved the time it takes for users to see a task assignment. 

3. We’ve improved the viewability of tasks by putting all task details front and center for the users. 

The result? A more intuitive user experience that eliminates a bit of user friction while providing a heap of improved usability. 

Poll Your Patients - Votes, and Surveys Are Now Easier to Conduct

Greater visibility in Task details now includes any vote or survey details. These can now be displayed on the task itself, eliminating the need to open a separate survey or vote document to view the results. This makes it much easier (and faster) for the user to take necessary actions based on the results of the vote or survey.

What Do These Improvements Mean For the Team?

• Easier time collaborating across tasks. 

• More efficient implementation of surveys or vote findings.

• Swifter response and improved work output.

Now your team can spend less time digging for task details and more time getting to work completing your next clinical trial. 

Cloud Concinnity is Built Specifically for Clinical Trial Oversight Committees 

At Cloud Concinnity®, we’ve seen firsthand that the future of clinical trial oversight is digital, which is why we are currently working on functional improvements to the platform. If you haven’t yet experienced Cloud Concinnity® customers, now’s the perfect time to see for yourself how our premier platform can help you improve the success rate of clinical trials. 

If you have any suggestions for new tools or platform features that you’d like to see become part of the Cloud Concinnity platform, let us know.

5 Best Practices to Improve Clinical Trial Oversight in Hybrid and Decentralized Clinical Trials

The clinical trial field is changing rapidly. Some of these changes have been spurred by the pandemic, while others have been in the works for several years as technologies and trial needs evolve. One of the most recent changes is the rise in hybrid and decentralized clinical trials. In this blog post, we summarize five tools and tips that can help the best practices you need to support clinical trial oversight across a hybrid decentralized clinical trial.

5 Tips and Tools to Improve Clinical Trial Oversight in Hybrid and Decentralized Clinical Trials 

As you may be aware, hybrid and decentralized clinical trials allow researchers to successfully conclude a clinical trial while conducting it partially or primarily remotely. What you may not know is that a recent EY-Parthenon survey found that respondents estimate that 50% of clinical trials will be hybrid or decentralized by 2024. While hybrid or decentralized clinical trials bring with them a host of benefits, they do introduce new difficulties based on their differences from traditional clinical trials. 

Here are five best practices to keep in mind to help mitigate these differences and enhance the benefits of hybrid and decentralized clinical trials:

1. Centralize Your Data Collection 

2. Segregate Blinded Vs. Unblinded Data

3. Communication is The Key to Success

4. Use Software To Automate Meeting Scheduling

5. Standardize Your Reporting

Centralize Your Data Collection

Hybrid or decentralized clinical trials aren’t perfect, and their most decisive benefit – the remote aspects that benefit the patients and the researchers –requires thoughtfulness and preparation to empower your team to collect and store critical clinical data.

As a starting point, we recommend selecting a centralized data collection tool that includes:

• A cloud-based system that can be accessed from each location. 

• Strong security measures to ensure that only authorized.

• An intuitive user experience that promotes adoption across all of your clinical sites. 

If you’re on the hunt for just such a system, The Cloud Concinnity Platforms has you covered. This tool was built specifically for clinical trial oversight committees and integrates with your trial’s electronic data communication platform to help centralize and systemize your data. You can learn more and sign up for a demo here.

Automate Blinded Vs. Unblinded Data Segregation

As your clinical trial is taking place across a hybrid or decentralized landscape, it’s critical to introduce automation to help you manage the segregation of blinded and unblinded data. Not only does automating data segregation replace the work that goes into the manual management of sharing blinded/unblinded data with stakeholders and participants, but it also helps to mitigate any risks that can come from manual data sharing and reporting. 

Communication Is the Key to Success

Since your research team will be communicating remotely - across cities and even time zones - strong communication guidance is a necessity for success. Given the remote aspects of hybrid decentralized clinical trials, you should anticipate higher levels of asynchronous communication – note review, comments, emails, etc. We recommend utilizing a system like Cloud Concinnity to help support these needs.

Use Software To Automate Meeting Scheduling

A key challenge for managing hybrid and decentralized trials is that your administrative team is disconnected across locations, which means getting meetings scheduled can be a bit of a pain. There’s countless back and forth, which can introduce costly delays. Instead, we recommend using available tools (like Cloud Concinnity) to automate meeting scheduling and remove the friction that comes with manually scheduling meetings. 

Standardize and Batch Your Reporting

By now, you should be aware of the benefits of centralizing your data and using automation to help eliminate some of the friction that can come from hybrid or decentralized clinical trials. Work with your team to standardize the reporting that you deliver to the clinical trial oversight committee, then use a system (like Cloud Concinnity) to automate and batch report creation. 
To best implement your next hybrid or decentralized clinical trial, you’ll need software like Cloud Concinnity, which offers remote data collection all in one place, along with the ability to communicate efficiently and virtually.

For a free demo, please reach out to us today. We’re here to help.