Clinical trials are the basis of drug development. They study diseases such as cancer and try to find the best treatment. This helps make significant advancements in the medical industry. Traditionally, clinical trials were conducted in an established clinical research organization like Veristat or clinical trial sites. But there have been important changes and pandemics that have caused this approach to change. Take COVID-19, for example. With the restrictions imposed, it took a lot of work for trials to be conducted physically, which led to delays. Home visits, remote monitoring, and telemedicine change the conventional approach to clinical trials.
This post will explore more about home visits, including the approach’s challenges.
Home visits offer convenience to participants
Traditional clinical trial methods offered little persuasion to participants in remote areas. As a result, most of them just dropped out of the study due to financial constraints, especially when traveling to the trial site. This made it hard to run the trial, and it was also hard to get the right number of people to take part. However, at home clinical trials make it easier for participants in diverse areas and those with mobility issues to participate conveniently.
They can be recruited from afar, take part in the trial, have their data collected and recorded, and be watched from afar. This saves the participants and the CRO time and money that would have been used in a physical trial. However, physical trials are still essential because most clinical trial stakeholders are novices to at-home clinical trials.
Home visits allow for accuracy in data collection
When trials are done at home, data can be collected more often and more accurately, which leads to better results. This is because a participant is in their natural habitat and not influenced by an artificial environment, which can alter the accuracy of the data collected. At home, the data is more transparent and represents the participant’s life. Such data makes evaluating the effectiveness of the drugs and treatments easier. It is easy to gauge how a treatment will blend in with or alter a participant’s life.
Home visits are less resource intensive
Centralized clinical trials require a significant amount of resources, from recruiting participants to selecting trial sites and acquiring the necessary infrastructure. This intensiveness can be challenging when a trial is underfunded, resulting in delays and decreasing the trial’s chances of success. However, with remote trials, most processes are done through technology, such as patient recruitment. There is also less need for a site since the trial is done remotely. This makes it easier for trials to run on a fixed budget, which helps reduce delays.
Challenges: risk of data Breaches
In remote trials, data is shared and analyzed virtually. However, there is a high risk that the data can be compromised, making it less credible. Because of this, it is important to think carefully about the technology used to collect and share data in order to reduce the risk of a breach. Trial sites also need to be trained on how to use this technology.
At-home clinical trials offer many benefits over centralized trials. They are not resource intensive; they provide more convenience for diverse participants and allow for accuracy in data collection. But it’s important to think carefully about the technology being used and how the people who work on the site are trained to lower the risk of data breaches.