Increasing Shift to Virtual Trials Has Reduced Trial Delays and Terminations
The ramped-up use of virtual trials over the past decade has significantly helped to lessen the rate of clinical trials delayed or stopped due to low enrollment, a new report has found.
According to GlobalData’s report, the proportion of trials using virtual components went up from 1.3 percent in 2011 to 2.5 percent in 2020 and rapidly increased to 3.5 percent by July 2021 in response to the COVID crisis.
And as use of virtual components, such as eConsent, telemedicine, remote patient monitoring and wearable devices, has increased, trial delays and stoppages have declined, the report found. Of the 14,000 clinical trials suspended, terminated or withdrawn between 2011 and July 2021, nearly one-third (30 percent) of them were due to low enrollment, the report stated. But the rate of low accrual issues declined substantially, to 19 percent in 2020 from 32 percent in 2011, according to the company’s trials database.
“Recruitment and retention issues are often due to the distance from a patient’s home to a trial site and the number of visits required,” said Kitty Whitney, director of thematic analysis at GlobalData. “Virtual trials represent a viable solution to these issues and have been shown to reduce patient burden by decreasing or even eliminating physical site visits.”
While virtual trials and components have been used in previous years, the pandemic ultimately forced those on the fence to adopt them at a more rapid pace, GlobalData says. Surveys show that industry is keen on continuing to use and implement these components to some degree after the crisis is over.
To learn more about the report, click https://bit.ly/3zk88kk.
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