Decentralized Clinical Trials: Balancing Patient And Site Needs

By Beth Harper, Chief Learning Officer at Pro-ficiency

Decentralized clinical trials (DCTs), including hybrid studies, have become the latest trend in pursuit of more patient-centric trials. Spurred largely by the success of decentralized approaches to many trial activities, including e-consenting and replacing site visits with telehealth visits, as methods for dealing with COVID restrictions, sponsors and sites alike have been touting decentralization and flexible visit options for patients in efforts to highlight their efforts to make clinical research as patient-friendly as possible.

But the full value of DCT methods and technologies may be dependent upon specific patient characteristics and individual site capabilities. Rather than assuming that use of DCT methods is beneficial to all patients, for instance, sponsors and research sites might do better to look closely at their specific patient cohorts to determine what individuals in those groups truly need.