Improving The Patient Experience Through Research-Driven Design

By Karl McEvoy, YPrime

Digital technologies designed to support clinical trial management have evolved greatly over the years, spurred by increasing complexity in study design, emerging technologies in specific therapeutic areas, and a list of subtly different global regulations. Yet many eClinical technologies have remained unoptimized for user experience, even as technologies supporting other industries have continued to respond to the innovations led by more far-reaching, consumer-driven applications, websites, and platforms that typify what users have come to expect from their digital experience.

Although the overarching goal of collecting necessary data for a trial’s success has remained unchanged since the first eClinical technologies were deployed, the subtleties surrounding participant expectations, data integrity, and data collection have shifted significantly. The longstanding drive to achieve “equivalence” – to map electronic Clinical Outcome Assessments as closely as possible to their paper counterparts – has served to restrict and impede the design of these platforms. The result has been a digital landscape of flat, sterile interfaces that lack the familiarity and ease of use that could enhance their usability and engagement. Achieving better, more accessible eClinical technologies requires exploring the needs, motivations, and preferences of users in order to understand how participants interact with these technologies, as well as how developers can design solutions to compete with best, most cutting-edge apps and online interfaces on the market today.