4 Things I Learned At SCOPE 2024

By Abby Proch, executive editor for contributed content, Clinical Leader

No matter your role in the industry, whenever you return from a conference, the line of questioning goes something like this:

1. How were your flights?

2. Have any good food?

3. How was the conference?

And for the third one, what they really want to know is what you learned and who you met.

For me, it was all smooth skies and tasty bites. But as for the conference content itself, my reviews are equally positive. Being my first SCOPE Summit, I tried to balance my time among the myriad tracks (29 this year!), the show floor, and the one-on-one meetings with folks I’ve worked with over the past year-plus. Time with each was well spent.

But for evaluative purposes, I’m going back to my pre-show write-up and assessing my SCOPE 2024 expectations against reality.

First, I intended to discover more in the way of decentralized clinical trials — to get a feel for new advancements, if any, and to figure out just what folks are thinking of the “new normal” in clinical trials that didn’t begin with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic but nonetheless underwent warp speed to support vaccine development. Then, I wanted to get a pulse on diversity talks and whether we’ve made demonstrative progress. Third, I wanted to wrap my mind around the use of AI in clinical trials. Finally, I just wanted to have some fun and meet people at the Superbowl tailgate. Here are my takeaways from SCOPE 2024:

1. Sponsors are moving away from “DCTs.”

Turns out, at least from a corporate point of view, there’s a certain ick factor that now accompanies the acronym. If it’s not an aversion to the term, then it’s certainly a preference for another, perhaps as a way to better define a sponsor’s take on offering decentralized trial elements or as a way to create some sort of brand distinction (I have yet to figure out which, if either). For example, in his keynote address, Pfizer’s Senior Vice President of Clinical Development and Operations Rob Goodwin referred to the company’s approach as “Care Everywhere.” I recall a vendor company also coining their own term but can’t seem to recall it (go figure). Then, there were others at SCOPE and elsewhere, who used flexible, remote, virtual, and digital to describe a trial that has any number of activities that occur outside a traditional clinical research site. (Although, those variations aren’t so new.) That’s all to say that we at Clinical Leader are wondering if and when the time will come that we no longer need a modifier and the understanding will be that all trials have an element that supports flexibility in time or place. (Find out as we explore this very topic in an upcoming Clinical Leader Live! event: Last Year’s DCT Is Today’s Clinical Trial.) As far as the tech goes, and judging by the exhibit hall, there is no shortage of options to support DCTs and, in fact, there’s plenty of redundancies, which judging by the market will likely work themselves out over the next few years.

2. Diversity is not dead.

I shudder at the thought that anyone would think conversations about and efforts in support of increased diversity in clinical trials would become dormant. The opposite is true. In fact, one of the diversity panels I attended was the only talk seasoned (“peppered” just sounded too subversively spicy as a descriptor) with punctuating claps and yesses that let attendees and panelists know the issue is now and forever worth keeping on the agenda.

Thankfully, asked whether diversity has improved, the group agreed it has.

“It feels different now,” said Adrelia Allen, executive director of clinical trial patient diversity at Merck, noting the FDA’s support and increasingly louder patient voices. But Allen and panelist Michel Reid, senior director and head of global demographics and diversity at GSK, did acquiesce one thing — just how much and how far it will go. The COVID-19 pandemic, they and others said, provided mixed results when it came to improving diversity — elevating the existing disparities into the public eye while also exacerbating them as underserved populations were most harmed by social distancing strictures and correlating economic effects brought on by the pandemic. But it also brought to the forefront, with the vaccine development being highly publicized, the industry at large.

“It was the first time my mom and dad said, ‘Is this the business you’re in?’ I’ve only been doing it for 25 years…,” said Kim Doggett, head of clinical trial diversity at BeiGene.

Back to its recognition within industry, the panel noted diversity as focus can be both an innovation and a headache, but one worth having. Internally, they say, it’s about getting buy-in from the get-go, far before clinical operations prepares to take a drug to trial. It begins as early with medical affairs, said Reid, and necessitates proper funding, added Monique Adams, Ph.D., executive director and global head of diversity and inclusion in clinical trials at Sanofi.

Externally, it takes trust.

“We need trust. We move at the speed of patients’ trust… and trust takes time,” she added.

3. AI is fascinating and inspiring, but its infancy requires us to take pause.

Wouldn’t it be nice if I could just plop my notes into some new-fangled tool and ask it to write this section for me? If only…

Anyway, I earnestly tried to understand how AI could advance clinical trials and so found myself hanging on the words of the panelists of “Use Cases of Generative AI in Clinical Trials.” But words alone didn’t bring my understanding to where I wanted it to be. Despite having no technical knowledge as it relates to computer programming and statistical analysis and all the ways in which those niche skillsets intersect, I find myself wanting to see it in action. I need, despite my basic comprehension, to see behind the curtain, so to speak. One day.

But for now, the philosophical takes precedent. And so, what I most enjoyed in this discussion, was the question of and ruminations around “Should we?” when it comes to leveraging AI in clinical research.

Moderator Brian Martin, head of AI, R&D information research, research fellow at Abbvie, reminded us that governance is slim and regulators are scrambling to provide a framework. Understanding clinical research has predominately the safety and efficacy of investigative drugs in the white male cohort (as well as largely American), we should approach the use of AI, beginning in development and extending to patient selection and beyond, with caution. Because, as has been iterated time and again, predictive models are only as good as the data they’re built with. 

4. Parties pack a punch.

When attending a conference, you do as the conference program tells you and show up at the opening shindig. (A blow-up football helmet tunnel flanked by cheerleaders? How could you go wrong?) It helps that I love football (but hurt a little that my Steelers weren’t the reason for the season).

Which brings me to one of the first lessons I learned about icebreakers and branding.

I am certainly not one to wear goofy prints to make myself stand out in a crowd. But choosing to wear my Steelers jersey proved invaluable in meeting new people, many of whom had ties to the Pittsburgh area. (Surprisingly, it attracted no hecklers.) As much as it served as a conversation starter, it made me take more seriously any future effort to wear something to help me meet new people. Should it just be the Steelers jersey from here on out?

Also, when it came to connecting with people in person as opposed to through a browser window or app, the event very much gave high school reunion vibes. More than once I found myself chasing the specter of someone passing by, tapping their shoulder, and saying, “Is that you?” In that hour-and-a-half span, I finally met the flesh and bones of the avatars I had been working with over the past year. And it felt great.

Which brings me to my all-encompassing realization and takeaway that, no matter modern advances, in editorial work and in clinical trials, there will always be a place for in-person, one-on-one human connection. Virtual components can get us close to the real thing, and offer invaluable benefits like cost and time savings, but there truly is no replacement for meeting in person. Till next time, SCOPE.