Will DCTs Finally Democratize Clinical Trials?

By Walker Bradham, Product Leader, Zelta and Wes Fishburne, Senior Product Manager, Zelta

Did you know that the average clinical trial patient travels between 50 and 100 miles to reach a clinical site? In clinical trials involving rare or serious diseases, the commute can be even farther. For this reason, the industry has looked to decentralized clinical trials to be more inclusive and accommodating for patients who live far away or can’t take off work to visit a clinical site.

Of course, this need for flexibility must be balanced with repeatability — that is, the ability to create repeatable methods that can be recycled for multiple trials. Without that, trial costs and complexity will escalate and the benefits of DCT technology will effectively be neutralized.

Consider these points when questioning if decentralization is the answer to democratizing clinical trials.