Life Science Connect Blog

31. Paying Clinical Trial Participants: Best Or Worst Practice? 3/13/2015

    Last week in my blog about the wacky legends healthy clinical trial volunteers tell in the clinic, I was particularly struck by the risks patients were supposedly willing to take for a large stipend. The impact of payments in clinical trials has been a topic I’ve noticed circulating through the industry over the past few weeks — especially in the case of H.I.V. trials.

32. FDA News Roundup: Bristol-Myers Squibb, Bayer, Astellas, And More 3/11/2015

    What FDA decisions have you missed in the last week?

33. FDA News Roundup: Shire, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Alexion, And More 3/6/2015

    What FDA decisions did you miss this week?

34. Do Your Participants Have These 5 Misconceptions About Clinical Trials? 3/6/2015

    As a creative writer, I was drawn to the title of a recent study published in the journal Sociology Of Health And Illness: “Stopped Hearts, Amputated Toes, And NASA: Contemporary Legends Among Healthy Volunteers In U.S. Phase 1 Clinical Trials.” (Trust me—the study certainly lives up to its name.)

35. FDA News Roundup: Pfizer, Novartis, Sanofi, and More 3/2/2015

    What drug approvals have you missed recently?

36. What Pharma Is Learning From Retail: Is Omni-Channel Key To Patient Centricity? 2/27/2015

    I recently interviewed Susan Romberg of Chiltern on the ways pharma can use the Internet of Things to its advantage in the quest for patient centricity. She identified social media and wearable devices as innovations that will shake up project planning and drug development in the future. But her response that had nothing to do with technology, but rather location, took me back to my days of writing for retail.

37. What Pharma Is Learning From The Retail Industry: Gamification 2/19/2015

    Pharma has also begun to accept the possibilities gamification could hold for bolstering relationships with patients. We’ve seen the popularity of activity trackers, such as FitBit, that track a person’s exercise, caloric intake, and other data. Some fitness apps even give you virtual trophies or rank your performance against your friends to create a healthy sense of competition. But Big Pharma has been taking a stab at gamification for drug development and clinical trials as well.

38. What Pharma Is Learning From Retail: It's All About The App 2/11/2015

    We are connected at the hip to our cell phones, so it makes sense the pharma industry is setting its sights on the phone to engage and educate patients in its overarching quest for patient centricity.

39. What Pharma Is Learning From Retail: Data, Engagement Go Hand-In-Hand 2/6/2015

    Just as the retail industry grows increasingly customer-centric, the pharma industry is undergoing its own revolution to become patient-centric. While in the retail space, customers have become more willing to share personal information with stores to see more benefits/deals, patients, too, are showing their willingness to voice their needs and dedicate their data to studies in order to see greater medical benefit in the long-run.

40. Obama's Precision Medicine Initiative: The Key To A Patient-Centric Industry? 1/27/2015

    Last week’s State of the Union speech made headlines as Obama announced his Precision Medicine Initiative — a new endeavor to bring personalized medicine to the forefront.