The quest for greater levels of patient engagement in clinical trials is surfacing as a clearly stated driver behind more and more new research partnerships and services being announced in recent months.
Just this week, the contract research/commercial organization Syneos Health revealed a strategic partnership with data analytics company AiCure to “drive faster, smarter trials to optimize patient engagement” and respond “to increasing customer demand for digital solutions that change behaviors and improve patients’ lives.” The collaboration aims to “capture, analyze, and predict patient behaviors influencing clinical trial … adherence patterns and variation in site and participant engagement, surfacing the opportunity to modify behaviors that increase compliance to improve the chances of overall trial success.”
Also this week, integrated research organization Javara and national physician organization Privia Health announced they are aligning to offer industry-sponsored clinical trials to Privia Medial Group – Gulf Coast and Privia Medical Group – Georgia patients. A Privia spokesperson says its “cloud-based technology platform supports evidence-based care [and] patient and physician engagement to help promote the delivery of high-quality, cost-efficient care,” including “the high touch options provided by clinical research.”
Meanwhile, technology provider Luma Health last month took a top honor in the first-ever UCSF Digital Health Awards from the University of California, San Francisco, winning in the EHR – Patient Engagement category for best product or service that uses electronic health records (EHRs) and personal health data to improve patient engagement. The UCSF Digital Health Awards received more than 500 submissions across 13 categories. The award “is a true honor and a testament to the success of our mission to build a patient engagement solution that tightly integrates with today’s EHR systems to modernize patient access and automate patient communications,” said Aditya Bansod, CTO and cofounder of Luma Health.
Also in October, ICON plc, a provider of drug and device development and commercialization services, announced that it had acquired Symphony Clinical Research, a provider of at-home patient and site support services. The acquisition seeks to take advantage of Symphony’s services to “reduce the travel burden for patients, which broaden’ s ICON’s recruitable population, providing patients access to clinical research studies that they may not have otherwise been able to participate in,” according to the announcement. “A core objective of our patient-centered approach is to increase predictability in patient recruitment and improve patient engagement,” said ICON CEO Steve Cutler.
Author: Gary W. Cramer
