News By: Gary Cramer

Participants want clinical trials to be more convenient, closer to home, and more accommodating of their schedules. These findings are instructive for digital health companies and contract research organizations which, by and large, are still modelling clinical trials for digital therapeutics on those used for pharmaceutical and biotech studies. Switching to a decentralized clinical trial model will encourage greater participation and result in more participants completing the trial.

Puerto Rico’s unique blend of cultures provides fertile ground for understanding how different populations respond to medical interventions. By conducting clinical trials in this environment, researchers gain access to a more nuanced understanding of how cultural factors may impact treatment outcomes. This cultural diversity extends beyond ethnicity, encompassing language, traditions, and healthcare beliefs, enriching the data and insights generated from clinical studies.

What you probably haven’t missed, if you’ve been paying any attention at all to the ACRP website, publications, e-mails, and social feeds lately, is the fact that the ACRP 2024 gathering in Anaheim, Calif., is racing your way with all the speed of a learning, networking, and resource-gathering juggernaut. Here are a few sessions you may not have heard about yet that will be happening at the conference, plus some recent announcements you might have missed in all the excitement.

The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare promises transformative impacts across various medical domains, "precision medicine" being one of them. However, the surge in AI technologies comes with notable challenges, including concerns over patient data privacy, the unpredictability of AI in clinical scenarios, and potential breaches linked with extensive data sharing.

As applied to the clinical research enterprise, “cultural humility” is a continuous process of self-orientation toward caring for others based on self-reflection and assessment, appreciation of others’ experiences, and expertise on the social and cultural context of their lives, with an openness to establishing strong relationships within the research team and with study subjects.