Traditionally the patient enrollment in clinical trials is always through the clinical sites or investigational sites (medical center, hospital, clinic,...). With the new technologies and the trend of patient centered approach in clinical trials, the concept of virtual clinical trial has been formed. In 2011, Pfizer announced their first virtual clinical trial. Today's NPR reported another virtual clinical trial in ALS "Simplified Study Aims To Quickly Test A Long-Shot ALS Treatment". If the virtual trial can be accepted by the medical community and the regulatory authorities, it will significantly lower the cost for conducting clinical trials.
This is very interesting.
ReplyDeleteHere in the UK (Medicines Monitoring Unit, University of Dundee) we are running the TIME, non-CTIMP, study (www.timestudy.co.uk). This is an online virtual trial of dosing time of usual antihypertensive treatment aiming to determine if evening dosing is better than morning at preventing CV outcomes. The online methodology removes geographical restrictions on participation and has greatly reduced the time and cost of recruitment. We hope to utilise the same methodology to run future pragmatic drug safety and effectiveness trials in the UK.