Parexel and Microsoft team up to improve drug development with wearable tech

A collaboration between biopharmaceuticals company Parexel and Microsoft is using mobile and wearable technology to help improve data access within drug development.

The two companies are taking a patient-centric approach to drug development in the aim to increase access to data and improve the patient experience in clinical research.

Parexel will use mobile and wearable technology, built on the Perceptive Cloud platform and leveraging Microsoft’s Azure App Services, to enable healthcare staff and clinicians to communicate time-sensitive events to study staff.

The technology will be able to generate health alerts from data gathered by mobile devices placed at the patient’s home or in the field. The alerts will be forwarded to healthcare staff automatically whenever there is connectivity, who can then address any threat to patient safety.  

Parexel has also started several other projects that are utilising mobile medical devices in clinical trials. The company’s Patient Sensor Solution for instance uses artificial intelligence (AI) technology to support predictive monitoring of patient compliance.

Douglas Barta, chief information officer, Parexel, said: “Technology has made it possible to access more meaningful data than ever before, while improving the patient experience. The challenge is in collecting that data in a way that is efficient for the patient, site, and investigator. Parexel has always been committed to helping our clients solve their most difficult challenges and applying both our innovative technology development and strategic alliance capabilities to provide seamless, patient-centric solutions to benefit our customers and their patients.”

“Clinical development is an area ripe for digital transformation, and industry leaders like Parexel are integrating Microsoft Azure into their solutions to help do just that,” said Chris Sakalosky, vice president, US Health & Life Sciences, Microsoft. “Through this collaboration, we can reduce costs, make services more efficient, and in turn, provide better care to patients.”