What to wear for clinical trials
Rick Valencia, Qualcomm Life, explains how wearable technologies enhance the effectiveness of clinical trials
Wearables have grown in popularity in the last two years and are primarily known for smartwatches and fitness bands. But this new technology could save the US health care industry hundreds of billions of dollars.
One emerging area in which connected wearable devices may have the biggest potential impact is in the clinical trial space. As Kevin Patrick, a professor of family and preventive medicine at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, discussed in a recent Xconomy piece, clinical trials are growing into a multi-billion dollar global market for wearable health trackers and other related technologies and pharmaceutical companies are the primary customers.
At present time, trials are costly, time-consuming, demanding and come with an extremely high rate of failure. Because data during these trials is typically collected in paper form, much of it is lost; the remainder that isn’t lost is susceptible to concerns with accuracy and analysis. The industry needs an easier, more efficient and more reliable method of collecting data from clinical trials. Connected wearable devices could be the solution.
When it comes to wearables, there's no one-size-fits-all answer. A variety of devices can be attached to your body in a multitude of ways, and each one comes with an advanced array of sensors and monitoring equipment. These devices are continuously measuring your body's data and syncing that information to the cloud, at which time they can easily be collected, aggregated and used by clinicians conducting the clinical trial.
Continuous care and passive data collection may sound like a far-off dream for patients and doctors, but through Connected Therapy Management (CTM) it's quickly becoming a reality. Technologies such as glucose monitors, remote injectors and patches are now capable of providing real-time, secure data capture and transfer. Clinicians can analyze and troubleshoot trial design, address potential adverse events and improve outcomes while reducing the risk of data loss. Connected Therapy Management also allows for remote monitoring of patients, aligned incentives and the ability to combine therapeutic data with diagnostic data. Connected health technologies also improved patient engagement and medication adherence by making data collection more seamless, moving care to more convenient settings like the patient’s home and providing digital engagement tools that encourage patients to participate in their health.
While the advantages of connected health technologies in clinical trials are well understood, we will not stand to reap the benefits without a scalable, interoperable platform that allows the array of devices, applications and services to integrate. Earlier this year, Qualcomm Life collaborated with Novartis to provide 2net, a global connectivity platform that seamlessly collects and aggregates medical device data during trials to improve the convenience and speed of capturing study participant data and test results.
The 2net platform is a cloud-based system that's designed to be universally interoperable, meaning that it can connect with a wide range of different medical devices and apps. The 2net Hub is a plug-and-play gateway that acts as the information highway for collecting data from home-based medical devices like weight scales and blood pressure monitors, while 2net Mobile can transform a smartphone or tablet into a secure gateway for capturing biometric data from devices while on the go. By liberating medical device data, 2net enables health care providers to remotely monitor their patient’s health status in a more comprehensive, timely manner.
Clinical trials have inherent risk and complicated by nature, but the risk of not adopting digital technologies to advance the industry is too great. Wearables are not just the latest consumer trend in technology; they have the potential to save the health care industry billions of dollars and help bring new treatments and innovations to market, not to mention aid in the advancement of scientific discoveries.
Modern health care may be focused on finding new treatments and advancing medical knowledge, but it has taken longer than most industries to evolve and adapt to the digital age. Adopting the latest medical-grade wearables and connectivity platforms will be the next advancement in the industry's evolution.