Trials@Home

New technology – and COVID – have caused an uptick in the use of remote decentralised clinical trials (RDCTs), in which digital and other innovations shift activities that usually take place at a hospital or clinic to a participant's home or other more local setting. IMI project Trials@home interviewed 48 people involved in RDCTs, to find out what works, and what doesn’t.###

The general conclusion is that some things, like recruitment, are made easier by remote trials. One woman participating in a fully remote trial explained how she appreciated how easy it was to fit into her routine. Gathering data from multiple sources can also contribute to data completeness. However, many interviewees on the trial management side mentioned that it can be a challenge to keep participants engaged in trial activities. Other concerns raised include the question of whether RDCTs may transfer the work onto participants and remote staff, while technology does not always function as anticipated.

‘RDCTs will continue to face challenges in implementing novel technologies,’ the authors conclude. ‘However, maximising patient and partner involvement, reducing participant and staff burden, and simplifying how participants and staff interact with the RDCT may facilitate their implementation.’

Find out more

• Read the article in full

We like to think of the immune system as a surveillance mechanism for the body that’s standing guard, ready to weed out and kill anything harmful. But for people with an autoimmune disorder, it doesn’t work that way; deregulated, it fights our own tissue instead of protecting it. ###And while we might have some success in treating the symptoms, we are largely in the dark as to why treatments work for some and not for others, as well as what triggers the disease in the first place. In an opinion piece published on the IMI website, IMI Executive Director Pierre Meulien explores IMI’s portfolio in this important disease area.

‘One of things that IMI is particularly proud of is the progress we’ve made in the reclassification of subtypes of disease, which means redefining diseases based on their biology and not just symptoms,’ he writes. ‘It’s an extremely scientifically complex area, and we’re steadily increasing the level of understanding of the molecular drivers in a number of disease areas.’

IMI is also very active in remote assessment. ‘This tech convergence is a trend, and we will see more and more sophisticated remote monitoring which will change the game in clinical trials,’ writes Dr Meulien, citing IMI’s Trials@Home and IDEA-FAST projects.

Find out more

• Read the opinion piece
• Watch our video on autoimmune disease research