DIA 2021 Global Annual Meeting

The impact of COVID-19 on clinical trials has been substantial. For example, travel bans and site closures have forced a rapid shift in the running of physical clinical investigative sites toward purely virtual environments. While the concept of virtual clinical trials has been around for a number of years, the decision to actually run a trial has remained somewhat optional. Now, sponsors are now finding themselves forced into either fully virtualized trials and/or hybrid trials, out of necessity. However, there are silver linings – especially when it comes to the potential for adapting quickly to unforeseen situations like remaining efficient and profitable amidst a pandemic. We will explore how the required adoption of virtual recruiting, telemedicine, remote monitoring and at-home healthcare visits have taught us valuable lessons about how to run more agile and adaptive trials; and how these learnings will shape the future of R&D.