Clinical trials can benefit greatly from mobile devices and the array of apps that comes with them. In recent years the adoption of mobile applications in healthcare and the area of research, in particular, is becoming more intensified than it used to be. And soon we might just experience a real explosion in terms of application implementation, so we shouldn’t be surprised when that happens. Such technological boom has already taken place in many other industries, then why should clinical studies lag behind? They shouldn’t and there are plenty of examples that demonstrate how the field of research is making attempts to catch up with the rest.
Strictly speaking, the most common purposes for the implementation of mobile apps in clinical trials include but are not limited to:
- Subject Recruitment and Trial Finding
- Reporting of Treatment Results
- Monitoring of Patients
- Electronic Data Capture
- Clinical Trial Management Systems
- Imaging
- Reference
- But the question here is
What are some of the greatest mobile apps in clinical trials?
- Remote Maintenance System by Samsung
By now many companies and organizations working in the field of clinical research have realized that consumers have key role in every single aspect of the drug testing and development cycle. People want deeper connection, faster communication and optimized safety. For this reason, Samsung has developed a secure remote access software dubbed Remote Maintenance System with the primary focus on user-friendliness. The app promises real-time monitoring of equipment notifications, diagnosis of warnings and analysis of the system performance in order to detect any possible technical interruptions in advance and find the most appropriate solution to it.
This is an application developed by MedTrust Online in collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline. It enables doctors to locate trials in the area nearby quickly and efficiently. Moreover, Cancer Trials give them a chance to look across various databases of medical knowledge, receiving information about the latest clinical trials available for cancer patients. After finding the necessary information, caregivers can share and collaborate with other cancer doctors around the world. Patients can also use the app to find the closest to them clinical trial. On top of this, they can read about a trial’s summary, description, patient inclusion and exclusion criteria, contact information etc.
Designed as a disease-related app for clinical studies, it enables patients to contribute and participate more actively in studies. They can complete different tests by simply using their mobile phones, share significant data to their caregivers without having to arrange time-set visits, and receive feedback based on the information that has been sent before that. The app allows researchers to track variations related to the Parkinson’s disease and uses Apple’s ResearchKit framework to inform patients even more about their symptoms.
MyHeart Counts app is created by Stanford Medicine and the University of Oxford. The application is useful to researchers as it helps them assess more accurately the lifestyle and everyday activities (diet, exercises, and medications) of study participants in relation to their imposed risks of cardiovascular disease. How? A number of detailed surveys and tasks serve as means to recognize the relationship between the risks of these diseases and the everyday habits of study participants. In consequence, the results delivered by the app will help study professionals understand and find new ways to preserve hearts healthier.
This application makes searching clinical trials really simple and less time-consuming. Using Clinical Trials Mobile app allows clinical trial participants or investigators to take advantage of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) database where they can look for available clinical studies all around the world. They can find clinical trials which are nearby and which answer to pre-defined categories and requirements. There is also a thorough information about specific clinical trials available to preview and read about.
We have long ago entered a highly digitalized era where related technological developments change the course of humans’ behavior, trends, businesses and everyday practices. Similar changes are observed in clinical trials as well. Traditional methods for drug development and research are replaced by technology-oriented set of approaches. Inventive new ways are coming into place, substituting old-fashioned tactics. In this sense, more and more pharmaceutical and research experts leave paper-based data capture methodologies behind and lean towards electronic data capture systems instead. Patient monitoring can also happen online, with a click of a button on the phone. Thanks to different software developments and mobile applications of course. Despite the fact that still most of these apps are somewhat focused on facilitating doctor-patient communication and exchange of critical reports or results, a growing number is also geared towards drug developers. There are apps that enable volunteers to find clinical studies and learn more about them. Others are used as tools to help participants take part in remote research projects. Caregivers, on the other hand, are able to arrange virtual visits, monitor their patients more quickly and send/receive results online. Some clinical trial companies, like Nextrials for example, have introduced i-Pad versions of their management systems.
Intended to improve clinical trials, mobile apps offer a sort of convenience that is hard to be swapped for something else. Apps are just that effective, really. There’s no question that they provide an opportunity for researchers, sponsors and participants to tackle issues related to additional or unplanned costs, time, efforts, schedules, traveling, data collection and more.
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