ACT Brief Weekly Recap: AI Monitoring, Biotech Scaling, and Site Interoperability Lead This Week’s Top Stories

This is the Applied Clinical Trials Brief—your fast track to the latest insights in clinical research operations. In under three minutes, we’ll recap top stories, highlight expert perspectives, and keep you current on what’s moving the industry. Let’s get into it.

On this episode, we’re highlighting three of the most-viewed stories from the past week.

First, a feature on AI-driven continuous monitoring explored how digital platforms and wearables can help detect cytokine release syndrome in patients receiving immunotherapies. By collecting baseline physiological data and applying AI algorithms to continuous vital sign streams, clinicians can identify early warning signs, reduce hospital stays, and widen patient access to life-saving therapies. This approach also has implications for easing recruitment barriers in clinical trials.

Next, in a video interview, contracting challenges again took the spotlight—this time from the perspective of biotech startups. Tom Cowen explained how smaller firms are leveraging scalable contract lifecycle management platforms to efficiently manage trial agreements, support CRO partnerships, and accelerate pipeline progress. With nearly half of study delays linked to contracting bottlenecks, automation and centralized data tools can be a major driver in cutting costs and shortening trial timelines.

And finally, prior to last week’s SCRS Global Site Solutions Summit, Robin Douglas shared how sites continue to struggle with the lack of interoperability across clinical trial platforms. Many sites juggle dozens of systems across 20 to 200 trials, creating redundancy, multiple costs, and double data entry. The call to action is clear: sponsors and vendors must deliver holistic, integrated solutions to reduce operational burden and streamline workflows for sites on the frontlines of trial execution.

That’s all for this week’s recap. For more on these stories and other developments in clinical research, visit us at appliedclinicaltrialsonline.com. Thanks for listening to the Applied Clinical Trials Brief.