CRAACO, Moving Trials Closer to Patients
Industry making moves towards better utilizing clinical research as a care option.
For seven years, The Conference Forum has hosted the CRAACO® event, which, as stated on its website, through the collaboration of patient advocates, research physicians and nurses, FDA reps, pharma clinical operation executives, and technology companies has provided many case studies as pathways for industry to follow. The organization has also added a dedicated quarterly newsletter, podcasts, and webinars—all toward the forward motion of CRAACO.
It is no easy feat to get two huge behemoths to join together. Pharmaceutical drug development and healthcare systems are in the same pool of the overall healthcare industry. Treating people with approved therapies and medicines is only 14% of the overall healthcare spend, by some reports, but the overall benefits of medicines clearly cannot be doubted. However, the divide of clinical trials on one hand, and healthcare on the other, is fraught with challenges—data, terminology, process, education, and access.
But at the end of the day, it is the people who need these treatments as options to improve their health; that is the central concern, along with proving the efficacy and safety of the medicines.
It is no surprise that clinical trials, as an industry, has turned toward patient centricity, leaving the word “subjects” behind as too antiseptic and separating the person from the trial. “Patients,” for some, is too broad of a terminology, and most agree that “participants” is the best term to describe a person in a clinical trial. This is discussed in a recent podcast with executives from SMO Panthera Biopartners.
In a separate podcast, Christine McSherry and Mindy Leffler, the co-founders of the CRO Casimir, acquired in March by another CRO, Emmes, talk about the true meaning of patient-focused drug development. Though heart-wrenching, the two describe how genuine patient centricity can be achieved in clinical trials, when access to investigational therapies is the only real option for those patients with diseases that give them so little time.
In our lead feature this month, the topic of CRAACO is explored more toward the data piece of the puzzle. Not a bad place to start for researchers and health professionals, in the EHR. But the end story will always be the people.
Including Women of Childbearing Age in Clinical Research
March 26th 2024In recognition of International Women's Month, we're featuring this recent talk between Associate Editor Miranda Schmalfuhs and Marie Teil, Global Head of UCB’s Women of Childbearing Age Program. They speak about the specific challenges women with chronic illnesses face when accessing appropriate treatment and participating in clinical trials, UCB's Women of Childbearing Age Program and it’s most successful strategies, and much more.
Improving Engagement While Maintaining Data Integrity & Validity
March 19th 2024In recognition of Women's Health Month, we're featuring this recent talk between Associate Editor Miranda Schmalfuhs and uMotif's Chief Product Officer, Julia Lakeland, discuss new technologies improving patient engagement and reducing the emotional and logistical burdens of participation, ethical considerations that should be addressed when implementing those technologies, while ensuring patient privacy, and much more.
