Putting Patients First in Drug Development

Welcome to Applied Clinical Trials’ April 2026 issue on patient engagement. With recent advancements in clinical technology—many of which were covered in our February issue—trial designs centered around the patient experience are becoming more and more common.

As you will read on in this issue’s cover story, one of the most important questions industry experts need to answer is, “What exactly do patients want from clinical trials?”

At the 2026 SCOPE Summit in Orlando, Florida, ACT caught up with Miriam Dervan, founder and CEO of mdgroup. In an exclusive interview, Dervan discussed how prioritizing the patient experience early in planning can change how sponsors, sites, and operational teams design and deliver clinical trials.

“From an operational perspective, we have to understand the patient’s needs and the patient’s wants, get them into the trial design, listen to their pain points, as well as the sites, because the sites are, of course, there to hugely and massively support the patients,” she explained.

In addition to our conversation with Dervan, ACT was on-site at SCOPE to speak with a number of other industry experts as well as cover educational sessions. The full catalog of our conference coverage can be found here.

Our cover story for April draws on new survey data revealing a strong patient preference for fully remote clinical trials. The findings point to convenience and intuitive technology as key drivers of enrollment and retention, reinforcing that decentralized models are no longer an emerging trend but a lasting fixture in clinical research.

Following is a piece stemming from insights gathered at SCOPE 2026 authored by experts from IQVIA, where the industry’s movement toward connected, data-centric trial ecosystems took center stage. Digital protocols, shared data infrastructure, and a renewed emphasis on scientific rigor are converging to produce more efficient, interoperable, and patient-focused research.

Our next feature examines a pilot project designed to strengthen clinical research capacity at community cancer centers. By delivering targeted training to address skill gaps and build staff confidence, the initiative aimed to improve trial readiness, remove barriers to implementation, and support more inclusive enrollment in oncology studies.

Rounding out our April features is a piece on the role of public-private collaboration in advancing digital end points toward regulatory acceptance. Structured evidence consolidation and standardized terminology are helping to reduce duplication across the field and accelerate the integration of digital health technologies into clinical research and decision-making.

As always, thank you for reading.

Mike Hennessy Jr is chairman and CEO of MJH Life Sciences®