Three Reasons Why Decentralized Trial Models Using Mobile Research Nurses Yield Greater Financial Returns: New Studies Estimate DCTs Deliver More Than a Five-Fold ROI Due to Reductions in Clinical Phase Cycle Times, Decreases in Screen Failure Rates and Fewer Substantial Protocol Amendments
Decentralized trials (DCTs) have grown in acceptance since the COVID-19 pandemic when mobile research nurses were asked to step in to save hundreds of site-based clinical trials at risk of being postponed or cancelled because of mandated lockdowns. But despite their proven effectiveness, DCTs are still often an afterthought or an add-on option to site-based trials due to cost concerns
The perception has been that deploying mobile research nurses to visit patients at their own homes would be more expensive than site-based trials. However, a recent study by the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development (Tufts) shows that not only are DCTs more patient-centric, but they also provide comparatively high returns on investments for sponsors.
In today’s ACT Brief, we examine how capturing friction in real time can reveal site burden, how OpenAI and Mistral compare on clinical trial matching, and how Boehringer Ingelheim is licensing early-stage oncology programs from SBP Group.
Mistral and OpenAI produced identical overall eligibility labels across 200 synthetic patient-study assessments, with criterion-level disagreements concentrated in inclusion criteria where models switch between “Uncertain” and “Not included” when records lack sufficient evidence, so model choice should be driven by deployment architecture, control, and cost rather than assumed interchangeability.
In Episode 4 of The Human Side of Clinical Trials, host Brian S. McGowan, PhD, FACEHP, chief learning officer and co-founder of ArcheMedX, Inc., speaks with Jason Riis, PhD, CEO and chief behavioral scientist at Behavioralize, about how capturing friction closer to the moment it happens can reveal unclear instructions, technology friction, and workarounds that retrospective surveys and debriefs tend to miss.
In today’s ACT Brief, we examine why community research needs lasting financing and infrastructure, how electronic outcome tools can strengthen neuroscience endpoints, and how Teva is licensing two biosimilars from Samsung Bioepis.
Neuroscience trials struggle to show benefit because symptoms are subjective and variable, and eCOA strengthens dossiers by standardizing ClinRO administration, capturing outcomes in real time to reduce recall bias, and adding patient and caregiver perspectives that clinician scales miss.
Community participation gaps look less like a question of patient willingness and more like a financing and infrastructure problem that no single bill has yet solved.
In today’s ACT Brief, we examine what changes when AI is embedded across clinical operations, why faster trial data isn’t yet producing faster decisions, and how FDA granted accelerated approval to a therapy for a rare airway disease.
Data capture is no longer the bottleneck, and whether the lag between a signal and a decision shrinks depends on signal design, AI governance, and vendor orchestration.