Joint Study Shows Decentralized Clinical Trials More Resilient than Traditional Trials During Global Pandemic

THREAD-Supported DCTs Outperform Industry Benchmark in Patient Recruitment and Retention

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Feb 11, 2021, 07:53 ET

CARY, N.C. and NEW YORK, Feb. 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- THREAD, a global decentralized clinical trials (DCTs) and eCOA provider, and Lokavant, a leading clinical trial intelligence company, today announced the results of a joint analysis demonstrating that clinical trials using decentralized approaches during the COVID-19 pandemic outperformed traditional trials in patient recruitment and retention levels.

The study shows patient recruitment and retention dropped across the industry in early 2020 due to global quarantines and stay-at-home orders. However, decentralized trials rapidly returned to pre-pandemic recruitment and retention levels while traditionally designed clinical trials had yet to recover through September 2020.

The authors of the study hypothesize that trials leveraging THREAD's decentralized trial platform rebounded quickly because they were already utilizing, or were able to rapidly add, decentralized technology features and services. The study also shows that DCT-enabled trials were able to pivot quickly as different geographies shut down. Traditional clinical trials had greater difficulty doing so, in part because trial protocols, study technologies, and schedule of event designs precluded the adoption of decentralized approaches.

Click here to view the full analysis.

"This study is evidence that decentralized approaches are supporting sites and study teams to increase participant recruitment and retention in the more remote world that we now live in," said John Reites, CEO of THREAD. "Though the industry clearly understands the value, practicality, and promise of decentralized trials, it's important for us to study, quantify, and report how these approaches positively impact clinical trials."

THREAD and Lokavant conducted the analysis to compare how clinical trials performed using the THREAD DCT Platform to those using traditional clinical trial processes with all site-based patient visits over the first three quarters of 2020. Results were measured using Lokavant Insight, Lokavant's clinical operations benchmarking solution.

"The study underscores the benefits of decentralized approaches in clinical trials by comparing trial methodologies through measurable operational data," said Rohit Nambisan, President of Lokavant. "It also shows the importance of data-driven benchmarking, not only for developing a snapshot of relative study performance, but for planning studies effectively, managing trials proactively, and anticipating issues before they occur."

For more information about the study's scope, methodology, and results, click here to view the analysis.

About THREAD
THREAD is a leading provider of a proprietary, decentralized research platform and suite of supporting services used by biopharma, CROs and life science organizations to remotely capture data from participants and sites during, in-between and in lieu of in-clinic visits. THREAD's platform and supporting services are helping customers to shorten study launch timelines, reduce study budgets with Virtual Visits, and bring studies from the clinic to patients' homes. THREAD provides key platform features such as eConsent, eCOA/ePRO, sensors, reminders, and telehealth Virtual Visits to support remote data capture, hybrid virtual studies, and fully decentralized studies in key therapeutic areas. In 2019, THREAD was acquired by strategic health care investors Water Street Healthcare Partners and JLL Partners. Visit www.threadresearch.com to learn more.

About Lokavant
Lokavant enables next-generation clinical trials through data-driven products, including Lokavant Insight, a clinical operations benchmarking tool, and its flagship product, Lokavant Oversight, a tech-enabled risk-based monitoring solution. Backed by over 1,300 de-identified clinical trials, Lokavant Oversight aggregates and delivers real-time data from disparate trial data sources, predicts issues during clinical development to mitigate trial risks, and empowers monitoring teams by visualizing critical study data. Lokavant Insight empowers clinical teams to benchmark clinical trial performance and analyze vital indicators of trial success and failure. For more information, please visit www.lokavant.com.

THREAD Media Contact:
Terri Pollock
Amendola Communications
[email protected]

Lokavant Media Contact:
Stephanie Lee Griffin
[email protected]

SOURCE THREAD