By Mark Vermette, Principal Consultant, Halloran
Technology that is being mastered by teenagers will significantly impact clinical research in the next few years, probably sooner. Since the launch of the first smart phones, the power of crowd development and ingenuity began with interesting apps that allowed you to measure your heart rate using the phone flash feature. Now devices and apps exist to check blood pressure and take glucose readings either through the phone itself of through a Bluetooth device connection that transmits the results to your phone and out to a doctor.
Exercise monitoring has been in use by millions of runners with apps like RunKeeper and MapMyRun. And in the last two years, wearable devices like the Nike FuelBand, Fitbit flex, and Jawbone wristbands have become less expensive and popular. There will be changes in the companies that offer these devices (Nike dropped their FuelBand product), but the functionality and amount of data these devices collect will increase substantially over the coming years.
The FDA cleared a single-lead ECG device and application for iPhone that collects the ECG through the phone and allows the ECG data to be transmitted directly to a physician for analysis. And yes, there are actually physician consultation services that use video chatting through smart phones and tablets.
This all opens up the door to faster, cleaner collection of research data, both in clinical trials and outside of studies. Concerns about consistency, timeliness, and accuracy of patient-reported data will evaporate as we start to adopt technology that’s already available to consumers and integrate it into our research ecosystem and processes.
It also opens the doors to consideration of process, security, data privacy, protection and ownership. All these challenges can be addressed and none overshadow the reality that the technology is coming and the benefits are clear.
It’s good to see some of the clinical research technology providers embracing these devices and integrating them into their EDC and data collection strategies. The pace and options for clinical research data collection and management will increase at a staggering pace over the next few years, thanks to audiences who are encouraging competition and innovation in the mobile and wearable device markets. As researchers continue to tackle some of the most challenging health issues, including chronic illnesses, following patients and getting real-time data on their wellbeing and response to treatment will have substantial impact.
Mark joined Halloran Consulting Group in 2015 with over 25 years of experience delivering technology, consulting services, and software in the life sciences industry. He has led system implementations for Clinical Trials Management Systems (CTMS), Electronic Data Capture systems (EDC), safety systems, data warehouses, content management systems, and analytics and reporting platforms.