Clinical trials are a vitally important step in creating safe, effective products. While guidelines are in place for participant safety and care, researchers and physicians tend to view patients as data rather than actual people. ReactDx provides cardiac event recorders for dozens of clinical trials because their products are reliable and can provide any necessary data for cardiac patients. Below are ideas trials can use to focus on patient-centered research.
- Track Metrics: Recently, trials have been administered via wearable health monitors. Participants that can track their individual data and compare it with trial data are more likely to remain in clinical trials longer than those who do not receive feedback. Likewise, wearable recorders give real-time results rather than waiting for phone calls or paper reports.
- Comparison to best practices: Given a choice between a trial comparing a new treatment to a placebo versus a trial comparing a new treatment to the current best practice, a participant is much more likely to choose the latter, especially if their health is affected by lack of treatment.
- Efficiency: Many participants do not wish to be in trials based on their current health status if they could be offered a placebo to determine whether a new treatment or medication is effective. However, this is a necessity at the beginning of a clinical trial. When participants are assured the trial will end when the treatment is determined more effective than a placebo, they will be more likely to enroll.
- Sharing results: An overwhelming majority of clinical patients want to know the results of the research they participated in before it is released to the general public. Because their information is in the records, a simple phone call or letter explaining the results in an easy-to-understand format helps participants feel more involved.
Giving participants a starring role as stakeholders in a clinical trial, rather than making them feel like human subjects, motivates them to finish trials and participate in additional research. Help your patients feel more empowered through patient-centered clinical trials that offer state-of-the-art products, such as ReactDx’s cardiac event recorders. Call ReactDx at 800-23-HEART to learn about our history of participation in clinical trials.