How technology can bolster cancer clinical trials

The goal of drug and device development has always been clear: get patients new and better treatments.

But bringing new treatment options to the market means running clinical trials — and running clinical trials is a notoriously time-consuming, challenging, and costly process. Increasingly, technology promises to change that.

New platforms are making it easier than ever for clinical trial researchers to communicate with patients and streamline their health data. And emerging technologies are changing the kind of data that can be collected. For example, researchers are vetting wearables as a way to keep tabs on trial participants remotely, tapping into their potential to hoover up health data and surface the most important signals. They’re also testing apps as a means of allowing patients to self-report symptoms and side effects.

The stories in this e-book underscore the deep importance of clinical trials in diseases like cancer, and the exciting opportunity for innovation that can improve how that research is run.