Council aids participation in decentralized clinical trials
Diverse Direction
Palo Alto, California-based Medable Inc., a cloud platform for patient-centered drug development, has created a Site Network Council (SNC), a select group of clinicians and research leaders who will serve as influential voices in Medable product and services development. SNC members represent diverse clinical sites and provide real-world experience and insights to inform Medable technical and strategic direction. They offer a transparent window into modern research environments to help Medable create decentralized clinical trial workflows that meet sites’ changing needs and enable greater participation in decentralized clinical trials. Medable is a privately held, venture-backed company.
According to Judy Galindo, director of research and co-owner of Sun Valley Research Center (Imperial, CA), and a founding member of Medable’s SNC, “There are still many problems in clinical research, and like Medable, I’m passionate about being part of the solution.”
Galindo, also co-founder of Latinos in Clinical Research, added, “We aim to inform Medable’s products with insights from experience working in a large, Hispanic community while helping to ensure Medable’s tech innovation makes research more efficient for site personnel.”
Medable’s SNC has eight founding members, representing a diverse community of site leaders across the U.S. with plans to expand into the EU by Q4 2021. SNC members also represent a variety of settings from academia to healthcare providers to dedicated research centers, and include principal investigators, study coordinators, and executive leadership with a combined professional experience of over 150 years.
“We applaud Medable’s goal to involve us from the start and forge true, collaborative partnerships with the site community to solve pervasive research challenges,” said Steve Clemons, MSN, FNP-BC, NP-C and president and CEO of VitaLink Research, a wholly owned network of clinical trial sites in the Southeast. “I’m excited to be an instrumental voice for sites in our collective goal to improve clinical research efficiency and execution.”
The SNC’s mission is to ensure that Medable products meet the needs of all site stakeholders. Members will regularly review training, workflows, and user interfaces and participate in reviews of study approaches prior to study launch to ensure maximum site value.
“I’ve been an advocate for technology innovation in clinical research for decades – from piloting the use of tablets in exam rooms to the latest eSource solutions,” explained Medable SNC member, Patricia Larrabee, RN, NP, and CEO of Rochester Clinical Research (Rochester, NY). “It’s an honor and exciting for me to have the chance to offer input into Medable’s innovation in this rapidly growing area of virtual and decentralized research.”
“Sites are the cornerstones of clinical research – and not going away,” said Mary Costello, head of site and investigator network for Medable. “Our aim is to support sites’ evolution by partnering with experienced clinical leaders who are working for change in the trenches of research.”
In the industry shift to decentralized clinical trials, Medable hopes to make trials accessible for everyone everywhere – and enable effective therapies to reach patients faster. Medable has deployed its software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform in more than 60 countries via more than 150 decentralized and hybrid clinical trials. By minimizing the need for in-person site visits, Medable customers have achieved unprecedented results – including three times faster enrollment, 90 percent retention rates and 50 percent cost reductions, according to the company.