No place like home? Stepping up the decentralization of clinical trials

The COVID-19 pandemic has catalyzed the adoption of decentralized clinical trials while highlighting the critical benefits of virtual trials and improving the patient and physician experience.

Clinical-trial sponsors are continually seeking to make clinical trials faster and to improve the experience for patients and physicians. Trial decentralization¹ has emerged as a critical tool in this pursuit. It involves bringing an increasing proportion of a trial’s activities to the patients rather than using the traditional paradigm of bringing patients to a trial site.

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly catalyzed the adoption of decentralized clinical trials, with an increase in trial activities conducted remotely and in participants’ homes. As health-system resources became consumed by...