Impacting a small percentage of the population yet affecting millions of individuals worldwide, rare diseases pose distinct challenges for medical research. While eClinical trial platforms hold immense potential to reshape what’s possible for rare disease research, their high costs remain a significant barrier (Park 22).
How do digital platforms advance rare disease research?
Maximize Trial Outcomes
Built with robust features, digital solutions can easily accelerate and streamline the management of clinical trials. From flexible consent and televisits to enhanced compliance and limitless scalability, eClinical trial platforms can automate multi-source trial data collection for optimal accuracy and efficiency, empowering clinical teams to collect and monitor critical outcomes in real-time.
Virtual visits, remote monitoring, and minimized travel obligations offer substantial conveniences to participants and their caregivers, particularly benefiting those in remote locations or with limited mobility, thereby enhancing their engagement and retention in clinical trials.
Constrained by Cost
Currently, the adoption of eClinical trial platforms in rare disease research has been obstructed by their price points as rare disease trials often work with limited budgets and small participant pools. The financial burden is further compounded by the fact that rare disease trials often require more resources due to their complexity and the need for specialized knowledge and equipment.
The Impact on Rare Disease Trials
The costs of eClinical trial platforms that prevent many rare disease trials from existing is particularly concerning given that these platforms can solve some of the unique challenges in rare disease clinical trials.
For example, digital platforms can streamline patient recruitment and retention—a significant challenge in rare disease trials due to the limited participant populations. They can also facilitate data sharing and collaboration between researchers, which is vital in the field of rare disease research, where knowledge and resources are often scattered.
Breaking Cost Barriers
With costs being a major hurdle for rare disease research, it’s crucial for platform providers to provide flexible pricing models, offer research teams user training and support, and build customizable solutions so that digital platforms are financially accessible to all clinical trials.
Alethium: Pioneering Possibilities
Built as a digital solution from the start, the Alethium eClinical Platform can rapidly, efficiently, and securely meet trial requirements at reduced costs. Alethium’s full suite of services easily translates trial protocols into a customized platform to help boost participant engagement and retention at competitive pricing that makes sense for the requirements of each trial.
The Alethium team takes great pride in providing rare disease clinical trial teams with the tools they need to advance their research and develop in-demand treatments.
