The healthcare sector, along with other sectors, is undergoing technological transformation nowadays. There is an increased focus on research and development (R&D), particularly, patient-centricity and engagement in research. Therese areas are key factors in the advancement of healthcare in all dimensions, disciplines, and specializations.
Here’s how patient-centricity and engagement can be improved in clinical research.
What is Patient-Centricity and Engagement?
The creation of new potential therapies requires significant investments. Taking risks that demand tireless work and pursuing progress in the most complex and challenging areas is necessary. And it is precisely patient-centricity, a new concept gaining more and more preponderance, and patient engagement that clinical research must definitively incorporate.
Patient-centricity is a dynamic process through which patient regulates the information they receive and deliver to exercise their choices based on their preferences, values, and beliefs. It is a concept that modifies how decisions related to health care are made and also modifies the empowerment of who has the authority to make them.
Adopting patient engagement in research improves the quality of research and care, bringing new ideas, promoting transparency and accountability, and producing patient-centered research results.
Application of Patient-Centricity and Engagement in Clinical Research
The application of patient-centricity and engagement in research is irregular and varies greatly among the different players in healthcare. The easy and immediate access to information today and the ethical demand of the health system have allowed patient-centricity to arise spontaneously.
Previously, the participation of patients in clinical studies was merely passive. They accepted doctors’ opinions without any questioning, simply out of respect and trust.
Today, informed and connected patients question medical decisions and propose treatment alternatives. Thus, the patient has an active role in the relationship with the doctor and in the points of view regarding the care received and the clinical investigations in which they are invited to participate.
What Should Clinical Research Authorities Do?
Clinical research authorities can improve patient-centricity and engagement by considering patients’ opinions on the design and other aspects of clinical studies and viewing them as protagonists in developing their treatments, redefining their role in the process.
In this worldview, the patients are the ones who best know their disease, symptoms, and discomforts and can contribute with their experience pertinent guidelines on what they need to modify in their clinical state.
Patient-centricity and engagement in research can only be achieved by listening to the patients, partnering with them, and putting their well-being at the center of all initiatives undertaken. And all patients, physicians, industry representatives, and regulatory authorities must adapt to it.
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