The method, pioneer in Europe and promoted by Evidenze, adds value to the patient and open new pathways of direct connection between this and the health sector. This system allows, for instance, to improve aspects such as patient recruitment for clinical trials, accompanying ill persons and caregivers or even empowering them.
85% of the clinical studies are delayed for lack of patient recruitment. These are data from several studies that show the need for searching for new connection pathways between health professionals and the patient. “The key is to offer patients the right to choose to whom they transfer their digital data, so that they can be analyzed for improving their conditions and those of the rest of patients that share their disease”, Pedro Hernández, Global Director of Clinical Research of Evidenze, states. The method, that is applied from the company specialist in the management of health knowledge, is pioneer in Europe and is called Patient Centric Data Solutions.
Right to information and to free choice are, in fact, two of the rights recognized in the Letter of Patients’ Rights and that every 18 April claims the European Patients' Rights Day. Two rights that are considered also in this work system developed by Evidenze, through which the patient is placed at the core of an ecosystem thought for the new generation of health data, taking advantage of digitalization and the new technologies.
Digitalization has crossed age borders and has permeated all sectors. Patients have more information and tools to understand their disease and are increasingly asking professionals to take into account their opinion in decision making. At the same time, progress has been made towards precision medicine in which the data of the patients play an essential role to achieve an increasingly personalized attention.
“Humankind is more connected than ever, and the result is continuous data generation that allows to know, attract and analyze massively and very fast”, Hernández says. Patient Centric Data Solutions takes advantage of all this connectivity to convert the patient from a passive to an active subject, at the service of the health sector, also giving them the right to choose whom to transfer their digital data.
In this way, the method developed by Evidenze allows to find and segment the patients in their “digital life”. An essential tool to improve and speed up patient recruitment for studies, as it allows to connect the research company directly with the study patient. But also, for patient listening, know their opinion, concerns and doubts, as well as empowering them meeting their needs and providing useful information in a more personalized way and also make them an ally which can generate health data that will ultimately benefit them (Patient Support).
The Patient Centric Data Solutions methods focuses on the patient. First of all, the population and patterns of the disease are analyzed in a database. From this point, it is a matter of identifying the key elements of communication with the patient (needs, identification, concerns, uncertainties, value proposals…). Based on this information, an awareness campaign is made in multiple digital channels where these candidate patients could be and information is gathered about their clinical needs. And, finally, the patient data collection form is launched so that he/she validates his/her participation if so wished.
Successful application
This method developed by Evidenze has already been tried successfully. An example of its application for Patient Recruitment is App Hugo, a collaboration health platform by artificial intelligence, in which thousands of patients with multiple sclerosis in a real environment (Real World Evidence) share data about their health which ultimately benefits them. The more data of patients are gathered in the app, the more information about the disease in question users will have. Applying Patient Centric Data Solutions, the platform was able to recruit 5,000 valid candidates in only four months. The current clinical research environment is not the reflect of the population. A method such as Patient Centric Data Solutions allows to use new technologies, digitalization and Big Data to obtain information about a high number of patients in a real environment, making them participate and opening direct connection pathways between them and the health sector.
