Research trials face many challenges; from recruitment of participants to governance and regulation. Once identified, all the challenges are easier to overcome if clinical trials done by research organizations like Veristat are to be successful. Below is an overview of some of the challenges that you might have to face during your research trial.
Evolution of Trials
The state of the medical field has evolved over the years and this includes the complexity of clinical trials. This complexity has been due to changes in research technology. The different systems used have made clinical trials easier to run and encouraged carrying out virtual clinical trials. However, the evolution of technology is so high that participants, researchers, and CROs don’t know which technology they should adopt for their trials. Having a design trial that’s clear and accepted by regulators, and the patients have also become a huge challenge to overcome. Complex trials may require complex designs and this results in lots of failure in meeting the primal goal. Additionally, Complex trials with a complex design result in high costs. The funds and resources needed to run the trials in the specified timeline don’t make the already difficult situation any easier.
Clinical Personnel endorsement
Clinical trials are evolving meaning that the skills set required to run them are also changing. However, the available clinical personnel lack the skills needed, and training them is also a huge challenge. That’s because the skill taught today may be irrelevant tomorrow. The challenges are not only with the clinical personnel, acquiring research professionals is also a huge challenge because trials have become geographically diverse. This then hinders the management and retention of the personnel and professionals.
Regulations
Clinical trials are regulated by different stakeholders from the CROs to the pharmaceuticals. All these stakeholders play a vital role in every stage of the trial. However, different stakeholders come up with different regulations and requirements that they expect to be followed during the trials. This makes managing and meeting all these rather challenging. To overcome the challenge posed by involving many parties, you need to have set regulations and standards, requirements, and policies that are accepted and agreed upon by all parties.
Patient recruitment
Patient recruitment continues to be one of the greatest challenges faced during clinical trials. Often, these trials are unable to meet their intended target in the recruitment and retention stage. This can be attributed to the increased burden laid on the patients with little or no returns. This results in high rates of patient drop-outs and the whole trial ends up dragging behind. You need to have a clear agreement on the roles and responsibilities delegated to patients and the returns they get afterward.
Clinical trial researchers have to overcome the challenges posed by the dynamic technology and complexity of clinical trials. Also, the different parties involved in clinical trials need to agree and follow the rules set for the trial. This also goes to support the patient recruitment and personnel endorsement stages to ensure you have a successful research trial.
