Empowering clinical research in a decentralized world.
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 34211085.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41746-021-00473-w and PMC identifier 8249659.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a catalyst for the implementation of decentralized clinical trials (DCTs) enabled by digital health technologies (DHTs) in the field while curtailing in-person interactions and putting significant demands on health care resources. DHTs offer improvements in real-time data acquisition remotely while maintaining privacy and security. Here, we describe the implications of technologies, including edge computing, zero-trust environments, and federated computing in DCTs enabled by DHTs. Taken together, these technologies—in the setting of policy and regulation that enable their use while protecting the users—extend the scope and accelerate the pace of clinical research.