Let's talk medical research

Healthcare equity for ethnic and racial minorities has been front and center in the media as of late. The COVID-19 pandemic illuminates some of the glaring issues that our healthcare system faces when it comes to the treatment of minority populations.

Clinical trials are research studies that test if a new therapy is safe and effective for patients. Therapies that make it through the rigorous approval process are tested on tens of thousands of people, and it’s important that the treatment is tested on the populations who will actually use it. Women, however, have been underrepresented in these trials. We look at why women have historically ...

Jessica Thomas was driving one day when she realized she was having problems with her vision. Over the next couple of weeks, she began experiencing some unexplained numbness, tingling, and cognitive issues. “I had trouble coming up with words, which was super frustrating, as I was in graduate school at the time,” says Jessica. Within a couple of months from the onset of that very first symptom, ...

A lot can go wrong in clinical trial patient recruitment, leading to delays for up to 80% of all clinical trials. From underperforming sites to unresponsive patients, there are solutions to the most common patient recruitment challenges that can help accelerate your trial and ultimately beat your deadlines. Try these approaches if recruitment problems are putting the success of your trial at risk.

Many factors, such as age, biological sex, disabilities, chronic comorbidities, geographical location, gender identity, race, and ethnic background, can influence how individuals react to certain drugs, medical devices, and treatment plans.

Celebrating its 12th successful conference, SCOPE Summit 2021 took place from March 2-4, 2021. Like most events during the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s summit was fully virtual. During these unprecedented times, the work that the clinical research community does is more important than ever, and requires collaboration and innovation. Antidote’s Dave Mauro, Executive Vice President of Business ...

When your COPD symptoms suddenly worsen, you may think you’re just having a really bad breathing day. This might, however, mean you’re having an exacerbation. A COPD exacerbation, also known as a COPD flare-up or episode, occurs when your COPD symptoms get worse than usual and may continue to get worse without extra treatment. The average annual rate of exacerbations in COPD patients is between ...

Inflammatory bowel disease, commonly referred to as IBD, is characterized by a group of intestinal disorders that cause inflammation of the digestive tract. Approximately 1.6 million Americans currently have IBD, and that number may be growing. The two most common kinds of IBD are ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease. Every person’s experience with IBD is different, but some of the more ...

What impact has COVID-19 had on our collective mental health? How has treatment been adapted to meet new needs? And what does this all mean for clinical trial participants?

Patient centricity is a phrase that generates a lot of buzz in the clinical research community — it typically refers to designing a treatment, clinical trial, or other health solution around patients’ needs and perspectives. Creating a patient-centric solution involves getting feedback from advocacy groups and patients themselves, and making decisions based on their voices. At the heart of it, ...