Reboot: Clinical trials protocols for patient understanding 13

In the world of presenting and understanding information, there is no doubt that smartphones and the iPad have given us a fresh take on how information can be presented to the user. It’s under this notion that a challenge was recently run to help re-design and re-imagine the Electronic Medical Record (EMR).

For those who have never seen an EMR file, they are filled with text and are heavy in data but lack any sort of design to make them usable to a wide audience. See Exhibit A below.  Edward Tufte would be appalled.

The Health Design Challenge, run in cooperation with the US Department of Health and Human Services, prompted over 230 submissions to modernize the Electronic Medical Record. More…

Prepared minds observing the unexpected – enabling empowering innovation Reply

At the World Drug Repositioning Congress, the theme of the congress was best summed up by Rajesh Chopra of Celgene: “Prepared minds observing the unexpected”. Clearly in the case of drug repositioning, this mindset and approach comes through as scientists look to find new uses for old drugs. In all honesty, I went into this Congress with low expectations, but found it to be one of the best conference I have attended.

In a small conference room, about 50 leaders of drug development gathered to discuss new techniques and advances in drug repositioning. It was a good mix of participants representing pharma, academia, small biotech and patient advocacy groups. More…

5 Ways to Make Clinical Trials More Engaging 4

What’s the key to making healthcare more engaging to patients? Some industry pundits look to health information technology to build a more engaging experience for patients. Examples of this would include smartphone applications, electronic medical records and patient web portals that would put more information in front of a patient as they seek treatment and advice from medical professionals.

However, Steve Wilkins wisely suggests a different approach. To build a more engaging experience for patients, Wilkins suggests all of those involved in the health field to “be more engaging” to those who have already engaged in their health.

Put another way – Wilkins challenges health care providers (doctors, nurses, even office staff) to be more human to those who have come for advice and treatment with regards to their health.

Now providers tend to not consider the patient’s perspective when it comes to engagement.  For most providers engagement means getting patients to do what providers say is in their best interest. But that approach totally dismisses the fact that patients are already engaged, just not in the same way that providers expect.

Wilkin’s challenge to health care providers is just as relevant to those of us in clinical research. More…

Disruptive Innovation in Pharma – Time to get on board! 2

Is pharma willing to disrupt itself?  What does disruption look like in pharma?  If a change is good for everyone, is it really disruptive?  These and other questions were explored during the 2 day Disruptive Innovations to Advance Clinical Trials Conference in Boston last month.

I had the pleasure of leading off the conference with a presentation entitled “Disruptive Innovation – Moving Beyond the Talk”.  The presentation is available below.  The core of the presentation was to challenge the conference participants to look beyond incremental improvements and current status quo mindsets of how we see the drug development pipeline.  Our business model is unsustainable and the choice is ours to lead in bringing greater value to patients and healthcare.

I believe we have real and tangible transformation options to explore. More…