ECSEL JU, the joint undertaking for electronic components and systems, has launched a Call for proposals on decentralised clinical trials that would complement the work of IMI’s Trials@Home project.
In a conventional clinical trial, patients have to make regular trips to the clinic for check-ups to monitor their condition.
IMI’s Trials@Home project was launched in 2019 with the goal of exploring the potential of digital technologies for use in ‘remote decentralised clinical trials’ (RDCTs). In an RDCT, patients would use digital technologies and wearable devices to assess their condition from the comfort of their own home, or while going about their daily lives. This would dramatically reduce the number of trips trial participants would need to make to a clinic. The hope is that RDCTs would therefore make it easier to recruit people to take part in trials (as many are put off by the burden of regularly travelling back and forth to the clinic), and deliver better results (as data would be collected more regularly, resulting in findings that are more representative of the real world).
The new ECSEL JU Call text explains what the JU is looking for: ‘To differentiate from the many “patch project” and initiatives that have already been running, the proposals submitted to this call should address the issues and gaps to bring all the scattered activities, technologies, platforms to a higher TRL [technology readiness level] level by addressing the technical, regulatory, compatibility and acceptability issues that at the moment block endorsement by pharma and hospitals.”
The deadline for submitting a proposal is 30 September.
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