How is COVID-19 Impacting Patients and the Life Science Industry?

How is COVID-19 Impacting Patients and the Life Science Industry? By Jeff Terkowitz As a virtual business, Inspire has a head start in dealing with social distancing and COVID-19. Many of our employees work virtually. Our patient and caregiver members have always communicated virtually and during this time are actively engaged in discussing the impact the Coronavirus and COVID-19 are having on their behaviors, concerns and needs. Proactive as ever, Inspire created a new resource for Coronavirus including a map of where people are discussing their experiences, videos of Inspire members participating in our #keepusallsafe public awareness [...]

Continuing Critical Patient-Centric Research Virtually during COVID19

Continuing Critical Patient-Centric Research Virtually during COVID19 By Richard Tsai The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing all kinds of businesses and research institutions to find ways of working that provide results similar to what we’re used to gaining from human social interaction. For example, being mindful of the time healthcare professionals need to dedicate to the pandemic has resulted in tremendous delays in HCP-based market research programs. Many clinical trial sites have temporarily suspended work that not only impacts existing enrolled patients but also greatly reduces recruitment. How can we continue critical research programs amidst these challenges? As [...]

Patients Should Inform Clinical Trial Development: Inspire Webinar 1 2020

Patients Should Inform Clinical Trial Development: Inspire Webinar 1 2020 By Jeff Terkowitz Lesley Gosden, a patient and patient advocate with Parkinson's disease, gave the patient keynote speech opening “Patients As Partners Europe,” held January 27-28.1 She described her experience in the GDNF study, which involved the surgical implantation of a port for infusions of GDNF directly into the brain of Parkinson’s patients, bypassing the blood-brain barrier. Ms. Gosden is one of those who experienced an enormous benefit from the GDNF: prior to her involvement in the trial, she was wheelchair bound. Afterwards, she could walk again. [...]

Implementing patient centricity?

Implementing patient centricity? By Monica St. Claire Over 1,000 employees from bio-pharmaceutical, medical device and associated supplier companies responded to the Aurora Project’s recent Patient-Centric Benchmarks Survey. Of those respondents, 91% said patient centricity is important, a 6% increase from 2016. But only 30% believe the industry can make it a reality. Knowing how to be patient centric seems to be the missing ingredient. Only 22% of respondents agreed with this statement, “We know exactly what and how to teach [patient centricity] to our people.”1 While many articles call patient centricity a “mantra” and “cliché,”2 Inspire [...]

How R&D Teams Can Use Patient-Centricity for Clinical Trial Optimization

How R&D Teams Can Use Patient Centricity for Clinical Trial Optimization By Monica St. Claire In 2014, Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development performed a comprehensive assessment of the use of social media and digital technology in clinical research. This forward-thinking study revealed that pharmaceutical, biotechnology companies and contract research organizations (CROs) had not implemented strategies to effectively utilize and capitalize on the patient and caregiver content available.1 Today, Inspire’s products and services address these clinical trial optimization essentials. Specifically, our tools provide pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies’ research and development (R&D) teams as well [...]

What is a Virtual Advisory Board product?

What is a Virtual Advisory Board product? By Monica St. Claire Almost 60 percent of all clinical trial protocols have at least one amendment. Amendments lower the numbers of recruited patients as well as increase the cost of clinical trials according to Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development Impact Study from 2016.1  Obtaining input from patients and caregivers early in the protocol development process could prevent many amendments. This is just one reason to consider an Inspire virtual advisory board. Virtual advisory boards provide clients with a long-term opportunity to engage with key patients [...]