Inernational Clinical Trials Day 2023. Decentralized Clinical Trials: challenges and opportunities - conference summary
On May 23, a conference entitled Inernational Clinical Trials Day 2023 Decentralized Clinical Trials: challenges and opportunities was held in Warsaw, Poland, on the occasion of International Clinical Trials Day, organized by the European Network of Clinical Trials Infrastructures (ECRIN) and the Medical Research Agency representing POLCRIN.
The event, which commemorates the famous 1747 scurvy study led by James Linda, was initiated by ECRIN in 2005. The annual ICTD celebration brings together international stakeholders from the clinical research community in Europe and provides an opportunity to meet and address key topical issues related to the implementation of research.
The idea behind decentralized research is to reduce or eliminate the physical presence of the patient at the site conducting the clinical trial in question. Although the history of such projects dates back to the early years of the 21st century, the real development of this still innovative approach and dedicated tools came after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and thus the emergence of real impediments to conducting trials in the traditional manner.
This year's event was opened by the President of the Medical Research Agency, Radoslaw Sierpinski, MD, and ECRIN Director General, Prof. Jacques Demotes, and the first lecture was given by Prof. Lukasz Szumowski. The speakers, who constitute an international group of experts in the field of clinical research, successively presented their perspective on the implementation of decentralized research. The event was summarized by a discussion of the opportunities and challenges facing stakeholders in the clinical trials market in connection with the development of technologies enabling partially remote execution of trials. The conference attracted a total of several hundred people attending stationary or following the event online.
