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Mayo Clinic's Clinical Trials Beyond Walls Expands Access to Cancer Research Through Decentralization

5 months ago2 min read

Key Insights

  • Mayo Clinic's Clinical Trials Beyond Walls initiative leverages telehealth and remote assessments to decentralize clinical trials, bringing aspects of trials to patients' homes or local communities.

  • The program has evolved from strategy to full-scale execution, ensuring decentralized trials are a standard across Mayo Clinic, enhancing participant engagement and streamlining processes.

  • Early data shows growing adoption of decentralized capabilities and greater trial participation by patients outside a 120-mile radius of a Mayo Clinic site.

Mayo Clinic is expanding access to clinical trials through its Clinical Trials Beyond Walls (CTBW) initiative, leveraging telehealth, remote assessments, and hospital-at-home innovations to bring clinical research directly to patients' homes and local communities. This patient-centered approach aims to overcome geographical barriers and improve participation, particularly for those with severe illnesses like cancer.
The CTBW program, spearheaded by Rebecca Kottschade, Dr. Tufia Haddad, and Dr. Ugur Sener, has evolved from a strategic vision to full-scale implementation within two years. "In 2022, we set out with a bold vision: to transform clinical trials by implementing decentralized capabilities, ensuring patients could participate regardless of their geographic location," the team noted. The program now offers decentralized capabilities for all clinical trials at Mayo Clinic.

Key Objectives and Progress

The initiative is guided by four core objectives:
  1. Optimize the participant and study team experience: Streamlining processes and improving usability.
  2. Expand access: Eliminating physical, logistical, and financial barriers for participants.
  3. Improve inclusion: Making access equitable and enhancing the representation of diverse populations.
  4. Scale adoption: Increasing the number of study teams and clinical trials that leverage decentralized capabilities.
Significant progress has been made in enhancing participant engagement through user experience research, standardizing decentralized best-practice workflows, and advancing data governance to support the integration of wearables and sensors. "Early data shows growing adoption of decentralized capabilities and greater trial participation by patients outside a 120-mile radius of a Mayo Clinic site when digital tools and remote services are included in trials," the team reported.

Neuro-Oncology Anywhere: A Case Study

A key example of CTBW's impact is the Neuro-Oncology Anywhere clinical trial, which utilizes virtual care, remote neurological exams, in-home phlebotomy, and decentralized drug distribution. This trial focuses on patients who have received radiation therapy for brain tumors, a population often facing significant challenges in accessing traditional clinical trials.
By reducing the need for frequent in-person visits, the CTBW initiative is breaking down barriers and enabling more patients to contribute to and benefit from groundbreaking research. This approach not only improves trial accessibility but also shapes the future of patient-centered clinical research, according to the Mayo Clinic team.
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