We were conducting a trial for a painful diabetic neuropathy (PDN) drug and were investigating why one site had an especially high placebo response rate. Then one of our representatives, waiting in the site’s lobby to meet with the principal investigator, pinpointed the likely reason when a patient walked in the door. “Mrs. Jones,” the...
Your compound holds great promise, and your investors are banking on a breakthrough. Which do you pick to run your clinical trial — a CRO that will share the risks and work with you to reach a common goal or a vendor who’s waiting on you to have all the answers? Any capable CRO can provide...
Nostalgia. Irritable heart. Shell shock. No, this isn’t a word-association game. These are among the many terms applied over the years to the highly amorphous condition we now call post-traumatic stress disorder. While people have experienced shocking, scary, and dangerous events since the dawn of mankind, the study of the cause and treatment of PTSD...
There are currently more than 300 ongoing clinical research studies, mostly in the academic arena, occurring around the world into post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in various populations. But those with PTSD may not be the only ones’ suffering. The members of the research teams trying to help those with trauma illnesses, like PTSD, need to...
DURHAM, N.C., March 30, 2018 — Predicting the cost of clinical trials is a complex task, and more CROs are providing grant forecasting as a service to produce more accurate projections and give customers greater visibility. A grant forecasting expert from Premier Research will discuss new approaches to predicting trial costs in April at the...
For hundreds of years, the medical community has known that the mere act of receiving treatment, even if it’s just a sugar pill, can improve a patient’s symptoms. Therefore, in order to ensure that the effects of an experimental treatment are real, most randomized controlled trials (RCTs) include a placebo arm. Placebos are most often...
Forecasting the cost of clinical drug and medical device trials has never been easy, and as trials become more complex, estimating (and re-estimating) these costs becomes even more challenging. Lack of accurate forecasts has serious schedule and cost implications. By impeding effective cash management, inaccurate projections can lead to disruptions and delays that cost sponsors...
No doubt you’ve heard much about Meltdown and Spectre, major security defects in the microprocessors that underpin nearly all of the world’s computers. Hackers, the world learned in early January, can exploit these defects to steal the entire memory contents of PCs, mobile devices, and the servers that make up cloud computing networks. That puts...
Fibromyalgia is a chronic, complex pain condition characterized by widespread pain and a diverse range of symptomatic manifestations, including fatigue, sleep disturbance, dyscognition, diminished physical functioning, and mood disturbances. To date, patient-reported outcomes remain the best method for characterizing the many facets of fibromyalgia. Patient-reported outcomes are gaining traction as a highly effective option for...
Concern over cybersecurity touches our lives in new ways almost daily. Today, there is growing concern over millions of people who use connected medical devices that use off-the-shelf software. Here are six things the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health wants you to know about the safety of networked medical devices: 1. Hacking of...