THREAD Joins Leading Life Sciences Organizations to Advance Decentralized Clinical Research
New global industry alliance aims to enhance inclusivity and increase access for all participants in clinical trials and research
TUSTIN, C.A. – THREAD, an innovative technology and service provider that enables decentralized clinical research, joins a formidable alliance of 50 life sciences and healthcare organizations to accelerate the broad adoption of patient-focused decentralized clinical trials and research. The Decentralized Trials & Research Alliance (DTRA), which launched today, seeks to unite industry stakeholders, including healthcare companies, regulators, patient groups and research organizations, with a singular mission to make clinical trial participation widely accessible by advancing policies, research practices and digital health technologies in decentralized clinical research.
While the clinical research industry has long grappled with barriers to trial participation and robust data collection outside of clinic visits, these challenges have only been exacerbated by the pandemic. Prospective participants are now either unable or unwilling to schedule visits at physical research locations, causing significant delays in clinical trials. As decentralized trial approaches have gained accelerated traction during the pandemic, their ability to be the future of clinical trial design has become more evident.
As an independent innovator and founding member of DTRA, THREAD has expanded its decentralized trial footprint to:
- Foster greater inclusivity and representation among participants in clinical trials
- Increase clinical trial access across patient populations
- Enable clinical trial visits to be conducted in the home with the research site
- Break down language and geographic barriers to participation
- Promote greater patient-centricity in clinical trials
- Provide flexible, convenient options for study participation
“We’re thrilled to join this industry-leading collaborative to continue our focus on the measured and scaled adoption of global, patient-centric decentralized clinical trial approaches,” said John Reites, president of THREAD. “As the leader in decentralized studies, we are committed to advancing these approaches to enable clinical trials to be more efficient, convenient and inclusive. We look forward to working with the alliance and building on the momentum of decentralized research to ultimately bring new therapies to market quickly and safely.”
“We are extremely gratified to welcome THREAD to the Decentralized Trials & Research Alliance,” said Amir Kalali, MD, founder of several collaborative life science communities, and co-convenor of DTRA. “By advancing decentralized research we can make the clinical trial process more patient-focused, increase trial efficiency and encourage use of technologies. We are excited by THREAD’s commitment to embracing decentralized trials and to changing the culture that has been the rate limiter to innovation.”
"Now is the time to share ideas and insights that will chart the future course of clinical trials, accelerating drug development and saving lives – and by taking part in the DTRA, THREAD is demonstrating its leadership to drive change," said Craig Lipset, DTRA co-convener, clinical innovation advisor, and a pioneer in decentralized trials. “We have a responsibility to advance the health of people with unmet medical needs, and by convening stakeholders from pharma companies, regulators, technology leaders and patient communities, we can remove remaining barriers to adoption and impact patients today.”
To learn more about the alliance, visit www.DTRA.org. To learn more about THREAD’s innovative approach to decentralized clinical trials, visit www.THREADresearch.com.
About THREAD
THREAD is a leading provider of a proprietary, decentralized research platform and suite of supporting services used by biopharma, CROs and life science organizations to remotely capture data from participants and sites during, in-between and in lieu of in-clinic visits. THREAD's platform and supporting services are helping customers to reduce study launch timelines, reduce study budgets with Virtual Visits and bring studies from the clinic to patients' homes. THREAD provides key platform features such as eConsent, eCOA/ePRO, sensors, reminders and telehealth Virtual Visits to support remote data capture, hybrid virtual studies and fully decentralized studies in key therapeutic areas. In 2019, THREAD was acquired by strategic health care investors Water Street Healthcare Partners and JLL Partners.
Visit www.THREADresearch.com to learn more.
About DTRA
The Decentralized Trials & Research Alliance ( DTRA ) was convened to enable collaboration of stakeholders to accelerate the adoption of patient-focused, decentralized clinical trials and research within life sciences and healthcare through education and research. It works to make research participation accessible to everyone, enabled by the consistent, widespread adoption of appropriate decentralized research methods.