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How M2M Technology Is Making Medical Research More Efficient

By Ken Briodagh March 25, 2015

Medical research is hard. It doesn’t really matter, substantively, whether the goal is a new drug, treatment, or living dead creature brought to life with lightning applied to its neck bolts, getting a new thing through the approvals process takes a long time, and the biggest part of that time is spent on clinical trials. And it should be (although I’m not sure if that last example would get approved), since that’s when researchers determine if the procedure at hand is safe enough for use, and what side effects there could be, and at what rates, and whether the thing actually works at all.

But what if it didn’t have to take quite so long? Well, perhaps it doesn’t, thanks to technology developed by Vodafone and deployed by PHT Corporation, a provider of technologies for collecting electronic data for clinical research from patients. The goal was to connect the PHT electronic clinical outcome assessment (eCOA) system to Vodafone’s global M2M network, which would allow PHTs pharmaceutical trial sponsor clients to access real-time patient data.

“Clinical trials are conducted globally and ensuring every patient and clinical site can enter and send critical data regularly and reliably is challenging as connectivity is not uniform across the world,” said Sheila Rocchio, VP, Marketing and Corporate Strategy at PHT. “Partnering with Vodafone has given PHT greater flexibility and reliability in data connectivity across the globe.”

That instant data collection and review makes it possible to determine results and make decisions on a shorter timeline than usual. And of course that is good for the pharma companies, who get to bring products to market faster, and good for patients, who need the medicines being developed. PHT’s network works with 18 of the 20 largest pharmaceutical companies and more than 140 pharmaceutical companies in 75 countries.

The deployment will take three years, and by the end, will have delivered tablets loaded with the Vodafone M2M SIM to clinical research sites across North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. These tablets will be handed out to the thousands of clinical subjects and they will be able to record information about their symptoms and experiences in the SitePad tablets. The tablets will connect to StudyWorks, the PHT management and patient data portal, over secure M2M network. There, the trial data will be available to anyone with access for review and reporting.

Get your torches and pitch forks folks, because thanks to M2M, it’s aliiiiive. 




Edited by Dominick Sorrentino
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