Deloitte waives MyPath for Clinical fees for COVID-19 trials

In a show of support and solidarity with the life sciences sector, Deloitte has reportedly waived licensing fees for its MyPath for Clinical platform.

This is to ease the operational challenges experienced by those currently researching the COVID-19 virus in clinical trials.

A cloud-based digital platform, MyPath has been specifically designed to accelerate digital trials through improved engagement with patients, researchers and clinical associates via real-time data sharing and an intuitive user experience.

According to this latest update, any manufacturer in the pharmaceutical industry, academic research facility or other associated medical organisations will be granted full, unrestricted and free access to the platform until the end of August 2020 (up to and including the termination of any active COVID-19 trial).

Addressing new concerns in the industry

The highly contagious nature of coronavirus means that clinical trials must be scrupulously planned out and meticulously maintained to ensure patients receive optimal care.

Chris Zant, CDO for ConvergeHEALTH by Deloitte, said the company was determined to help address these new restrictions:

"COVID-19 has impacted the industry's ability to conduct trials with broad travel restrictions, concerns about investigative site capacity, and most importantly patient safety considerations.

"Deloitte is committed to helping our clients and society respond to this unprecedented situation."

MyPath’s holistic solution incorporates the latest cloud and mobile technology, enabling the platform to:

• Personalise digital patient engagement.
• Drive efficiency through data collection and analysis and improve the overall experience.
• Provide support for trials across several locations.
• Facilitate the development of further digital therapeutics.

Minimising operational interference

With clinical trials now required under strange new circumstances, MyPath can help to resolve three core challenges currently experienced by researchers:

1. Patient recruitment: Often an expensive and ineffective process, MyPath employs AI and social media to help recruiters achieve quotas in a less costly fashion.
2. Engagement to drive retention: Recognising the voluntary dropout of patients in clinical trials to be their most costly challenge, Deloitte employs gamification tactics, virtual trials and mobile health to make the process more ‘enjoyable’ for participants.
3. Compliance: Following on from engagement, a patient-centric approach can incentivise adherence to trial protocols which can, in turn, improve the turnaround time of a pharmaceutical product from lab to market.

Ryan Hoffmeister, COO of ConvergeHEALTH, emphasised that Deloitte’s platform could provide organisations with a very effective way to minimise the operational interference of the virus:

"MyPath for Clinical is designed to help life sciences companies align with US and international regulatory bodies that have encouraged the adoption of remote data capture and 'siteless' trial capabilities to overcome these challenges and expedite needed solutions during the pandemic.

“Through this offer, we're hoping our clients and other qualifying organisations will be able to minimise the impact of COVID on their trials and move efficiently through the clinical trial process.”