As artificial intelligence (AI) permeates clinical trial operations more than ever, workforces will have to adapt to the changing tides, said experts at the recent Outsourcing in Clinical Trials New England conference.
The event, held from 23–24 October, gathered experts across the clinical trial industry to discuss the evolving landscape of AI in the pharmaceutical sector. “Our industries are terrible at adopting new technology,” says Manny Lazaro, the senior vice president of clinical operations and data management at the neuroscience biotech Cerevel Therapeutics. Lazaro highlighted the falling momentum behind major clinical trends such as decentralised clinical trials and the wave of eCOA and eConsent forms, but he suspected that AI would be different.
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AI can be partnered with electronic medical records for recruitment, said Brian Wehrle, the vice president of R&D imaging at Clario, in a later talk. The Philadelphia, US-headquartered clinical research organisation uses AI for several aspects of its business operations. At Clario, workers use AI for clinical trials in image de-identification, and analysis of historical trial protocols amongst other uses, explained Wehrle.
Wehrle cautioned this process is not easy. The pharma sector needs to be prepared to adapt to the rapidly changing technology. “We code something and a month later we have to change the code,” he said adding, “It’s a lot of effort to keep up with AI but it’s well worth it.”
As AI becomes a staple in clinical research, Lazaro predicted that employers in the industry will start to prefer employees with more analytical skillsets who can handle larger, more numerous datasets. As the fully loaded cost of labour is the primary expense component of the majority of muti-centre clinical trials, trial sponsors and CROs will look to AI-assisted automated alternatives such as chatbots to reduce these costs, added Harry Barnett, the executive chairman at the Framingham, Massachusetts-based Lubris BioPharma.
The 16th Outsourcing in Clinical Trials New England conference was hosted by Arena International Events Group, a B2B events company owned by GlobalData, the parent company of Clinical Trials Arena and Pharmaceutical Technology.
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