In case you missed it, 2020 On-site recently established the Industry and Scientific Advisory Board, a group of ophthalmology and clinical research experts who meet quarterly to discuss opportunities and insights that identify patient needs, product opportunities, and market challenges associated with the provision of vision-related assessments for clinical trials and safety surveillance.
The Board met for the first time in June for their Q2 discussion. In an effort to be transparent about our efforts and share some of the wealth of information that was discussed, we highlighted a few key topics discussed below.
Topic 1: Cost of Losing a Patient
> How does your organization calculate the cost of losing a patient?
- "The quicker you can complete enrollment, the better it is, the cheaper it is. It costs a lot of money to have many sites." Peter K. Kaiser, MD
- “I think a lot of times where these studies drop off is from doctors not connecting to the patient. Then the patient thinks: “You wouldn’t matter. You don’t even know I’m there. You don’t know me. You don’t know I’m there. So you won’t know if I don’t show up.” - Dr. Adam Ramsey
Topic 2: Access to care
> What challenges with accessible care have you experienced in your research?
- “Getting patients from their primary care or their diagnosis, whoever is managing their diabetes to these clinical sites to enroll them, if we can create that access, I think that's going to help with diversity in these trials.” - Beth Marsh
- “If you look at the landscape in eye care, the segment where these things are exaggerated is in rare disease where patients have limited vision to begin with. Where the barrier to go to a clinical trial site if you've got low vision and travel is challenging for you, that raises that bar.” - Jason Menzo
- "Studies have shown that only about 70% of Medicare diabetes patients seek access to their primary care physicians. Surprisingly, of the patients advised to seek an eye consult for diabetic retinopathy, only about 30% end up going to an eye care professional. There is a huge issue of compliance in patients in general. This becomes even more significant in underserved and underrepresented communities. All this data suggests there are a significant number of people out there who will benefit from a focused outreach." - Rajat Agrawal, MD MS
Topic 3: Diversity in studies
> What trends or insights is your company experiencing when it comes to creating more diversity in clinical trials?
- “When the person that is doing the study does not look like them, there is a pause and cautiousness to that study because they don't truly know your ‘why’. ‘Why do you want me to be in this study? Why should I be in this study?’ A lot of the stuff that we're talking about, and mostly we'll talk about is macular degeneration. That's not black people's problem for the most part.” - Dr. Adam Ramsey
- “Clearly defining the why and making sure that they understand what makes them so important because then patients buy-in. When they buy into that, "I'm actually making a difference beyond if my eye gets better or not." They're more likely to stay and stay committed to the study because they understand how important they are, and the person that's asking them to be there has some connections to them really does help.” - Dr. Adam Ramsey
- “If you asked any industry folks, any of the folks that are leading these organizations, they would say that their desire is to have more diversity within the studies.” - Jason Menzo
- “Their data will be more robust and enriched if they have populations that are different. So they'll be able to better science and understand the effects. But I do think that they also need help solving those problems.” - Beth Marsh
- “And if the site has never had a whole bunch of minorities, they're not going to turn around and have 15% to 20% of minorities tomorrow. You have to do some longitudinal work or pick sites because minorities get their eyes checked.”- Dr. Adam Ramsey
Stay tuned: Q3 board meeting happening October 25th
The Industry and Scientific Advisory Board meets again on October 25th. Have a question or topic you’d like the group to cover next time? Submit your ideas here.
