Decentralized Trials and Clinical Innovation

Best Practices To Stay Beyond COVID: DCTs and Hybrid TRIALS

March 3 - 4, 2021 ALL TIMES EST

Digital technologies have the power to fundamentally transform clinical development, significantly increasing effectiveness of developing new therapies as well as enabling patient centricity in clinical trials. Implementing digital solutions was hard for several reasons such as regulatory constraints, long timelines to execute trials, clinical site resistance and others. COVID-19 pandemic changed the status quo, and companies are scrambling to adopt novel technologies in high speed. This conference is designed to bring together thought leaders in the field of clinical innovation to discuss best practices and wining strategies for decentralized and hybrid trials that will stay beyond COVID-19.

Wednesday, March 3

ENHANCING PATIENT-SITE CENTRICITY AND CLINICAL INNOVATION THROUGH TECHNOLOGY

10:55 am KEYNOTE PRESENTATION:

COVID-19: How an External Event Redoubled Janssen’s Culture of Innovation

Darren Weston, Vice President, Integrated Data Analytics & Reporting (IDAR), Janssen

The external threat posed by the pandemic forced Janssen to reckon with longstanding cultural barriers to innovation. Faced with an urgent need to ensure patient safety and continuity of care, Janssen found a way to overcome these barriers and evolve the way they conduct clinical trials. Not only did Janssen minimize overall trial impact, but Janssen’s clinical operations have become more efficient and resilient in the face of future challenges. We will discuss the cultural and operational adaptations Janssen undertook to adapt to the pandemic environment and how we see these actions positioning us for the future.

11:20 am KEYNOTE PRESENTATION: KEYNOTE PRESENTATION: Virtual Investigator Meetings During COVID-19 & Beyond
Steven Sulkin, Founder & CEO, SimuLyve International, Inc.®

Steven Sulkin, CEO, SimuLyve International

Marina Ziehn, PhD, Global Med. Affairs Dir. Neuroscience, Novartis

Markus Krüer, PhD, Head Clinical Project Mgt, Merz

Nico Wegener, PhD, Senior Clinical Project Mgr, Merz

Dave Matthews, Clinical Project Dir., Merz

 

Training worldwide staff on complicated protocols virtually with the added issue of language barriers can seem daunting. Our panel of virtual experts will show you how to perfect virtual skills and enhance virtual meetings.

 

11:20 am KEYNOTE PRESENTATION:

Option 2: New Players and Innovators in Clinical Trials, the Impact of Non-Pharma Entrants...Meet Salesforce and CVS Health

Shwen Gwee, Vice President & Head, Global Digital Strategy, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.
Gary Gabriel, PhD, Healthcare and Life Sciences Lead, Salesforce
Lou Sanquini, Vice President, Life Sciences Group, CVS Health
11:45 am Tech Break, Transition to Interactive Breakout Discussions
12:00 pm Interactive Breakout Discussions - Visit Our Virtual Exhibit Hall

Join your colleagues and fellow delegates for a focused, informal discussion moderated by a member of our speaking faculty. A small group format allows participants to meet potential collaborators, share examples from their own work and discuss ideas with peers. View all topics here.

12:30 pm Session Break - Visit Our Virtual Exhibit Hall
Leon Sun, Chief Science Officer, RA,PV,MD, Beijing Highthink Technology Co., Ltd

Founded in 2006, Highthinkmed is the fastest growing clinical CRO in China with over 800 full time employees, providing one-stop clinical services including clinical operation, medical affairs, data management, biostatistics, pharmacovigilance, regulatory affairs etc. Highthinkmed owes its own eCTD system meeting requirements of FDA, EMA and NMPA with a professional team providing eCTD submission services. Highthinkmed welcomes all partners across the world for international collaboration.

Geoff Gill, President, Shimmer Americas, Shimmer Research

Different endpoints derived from wearables can require very different wearable sensors.  Unfortunately, qualifying and integrating different wearables often from different vendors can be time-consuming and uncertain.  Learn how Shimmer Research is addressing this challenge by introducing a series of wearables that are all part of its highly flexible Verisense platform.

Bernadette Tosti, Vice President, Patient Experience, Science 37
Lindsay Singler, Director, Research Communications & Engagement, Operations Management Team, Duke Clinical Research Institute

Current events have driven pediatric clinical research to be more flexible and efficient—to increase patient access and enhance the patient experience both during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. With increased regulatory support for direct-to-family (decentralized) trials, learn how to leverage technology to safely and efficiently conduct research using a current, real-life example of trial design.

BEST PRACTICES TO STAY BEYOND COVID

1:15 pm

Reflections on COVID-19: How Virtualization of Clinical Trials Proved Critical during the Pandemic

Manny Lazaro, Vice President & Head, Global Development Operations, Jounce Therapeutics Inc.

The pandemic disrupted many areas of life, including clinical trials. Many trials stopped or were disrupted, patient participation dropped, and FDA regulations continue to evolve. But this disruption also allowed for adoption of new standards and methods for clinical development, such as virtualization. Throughout the pandemic, moving towards virtualization allowed for clinical trials to progress with fewer interruptions, ongoing participation and robust data. As virtualization becomes critical, this discussion will focus on how clinical trials can adapt to changing needs in order to progress.

Noolie Gregory, VP, Decentralized Clinical Trials Operations, Syneos Health

In the pandemic we rushed to implement point solutions.  Now we are able to be more strategic, but with so many options and technologies, deciding when and how to apply DCT solutions can be challenging. This presentation will provide insights to help you and decipher what changes may be needed at an organizational level to ensure success.

1:55 pm

The Best Pandemic-Provoked Practices Are Here to Stay 

Balazs Flink, Senior Director, Clinical Development Operations, Daiichi Sankyo, Inc.

Covid-19 has played an extreme catalyst role in implementing existing digital and remote clinical trial solutions, and has been the engine behind rapid evolution of a few new capabilities. Some of these newly deployed capabilities are quick fixes for the emergency that COVID brought to our day to day trial operations, while many will benefit from the catalyst effect and will probably be the new standard even after COVID. 

Nagaraja (Sri) Srivatsan, Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer, Technology Solutions, IQVIA
Christopher Varner, Associate Director, Virtual Trials, IQVIA

Today, we have the chance to continue driving adoption of decentralized clinical trials – and innovating to advance the benefits DCTs offer to patients, sites and sponsors. We will share how to: 

  • Select the right DCT model and technologies for your clinical trial   
  • Strengthen patient and site engagement with interoperable technology for an integrated delivery approach  
  • Successfully scale DCTs for global studies with high patient volume across any therapeutic area 
2:35 pm

Decentralized Trials – Behind the Curtain of a Play in 3 Acts: The Setup, the Confrontation and the Resolution

John Finn, Senior Director and Inflammation & Immunology TA Lead, Data Monitoring & Management, Pfizer Inc.

William Shakespeare wrote "All the World's a Stage" - and it is upon that stage that all of global pharma is wanting to perform their version of a decentralized trial.  This session will pull back the curtain and share the backstage reality of a real-life troupe of players working on their planning, execution, and risk management of a decentralized trial.


Rob DiCicco, Deputy Chief Health Officer, Life Sciences, IBM Watson Health
Jessica Schell, Associate Partner & Sr. Managing Consultant, GBS, IBM Watson Health

As patient recruitment, retention and engagement become increasingly challenging due to COVID-19 and other dynamic changes to our world, decentralized trials are becoming the new norm.  Join IBM Watson Health to learn about how IBM Clinical Development is enabling decentralized trials for Life Sciences organizations across the globe, specifically with its new eConsent functionality to further streamline the process.

Melissa Nezos, Vice President, Clinical Operations, Firma Clinical

This session will review the use of in-home trial services that bring the study to the patient. A case study/example of how this is executed with a real-life study will be shared, along with the importance of this service being the standard for many studies.

3:35 pm LIVE PANEL DISCUSSION:

COVID-19 Impact: What is Temporary and What is Here to Stay

Panel Moderator:
Balazs Flink, Senior Director, Clinical Development Operations, Daiichi Sankyo, Inc.
Panelists:
Manny Lazaro, Vice President & Head, Global Development Operations, Jounce Therapeutics Inc.
John Finn, Senior Director and Inflammation & Immunology TA Lead, Data Monitoring & Management, Pfizer Inc.
Kyle Holen, Head, Development Design Center, AbbVie Inc.

We will discuss the impact of COVID on the conduct of clinical research.  What are the "dinosaurs" of clinical research processes that will become extinct?  What are the innovations that have helped us continue to find new therapies?  What are the obstacles to change?

Laura Whitmore, Head, Clinical Operations, Cerevel Therapeutics LLC
Robert DiCicco, PharmD, Deputy Chief Health Officer, IBM Watson Health
Melissa Nezos, Vice President, Clinical Operations, Firma Clinical
4:25 pm Close of Day

Thursday, March 4

MOVING TOWARD PLATFORM THINKING TO TRANSFORM PHARMA

9:00 am

Moving toward Platform Thinking: Creating a More Seamless Front-End and Back-End to Future-Proof and Advance Digital Transformation in Pharma

Panel Moderator:
Adama Ibrahim, Director, Digital Solutions & Technology & Platforms, Data & Digital Global Drug Development, Novartis Pharma AG

COVID has been a reality check for the biopharma industry and it is evident we should be focused on future proofing. We operate through webs of legacy systems, complex org charts and entrenched 'resistance to change' cultures. Platform thinking is the opposite. Imagine a patient or physician able to find, learn about and participate in clinical research similar to the way we all interact with our own financial services companies through apps and sophisticated yet simple technology solutions! This can be possible through common enterprise thinking and approaches that are adopted across the industry.

Panelists:
Mohammed Ali, VP Digital Analytics & Performance, GlaxoSmithKline
Hassan Kadhim, Director & Head, Clinical Trial Business Capabilities, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.
Craig Lipset, Founder & Advisor, Clinical Innovation Partners; Co-Chair, Decentralized Trials & Research Alliance (DTRA)
Disa Lee Choun, Head, GCSO Innovation, UCB Pharma

OPERATIONALIZING HYBRID AND DECENTRALIZED TRIALS

9:30 am

Operationalizing Hybrid Trials 

Laura Whitmore, Head, Clinical Operations, Cerevel Therapeutics LLC

COVID-19 interrupted clinical trials globally and presented our industry with the challenge of continuing clinical research while ensuring patient safety and data integrity.  Cerevel Therapeutics analyzed ongoing trials to identify risks and implemented innovative solutions to meet those challenges, collaborating with a wide range of service providers to create a hybrid approach which supports patient needs, data requirements and site operations.   

10:10 am

Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration for Adoption of Decentralized Trials

Craig Lipset, Founder & Advisor, Clinical Innovation Partners; Co-Chair, Decentralized Trials & Research Alliance (DTRA)

The Decentralized Trials & Research Alliance enables collaboration of stakeholders to accelerate the adoption of patient-focused, decentralized clinical trials and research within life sciences and healthcare through education and research.

Jonathan Andrus, MS, CQA, CCDM, Chief Business Officer, Clinical Ink

This past year has led to buzzword overload! In this session, we will cut through the buzzwords and learn about the realities of eSource/direct data capture (DDC) and how the use of this approach, although not new, can be applied to your clinical trial challenges that have become more prominent in our COVID world. 

Kenny Kong, Director, Life Sciences & Health IT, Exostar

Armed with laptops, VPN's, tokens, and a million different end points to log in to, clinical trials have gone digital forcing us to become more creative in how we manage technology; a necessary evil in decentralizing our trials.  As we adapt to the new norm, let's talk about some strategies to eliminate the noise of technology.

11:05 am Session Break

THE TOKENIZATION OF TRIAL PARTICIPANTS, SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH (SDOH) & MOVING TOWARD PLATFORM THINKING TO TRANSFORM PHARMA

11:25 am KEYNOTE PRESENTATION:

Option 1: Tokenization of Our Clinical Trial Participants

Kyle Holen, Head, Development Design Center, AbbVie Inc.

Unique, encrypted patient identifiers allow you to match the world's data with the people that participate in your clinical research studies.  The opportunities to learn more from the study participants are endless; however, there are significant legal and privacy concerns that need to be addressed.  This presentation will walk you through how to address these concerns, the implications to the consent and protocol, and how to implement at sites.

11:25 am KEYNOTE PRESENTATION:

Option 2: Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) and Its Relevance to Clinical Trials

Laurie Myers, Director, Global Health Literacy, Merck & Co Inc

It is well documented that clinical trials have struggled to achieve equitable participation of racial-ethnic minorities and women. However, the role of social determinants of health (SDOH) on participation and retention rates of research participants in clinical trials has not been well studied. Additionally, there are a few studies that suggest SDOH may have an impact on clinical trial results, highlighting the importance for more studies to consider the SDOH as another dimension when developing clinical programs.

11:50 am Session Break - Visit Our Virtual Exhibit Hall

INSFRASTRUCTURE, TECHNOLOGY AND REGULATION FOR DCTs

LaQuinta Jernigan, Executive Vice President, North America, mdgroup
Eric Mayer, MMB MBA, CEO, EDP Biotech

In this presentation, we discuss how decentralized clinical trials provide better patient engagement by removing common barriers that can have a negative impact on recruitment and retention. We examine various solutions that are available and supporting technology that can keep both sites and patients connected. 

Julia Tarasenko, Vice President, Global Strategic Accounts, Marken LLP

Today’s decentralized and virtual trials require a shift to direct-to-patient (DTP) distribution to keep trials moving forward. Join us to explore opportunities to optimize a supply chain strategy that accommodates both direct-to-site and direct-to-patient services utilizing a global Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) depot network along with DTP and direct-from-patient (DFP) services

12:50 pm

Propelling into a New Era of Trial Optimization for Operational Success with Data Science-Infused Analytics and Technology

Miruna Sasu, PhD, Executive Director Global Development Feasibility & Advanced Analytics, Johnson & Johnson

The Janssen Global Development Feasibility team has built a sustainable global model to support every trial with data science and technology at an industrial scale. This presentation will focus on briefly showcasing several tools and algorithms that were built internally to bring unfathomable value and data-driven solutions to trial teams that aids them in making solid decisions on how to operationalize each trial for ultimate success and decreased patient and site burden.

Matty Culbreth-Notaro, Senior Vice President, Global Operations, ObvioHealth
Terry Plasse, Medical Director, RedHill Biopharma

COVID19 trials have been primarily managed in hospitals. Yet, the majority of symptomatic patients with COVID19 are recovering at home. RedHill BioPharma and ObvioHealth will share insights from a recently-launched, pioneering trial to test the safety/efficacy of an oral investigational drug - using a combination of mobile app, devices and assessments by in-home nurses.

1:30 pm LIVE PANEL DISCUSSION:

Pandemic-Proof Trials of 2030: Applying Lessons Learned from COVID-19

Panel Moderators:
Pamela Tenaerts, MD, MBA, Executive Director, Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative (CTTI)
Lindsay Kehoe, Project Manager, Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative

For many clinical trials, survival during the pandemic has centered on transitioning to remote practices midstream. What have we learned from these remote experiences that should carry forth into future trials? How do we approach trial design and conduct in new ways to ensure the next generation of research is resilient? This panel will discuss lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, provide recommendations for improved future trials, and outline a system-wide vision for clinical trials in 2030.

Panelists:
Janice Chang, Chief Operating Officer, TransCelerate Biopharma Inc.
Angie Botto-Van Bemden, PhD, Patient Advocate, Musculoskeletal Research International
Patricia Hurley, Director, Center for Research & Analytics, American Society of Clinical Oncology
1:50 pm SCOPE Summit 2021 Adjourns





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