June 2020

Telemedicine in Clinical Trials

COVID-19 brought telemedicine, sometimes called telehealth, to the forefront of healthcare. But it’s been available in some health practices for several years.

“Telemedicine” is the practice of seeing your doctors virtually from wherever you are. During the pandemic, many doctors switched to “seeing” patients by phone or video chat, as long as the patient’s needs could be met. Less certain was how telemedicine could be used to keep monitoring people enrolled in clinical trials.

Below, you’ll find resources that discuss how telemedicine may be used in drug trials, and how it might lead to faster, more efficient, and more diverse trials. You’ll also find a link to listen to an expert discuss how telemedicine may be the future of clinical trials.

• News-Medical.Net: What is Telemedicine?
• Care Innovations: How telemedicine is increasing diversity in clinical trials
• Kaiser Permanente : COVID-19 Pandemic Brings Telehealth Center Stage for Oncologists and Their Patients
• Living Beyond Breast Cancer: Telemedicine, the Coronavirus, and Breast Cancer