By Jennifer Ksaibati
The COVID 19 pandemic has forced many of us to realize that we can make better use of the technology that is readily available to us, not only in our private life, but more importantly in business. In the past, many employers were reluctant to allow staff to work from home, but when COVID-19 hit they had no choice. Unless essential, they weren’t allowed to go to their offices and they had to do their work online from home. The entire state of Florida shut down the schools until the end of the school year and our amazing teachers were able to educate kids online with Zoom and other video formats. People started using online ordering services more and had groceries delivered right to their door. Kids started video calling grandparents, rather than visiting them. Patients were suddenly able to make office visits via tele-medicine or even phone calls. Mandatory stay at home orders pushed our reluctant society to make use of technology that we have had around for years.
Out of all of this, the really great news is clinical research has caught up as well! We are excited at Moore Clinical Research that for many of our newest clinical trials for Atopic Dermatitis and Acne, we will be partially or even fully transitioning to paperless and using electronic devices! In the past, we have always had lots of paper from charts to diaries and we are thrilled to be moving away from all that paper and saving lots of trees! Study participants may be given an electronic device to track their medication use or be asked to download an app on their phone to easily record their daily information rather than writing it in a paper diary. Patients that have used electronic diaries in the past say they are very user friendly and are happy to not have to worry about losing papers. Eventually, subjects will also be able to sign their informed consents electronically. They can be sent the consent, read it over at home, and just sign on a device at clinic when they arrive and are ready. This will save considerable time in the clinic and having to make paper copies. The use of technology in clinical research is on an upward trend and new advances are becoming available every day. MOORE Clinical Research is eager to start showing you our latest use of technology with many studies that will be enrolling soon!
MOORE Clinical Research 813-948-7550
