Modern medicine is only allowed to reach pharmacy shelves once it passes a series of clinical trials. In the testing phase, scientists must carefully evaluate the effects a drug has in a controlled environment. This is then followed up by animal and human trials that provide further evidence about the drug’s supposed safety. In the 21st century, there is a myriad of medicines for various types of diseases. However, there is nearly an equal number of ailments that are yet to experience a medicinal breakthrough. Perhaps the most common category among these diseases is the neurodegenerative group. With Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s topping the list, humanity still has a long way to go before it could officially announce a cure to the public. Hopefully, using digital endpoints in neurological clinical trials will shorten the way.
Adoption of digital endpoints: The current landscape
Today, scientists are using digital endpoints in neurological clinical trials. This is being lauded by the medical community for increasing clinical efficiency. As health sectors further incline towards real-world evidence, digital endpoints are showing lasting impacts on everyone outside the lab.
While such technologies are yet to be adopted by everyone, they’re certainly promising. In essence, these endpoints are used to measure the efficacy of a proposed drug formula. Every medicine has some implications – or a side effect as most people like to call it. Before approving a drug, these must be studied in depth. Thus, various trials are conducted to reveal the impact a drug has on one or more endpoints.
Of course, these endpoints are composed of either singular or multiple different events. If a drug is observed to affect a clinical trial, lead to changes in mobility and activity or impact the symptoms experienced by participating volunteers and/or patients, these three categories would classify as endpoints. In retrospect, endpoints prove or reinforce the impact a drug might have and these directly correlate with their safety.
Digital endpoints are also closely associated with biomarkers that are the data collected through devices like wearables. Needless to say, neuroscience is possibly the slowest group among them all to experience medicinal approval. Typically, neurological symptoms and effects are hard to navigate. Thus, digital endpoints provide a considerable advantage to neuroscientists who are eager to find cures for debilitating diseases.
Why digital endpoints are so important
As the world continues to shift to digital formats, real-world evidence combined with the results generated through digital endpoints in clinical trials could be combined for greater discoveries. This entails groundbreaking possibilities for patients. They can now rely on technology to measure their responses to a certain drug. For instance, what would you prefer if you were participating in a trial? Would manually recording every time you sneezed be easier than if a device recorded this data for you? The answer is simple, no.
Measuring this data through the provided endpoints would then open further doors to the creation of new endpoints. Certainly, digital endpoints have considerable potential that is currently being leveraged by the most well-known pharmaceuticals out there. In Mon4t, we verily believe that it is only a matter of time until we see vast adoption and further breakthroughs in neurological clinical trials.
