After a six-month beta testing period, the European Clinical Trials Information Network is rolling out its patient recruitment platform across Europe, the company announced in a Sept. 25 release.
The network’s goal is to connect research centers conducting clinical trials in rare and serious diseases with patients, founder and CEO Łukasz Izbicki, Ph.D., said in the release.
“Until now there has been no single place where both parties could meet with confidence and find comprehensive information in a number of different languages,” Izbicki said. “As many as 80% of trials face challenges with patient recruitment.”
The platform will enable decentralized trials, the company said, allowing patients to engage with the research process from their own homes. This is a growing model in the U.S., representing about 25% of clinical trials, but is not common yet in Europe, according to the release.
For example, San Francisco-based PicnicHealth recently unveiled an online platform for observational clinical research. And the FDA released draft guidance for decentralized trials last year, making clear it sees the rise of virtual participation as crucial to boosting trial diversity.
Trials available on the ClinicalTrials.EU's website include studies across the continent, including in the U.K., Finland, Romania and Portugal.