As “end users “of innovative technologies, site staff and patients need to embrace the digital transformation as much as the industry does. To this end, the whole industry must invest in the effort to enhance the skills of site staff regarding the use of digital tools in clinical trials as well as efficiently support the patients using them.
Not all sites and patients are equal when it comes to technology.
- Site staff are not systematically experienced with the use of technology, and their whole skillset needs to evolve. The nursing skills that used to be required in the past are likely to diminish whilst digital agility and teaching skills become more prominent.
- Patients may feel insecure with the use of the new technologies even if they have spread into daily life. Even within the narrow patient population of a single protocol, individual behavioral differences towards the use of digital technologies can be widespread.
Therefore, we consider this to be the responsibility of the whole clinical trials industry to offer customized education and training solutions to the different types of population using them. Training material could be tested with the help of the CRAs before implementation. Training can also be repeated at different occasions and using different forms such as Investigator’s meetings, train the trainer sessions for sites and CRAs, video training, re-training during SIVs. User friendly patients user guides can be made available on the device and online as well.
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