RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – What do scientists need most to prove their hypotheses and advance their clinical work?
Valid data.
So it’s no surprise that the medical field increasingly is turning to data science to accelerate the path to meaningful discoveries in the lab and the clinic.
LaunchBio attended the November Partnering for Cures conference, hosted by Faster Cures, a Center of the Milken Institute. It was the first time the organization had hosted this event on the west coast, and it drew on San Francisco-based tech startups and computer scientists to insert some fresh thinking into the drug discovery process.
Among the thought-provoking discussions was a session on how direct-to-consumer expertise can inform precision medicine – or, as one panelist suggested, “Can we learn something from RentTheRunway about marketing and customer experience when it comes to clinical trials?” Some takeaways:
- No one wants to answer 20 questions in a row. Find a way of asking one or two at a time, and make a game out of the experience
- Don’t spend a lot of money attracting patients if your enrollment page is clunky and complicated – people will give up and not come back
- In an age when people are highly skeptical of institutions, ask why they should trust you to collect and use personal information. Find a way to build trust by ensuring that the patient gets more from the experience than she’s asked to give.
Other sessions tackled AI, machine learning, entrepreneurship, data science, and even autonomous cars. While medical research and tech are still learning each others’ language, it’s exciting to see these new collaborations evolve in search of better treatment, prevention, and healthier lives.
