Article written by Nazneen Qureshi, Director, Patient Engagement & Innovation (Centricity Research) for Clinical Leader.

On March 11, 2020, COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization. Global economies shut down, countries were put on lockdown, and anxieties grew with the uncertainty of this new virus. In the realm of clinical research, sites started to receive communications from sponsors to hold enrollment for all trials and try their best to salvage what they could and retain their active participants. In this unprecedented time, the industry was trying its best to maintain the little control it had.

A week prior to WHO’s announcement, one of Centricity Research’s Ontario sites had experienced a COVID-positive patient, resulting in staff exposure and immediate site shutdown. Priorities immediately shifted, and the need for increased patient safety required an emergent change across all site SOPs. Two months later, these unforeseen circumstances allowed clinical research to propel in the direction we have been anticipating at our sites over the past five years: focusing on patient care through hybrid and virtual study execution and delivery.

With all these changes, the immediate concern recognized is how will COVID-19 impact our patients? How can we preserve patient retention?

At Centricity Research we understood that there is no better way to answer these questions than to ask our patients.

To read the full article on Clinical Leader, click here.

If you are interested to learn more about how you can participate in clinical trials for current and future COVID-19 treatment developments, please contact us at [email protected] or by sending us a message below.