TrialSpark Joins Forces with Leading Global Healthcare Company to Work to Potentially Bring Novel Treatments to Patients Faster

NEW YORK, Dec. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- TrialSpark, a New York-based technology company that has built a new model for managing and operating clinical trials, today announced the activation of the first clinical trial sites as part of an ongoing collaboration with global healthcare company, Novartis. This leverages a new, patient-centric model for clinical trials that aims to increase access and seamlessly integrate trial participation into patients' everyday lives.

Currently, patients who don't live near large academic centers or hospital-based trial sites often need to travel long distances to access clinical trials and leave their current doctor to participate.  The new model changes this and enables patients to participate in clinical trials at their local doctor's office.

TrialSpark's model accelerates clinical trials by broadening the pool of patient participants and expanding the network of participating physicians and research sites. This approach brings the research study to the patient, introducing new investigational treatment options into their existing care relationship and reducing the burden of participation.

TrialSpark has built an end-to-end technology platform for the management of clinical trials, including capabilities for precision-targeted recruitment, algorithmically-prioritized contact queues, risk-based quality monitoring, and cloud-based CTMS/eSource data capture. Using massive datasets of de-identified health records, TrialSpark identifies high-potential 'hot spots' of potential trial participants, previously overlooked due to their distance from large institutions and specialist centers. This unique approach enables motivated physicians to participate in front-line research and helps to bring novel, promising treatments to market more quickly than traditionally possible. By creating local sites with motivated physicians and providing a 'patient concierge' service, TrialSpark can dramatically increase the reach of clinical trials, while improving the patient experience.

"TrialSpark is committed to bringing investigational treatments to patients faster by reimagining drug development and clinical trials," said Benjamine Liu, CEO and co-founder of TrialSpark. "Today, the majority of patients don't have access to the treatments found within clinical trials. If you don't live near an academic center or an existing trial site, you often will need to travel far distances to access clinical trials and leave your doctor to participate. Our model changes this, enabling patients to participate in clinical trials at their local doctor's office."

Together, TrialSpark and Novartis can also potentially reach a more diverse range of patients, enhance the quality and quantity of data captured, and potentially bring better, more effective, treatments to patients faster. These new trial sites, located in the New York City metro area, will specifically be used to test a treatment for ankylosing spondylitis, a progressive chronic rheumatological disease that can be debilitating.   

"This collaboration is another example of Novartis' ambitious approach to partnering with leaders across the health and technology ecosystems to improve and accelerate global drug development," said Badhri Srinivasan, Head Global Development Operations at Novartis. "In working with TrialSpark, we're excited to reach those under-represented and underserved populations and bring new investigational treatments to patients in new locations."

About TrialSpark
TrialSpark is a technology company that aims to bring treatments to patients faster by reimagining drug development. TrialSpark has scaled a network of trial sites by partnering with doctors to create clinical trial sites within their existing practices. TrialSpark runs trials out of these doctor practices using a roaming cohort of certified research coordinators, optimized by software, data, and technology. Without variability in operations at the trial site level, TrialSpark cuts out the manual, time intensive, and costly tasks that delay clinical trial timelines. By creating trial sites with doctors, TrialSpark unlocks the 98 percent of patients who have never been exposed to trials, boosting recruitment and enrollment rates and democratizing access.

SOURCE TrialSpark