Care quality Health networks

Accelerating clinical research and trial discovery with real-world data

Estimated read time: 3 minutes

by Christy Dueck

Published on 1/11/2022

Amy*, a 13-year-old, white female in the Midwest, experienced chronic, debilitating migraines for years. Her parents wanted her to receive the best possible treatment without being exposed to opiates. A headache specialist told Amy and her parents about a Children’s Mercy Research Institute clinical research study that used diverse, nationwide electronic health record (EHR) data to demonstrate emergency department opioid prescribing trends for children with migraines. The study showed that Amy’s race and gender makes her more likely than other children to be prescribed opioids during an emergency department visit. Children’s Mercy Hospital used the findings to change its EHR-based treatment guidelines and algorithms, which helped reduce opioid prescribing to almost zero for children presenting with migraines. This information helped Amy’s parents be better informed about the potential risks associated with emergency department treatment of her migraines.

This is just one example of the importance of clinical research in helping providers improve the health and well-being of patients and communities. Unfortunately, clinical research, and beyond that, clinical trials aren’t accessible for all patients and illnesses. Additionally, health systems face significant obstacles, such as patient recruitment, costs and access to clinical trial resources.

The devastating impact of clinical research barriers

Concerning statistics that further drive home the immediate need to broaden research and trial opportunities for all health systems, physicians and patients include:

Developing therapies takes on average 17 years and costs $2.5 billion, which limits access to the benefits of new research and often makes people go for years with potentially less effective treatments.
Only 3% of patients and providers participate in clinical trials, forcing researchers to work with smaller and harder-to-obtain data sets.
Lack of diversity in clinical trials can lead to therapies that may not be as generalizable or effective for all populations.

The COVID-19 vaccination effort showed we can accelerate the development timeline. Why not speed up access to insights and treatments for other diseases and conditions so that people can thrive?

Bringing clarity to life sciences and healthcare decision-making
When we accelerate the discovery, development and deployment of life-enhancing insights and therapies, clinicians and patients benefit. Connecting data and breaking down silos across the healthcare innovation ecosystem must be our collective focus to help improve everyday health for all people. Several factors help bring clarity to life sciences, researchers and clinicians and guide better care, including:

Data-driven research solutions for commercial and real-world evidence collaborators and health providers
Support to move from simply accumulating and analyzing data to linking and generating deeper insights
Combined life sciences knowledge, healthcare innovation and collaborative research expertise
Access to an expansive network of diverse research-ready health systems; as well as de-identified, real-world data from the EHR that also includes patient-reported outcomes

Through data and technology, we have the power to help life sciences, clinicians and researchers expand therapeutic areas of research and generate better evidence to solve healthcare challenges around the world. Together, we can accelerate groundbreaking research and trial opportunities that have the potential to transform everyday healthcare and improve people’s lives.

Cerner Enviza^SM offers data-driven solutions and expertise that help life sciences, researchers and health systems create remarkable clarity around healthcare’s most important decisions. Learn more here.

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