Spotlight on clinical trial innovation: Private Access
In August 2009, Private Access announced a partnership with large pharma to test a new approach to expedite clinical trials. Founded upon winning a patent for data privacy technology, the company believes that the solution to clinical trial recruitment lies in unlocking patient health information using their proprietary information privacy technology.
Private Access’s theory is that going directly to patients who are seeking treatment and requesting their permission to share their health information with researchers will decrease the time required to recruit for trials. Seems that Private Access’s strategy is viable if these assumptions are correct:
- Enlisting patients in the Private Access system can be done cost-effectively
- Concerns for privacy of their health data is the major barrier for patients who are seeking experimental treatment to share information with researchers over the internet
- Patients will share information independently without a physician’s guidance
- Patients in the Private Access system can be matched with physicians prepared to conduct a clinical trial
If these assumptions can be or have been validated, as they very well may have been, Private Access will be in a strong position to assist many researchers interested in expediting clinical trials.
Private Access is an innovator in clinical trials. Welcome your perspectives on the Private Access model.