WCG and Deep 6 AI have joined forces with the aim of accelerating patient enrollment and increasing diversity in clinical trials.
The pact, announced Monday, pairs Deep 6 AI’s machine learning platform based on clinical data points with WCG’s experience running trials to better pair prospective patients with trial recruiters.
“Healthcare systems lack awareness of existing patients who could be matched to these studies and, similarly, research sponsors and their CRO partners lack the tools to locate eligible patients,” said WCG President Nick Slack. Ultimately, the partnership will allow trials to start sooner, enroll patients quicker and ensure that the participants involved are suitably diverse, Slack said.
What’s particularly noteworthy about the potential impact of the collaboration is the amount of data at play. Deep 6 AI already connects over 28 million patients across more than 2,000 healthcare facilities, while WCG works with more than 3,300 research institutions and 5,000 biopharmas. In other words, should the two organizations successfully mesh, the impact on trial recruitment could be substantial.
Creating a more efficient recruitment process would also reduce a large number of clinical trial delays. Roughly 80% of trials globally are late to fulfilling their enrollment goals, and 55% are axed because they fail to enroll enough patients.
WCG and Deep 6 AI's collaboration would give trial sponsors the ability to better select clinical trial sites because they would be able to assess in advance whether they can identify, recruit and retain the right patients in a given location, the companies said. It could also benefit the sites, which would have insight into whether a prospective trial will be efficiently run.
“With such actionable information, there are huge advantages to those sites, sponsors, and CROs who choose to plug into our ecosystem,” said Deep 6 AI CEO Wout Brusselaers.