Cerner Invests in Elligo to Boost Access to Clinical Trials

December 14, 2020 - Cerner recently announced that an investment in Elligo Health Research will increase access to clinical trials by offering clinical trial resourcesin the Cerner Learning Health Network to  to community and rural hospitals and physician practices. 

The investment will help clinical research timeframes, make clinical trials more broadly accessible, and reduce the cost associated with bringing therapy to market, the health IT giant stated.

“At the beginning of the year, we launched a bold push with our provider clients to change the pace and cost of clinical trials. Today, 51 health systems are part of our Learning Health Network,” Donald Trigg, president of Cerner, said in the announcement. 

“Elligo shares our passion for making clinical trial opportunities accessible to every provider and patient. Our collaboration will accelerate that shared mission in the quarters ahead,” Trigg stated.

Health systems face challenges with patient recruitment, costs, and access to clinical trial resources. One major challenge is the length and complexity of the drug development process, which is 10 to 15 years, on average, and costs approximately $2.5 billion.

Notably, 48 percent of sites miss their enrollment targets and 80 percent of trials are delayed due to patient recruitment issues, according to researchers from TayganPoint Consulting Group. 

The drop-out rate of clinical trials is also 30 percent, which adds a potentially substantial confounding factor.

The overall trial process is uncertain and faces its own set of challenges, such as difficulty with target identification, drug approval market decrease, and increasing costs and pressure on pricing.

Oftentimes, clinical trials are executed in urban areas with similar trial populations, which offer insights that may not apply to all patients in need of therapies. 

But there are many ways to minimize these challenges. 

Through the investment with Elligo Health, Cerner aims to reduce obstacles that health systems face with making clinical trials become more of a “reality.”.

Additional clinical trial resources can offer funded research opportunities for healthcare organizations and access to trial therapies for patients who need it most, which could result in outcomes that are representative of diverse populations and an increase in drug safety.

Elligo, the largest health network for clinical research, also brings research as a care option to as many participants as possible by offering innovative, patient-centric solutions within the practices of trusted physicians, according to an Elligo press release. 

“Elligo’s mission is to bring clinical research to everyone, but today’s clinical research processes are obsolete and expensive,” said John Potthoff, PhD, CEO of Elligo. 

“Our collaboration with Cerner will be designed to help transform the research process by optimizing operations, focusing on the patient and producing the regulatory-grade data needed to inform decision-making,” Potthoff continued.

Major pharmaceutical companies are currently in the process of recruiting patients for COVID-19 clinical trials. However, the pandemic has shone a light on the inadequacies of clinical trials, including access among diverse populations.

Cerner pointed out that most clinical trials are carried out in large, urban areas with homogenous populations. This may lead to results that cannot be broadly applicable to patients who need the therapies being tested.

Increasing diversity in clinical trials is key to developing therapies that help the broader patient population.

At the end of November, the Pharmaceutical Research Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) announced the release of an industry-wide principles on clinical trial diversity. 

The principles focus on four areas, including building trust and acknowledging the historic mistrust of clinical trials within Black and Brown communities and reducing barriers to clinical trial access.

Additionally, the principles aim to use real-world data to enhance information on diverse populations beyond product approval, as well as boost information regarding diversity and inclusion in clinical trial participation.

Diversifying clinical trials is crucial to provide information about drug response and measures of safety and efficacy to populations that have been historically under-represented and under-studied, PhRMA said in the November announcement.

Additionally, enhancing diversity in trial populations may also reduce healthcare disparities by increasing access to clinical trials. 

Cerner intends for its investment in Elligo to help underserved patient populations access clinical trials to better inform therapy development.