November 27, 2019 | November was full of exciting news in the clinical trial and healthcare community, including partnerships, products, and promotions from Lenovo, OKRA, Teckro, and more.

Lenovo previewed results from a new global survey that shows people believe in the potential of technologies, such as Virtual Reality (VR), to positively impact our health. In fact, VR is starting to be used in some hospitals in place of general anesthetics to alleviate pain for young patients. The new Lenovo NEW REALITIES film, which premiered on November 9 at the Denver Film Festival, showcases the groundbreaking use of its technology in collaboration with Starlight Children’s Foundation, which is using the Lenovo Mirage Solo VR headset in its Starlight Virtual Reality program. The VR technology enables pediatricians at Children's Hospital Colorado and hundreds of Starlight partner hospitals and healthcare facilities in the US to use the headsets as a procedural tool for critically ill young patients, primarily to reduce anxiety during mild to moderately painful procedures. By using VR as a calming distraction, several patients have been able to undergo these procedures whilst awake, cutting down lengthy recovery times, and reducing the need for medication. Joe Albietz, MD, Medical Director at Child Life, Children’s Hospital Colorado, said in a press release: “Due to the distressing nature of treatments such as a lumbar puncture, where a needle is used to withdraw spinal fluid and sometimes administer medication, our patients often receive the procedure under general anesthetic. Virtual Reality can be used in place of general anesthesia to help tolerate pain, and in fact, it is having a profound impact on the quality of life of our hospitalized children. We are seeing children who used to require general anesthesia, now able to be fully awake with minimal medications.” Press release

Corindus announced it has completed the first multi-city, transcontinental percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) simulations in the United States over three network connection types – 5G wireless, dedicated fiber, and commercial public internet networks. Interventional cardiologist Ryan Madder successfully completed a total of 36 cases in the same day between Waltham, Mass. and New York City, and between Waltham, Mass. and San Francisco. “We have successfully demonstrated that a physician can use a robotic system in a manner necessary to open a blocked artery despite being 3,000 miles away. This represents the next step in achieving our ultimate goal of providing remote cardiovascular care to patients suffering a heart attack or stroke who do not currently have access to potentially life-saving coronary and stroke interventions,” Madder, of Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids, Mich., said in a press release. “Corindus’ technology enables me to have a live view of what is happening in the procedure room, while precisely controlling coronary devices in real-time with the robot from a remote location. Our study suggests it may eventually be possible for interventional cardiologists to use robotic technology to safely and effectively perform coronary procedures from any one point to another, anywhere in the country." The procedures, completed on October 24th using Corindus’ CorPath GRX System with prototype remote technology, were performed with state-of-the-art vascular simulators located in New York and San Francisco, 200 and 3,000 miles away, respectively. All network types enabled low-latency connections and successful completion of procedures, demonstrating feasibility of long-distance telerobotic intervention. Press release

OKRA announced they are joining the Veeva Technology Partnership Program and will be making their proprietary AI outputs available to Veeva CRM customers. As a Veeva partner, OKRA will integrate their technology with Veeva CRM Suggestions, providing explainable and actionable insights for commercial teams. OKRA delivers suggestions, predictions and explanations to empower life sciences executives and operational teams to drive the right drug, to the right patient with humanised and understandable AI outputs. OKRA will apply its technology to deliver evidence-based insight and foresight to joint customers who use Veeva CRM Suggestions, enabling them to better engage with their stakeholders and support the optimal prescribing of drugs to patients in the different countries. The OKRA engine ingests real-world data, structured, unstructured, clinical, commercial and scientific literature to drive the right suggestions to the different teams in life sciences. The outputs enable managers, and field-based teams to align strategy and execution to contribute to the best possible patient outcomes and support the process of bringing the right drug to the right patient at speed. Press release

Teckro added two new software products in its mission to transform the industry’s efficiency and make trials more transparent for doctors, researchers and patients. The company uses machine-learning technology to transform clinical trial protocols from static documents into actionable data for research staff, monitors and sponsors. Intuitive and simple, 91% of registered users are active on the platform. Now researchers responsible for testing new medical treatments on patients around the world can receive up-to-date study information and provide feedback to improve performance with the addition of Teckro Engage and Teckro Survey. The new functionality will build on the Teckro Search product to accelerate the speed and precision by which clinical research stakeholders can locate and distribute the right information found in current, approved documents, as well as monitor engagement and trial conduct. Press release

Integra Connect announced it has been selected by the Quality Cancer Care Alliance Network (QCCA), the first clinically integrated nationwide network of community oncology practices, as its preferred partner for population health analytics technology and to provide support for value-based care payment models. As a QCCA preferred partner, Integra Connect will offer QCCA's network of 20 community-based oncology practices access to Integra Connect Intelligence – Integra's comprehensive suite of population health analytics solutions. These tools will enable the oncology practices to precisely assume risk for each episode of care and will empower the practices to achieve both clinical and financial objectives under value-based care. Specifically, Integra's population health solutions will provide QCCA members with: Clinical analytics: provides deeper insights into patient treatment patterns, variations in care, adherence to clinical guidelines and measurement of outcomes, based on real-world evidence; Predictive analytics: applies machine learning techniques to proactively identify high-risk patients for whom intervention and care management initiatives can reduce adverse events and improve outcomes; Quality measurement: enables quality improvement initiatives, tracking and reporting of quality measures across the QCCA network; Financial analytics: measures and tracks financial performance under Alternative Payment Models (APM) across both commercial and government programs, like the Oncology Care Model (OCM), and supports management of risk under the two-sided risk models; and Network benchmarking: enables QCCA members to track their performance over time and compare with their peers at a national level across an array of metrics, from practice treatment patterns to high-cost utilization trends, quality measures and outcomes. Press release

Clinical Trials Laboratory Services (CTLS) announced that it has made several enhancements to the donor experience at its donor center in North West London, UK. CTLS specializes in collecting blood, serum and plasma from consented donors. “Donors play a vital role in advancing life sciences research. To show our appreciation for their involvement, we have endeavored to enhance the refreshments, entertainment, compensation and educational materials that we offer to donors during their visits. We have also expanded our CTLS website so that potential donors can learn more about what is involved and how their donations would be used in supporting research,” said CTLS General Manager, Kelly Sapsford, in a press release. Press release

Kayentis announced the opening of a subsidiary in Japan, the world’s third largest pharmaceutical market, where clinical developments have been expanding. Based in Tokyo, the subsidiary will enable Kayentis to meet the logistical requirements of multi-national studies taking place in Asia-Pacific and cater to the needs of local CROs (Clinical Research Organizations) for digital data collection services with custom geographic capabilities. Kayentis, which specializes in eCOA solutions for phases IIB/III, has been collaborating with local CRO partners in Japan since 2017. As many as 75% of the clinical trial studies conducted by Kayentis include populations from Asia-Pacific. The decision to establish a permanent presence in the region follows its expansion into the US, where it set up a subsidiary in Boston (MA) two years ago. Strengthening Kayentis’ global capacity to facilitate client access to its technical expertise, while providing them with high quality eCOA solutions for studies in Europe, the US and now Asia, has been central to its developments and market positioning. Press release