By Clinical Research News Staff 

February 15, 2024 | SCOPE Summit 2024 once again shined a spotlight on the breakthroughs, discoveries, and achievements of hundreds of organizations in their efforts to improve clinical trials and help patients worldwide. Three awards were presented at the conference: the Participant Engagement Award, the Site Innovation Award, and the Best of Show Award.  

Participant Engagement Award 

The winner of the Participant Engagement Award was the Oliver Patch Project. Co-founder and executive director Brian Burkart shared his son Oliver’s story and how the project came to be. At the height of the pandemic, Oliver was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. During treatment, friends and family asked if they could do anything to help, and Oliver’s parents asked for patches. Then, Oliver asked, “Wouldn’t it be cool if we could do this for other kids?” And so began the Oliver Patch Project. 30% of participants will eventually drop from clinical trials, and this becomes more relevant for pediatric studies. Through the retention patch program, each child enrolled in a trial will be given a patch, providing them something to look forward to and letting them know they are not alone. 

“It’s what a patch represents,” said Burkart. “Which is love, support, empowerment, [and] encouragement, and that’s kind of what our focus is. If you have a pediatric clinical trial, we have a program for you that provides support.” 

The first runner-up was IMA Clinical Research. With over 23 clinical research sites and 180 satellite sites across the United States, IMA Clinical Research is able to reach out to communities—especially underrepresented ones—and raise awareness on clinical trials as a potential treatment option for patients. Their journey has allowed them to foster community engagement, provide educational materials for those who may be interested in participating in clinical trials, and improve access to their clinical services. 

The second runner-up was PatientWing, which shared their Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EOE) case study. Every rare disease patient should have the opportunity to participate in a clinical trial. Through their EOE campaign, PatientWing spoke to patients who live with this disease, collected their stories, and brought their voices to their community. Then they partnered with advocacy groups to share information with their patient networks, connected to patients via social media, and helped them link with other patients to foster a supportive community. This project allowed PatientWing to recruit patients for their trials, guiding them through the whole process and ensuring the best patient experience. 

An honorable mention was given to the SGM Alliance, an organization dedicated to providing a space for the LGBTQIA+ community in clinical trials. They have worked with 25 large firms and companies, CROS, technology solutions providers, and governmental bodies, such as the White House and CDC. Their goal is to help sexual- and gender-diverse patients feel like they are included and seen in clinical trials. 

More details on the Participant Engagement Awards and the full 2024 finalist list can be found here.  

Site Innovation Award 

This was the first year that SCOPE hosted the Site Innovation Awards, highlighting excellence in the clinical operations community. The winner of the inaugural Site Innovation Award was Medidata. Data entry for clinical trials is still being done the way it was two decades ago, which is tedious and time-consuming. Medidata has created RAVE Companion, a data entry assistant that offers convenience and accessibility for researchers. Connected to over 90% of the nation’s top research sites, this program offers great user experiences, including discussions with SCRS panels, design partnerships with large research sites, and deep collaboration with customers, all with just simple clicks of a mouse. 

“RAVE Companion was designed to be multi-pronged in nature. We want to connect to any system within a site using whatever technology that site supports,” explained Dan Braga, vice president of Healthcare and EHR Solutions. “We want to have the biggest footprint as possible in the industry, connect to as many sites out of the box as possible using whatever protocol or piece of technology they have in place.” 

The runner up was CRIO. To alleviate unnecessary administrative burdens and streamline clinical research site processes, CRIO has created an integrated medical records API that allows rapid access to medical records and valuable patient insights. This helps enhance patient screening accuracy and provides improved oversight, thus significantly reducing the likelihood of enrolling ineligible patients for trials and enhancing integrity in study enrollments. 

Best of Show Award 

Finally, three winners were chosen from the 37 finalists in the Best of Show People’s Choice Awards program. Three new products were honored. ConcertAI’s Digital Trial Solution (DTS) EHR to EDC Version 5.1, increases the effectiveness of, and lowers the burden on, site research staff with 100% auto-population of individual study subject data into the electronic Case Report Forms (eCRFs) by using GenAI based information extraction, Natural Language Processing (NLP) and clinically validated mapping of data from a research site’s EMR. Medidata’s Diversity Program takes a multifaceted approach that leverages data-driven site selection, pre- and post-trial patient engagement tools, insights from patient advocates, and the most patient-accessible site network trained on Medidata’s DCT technologies to support diversity before, during, and after your trial. Veeva System’s Veeva Launch Pad offers a simple way for sites to organize and access sponsor technology at no cost to sites or sponsors. The application makes it easy for clinical researchers to create and share study profiles containing links to all the relevant sponsor technology systems and help desk contacts used for a clinical trial. The Best of Show People’s Choice Award winners were selected via votes from SCOPE attendees.  

Congratulations to the winners of this year’s SCOPE Summit!