By Clinical Research News Staff

October 2, 2024 | In this month’s episode of the Scope of Things, host Deborah Borfitz covers everything you need to know about a pending launch of a large treatment trial for Graves’ disease, a recruitment campaign for a diagnostic tampon, Walgreens and BARDA’s new partnership, how eligibility criteria has been excluding people of African or Middle Eastern descent from cancer studies, and more.  

Joining the discussion is Aaron Mackey, vice president of AI and data science at Lokavant, who talks about the unintended consequences of decisions made during trial planning that can lead to questionable conclusions, how AI and ML are helping with the diversity issue in trial participation, and his stop gap emergency plan to keep trials on track if there is no digital support available.  

SHOW NOTES  

 News Roundup  

Phase 3 trial for Graves’ disease  

• Article in Clinical Research News   

Quality of life measures in cancer studies  

• Study in Journal of Clinical Oncology  

• Article in Clinical Research News  

Rapid recruitment for a diagnostic tampon trial  

• Article in Clinical Research News  

Reference trial emulation  

• Study in PLOS Medicine   

Walgreens/BARDA partnership  

• News brief in Clinical Research News  

“Detective” algorithm for improving trial design  

• Study in Nature Genetics  

Exclusion of people with Duffy-null phenotype  

• Study in JAMA Network Open    

GUEST BIO  

Aaron Mackey, Vice President of AI & Data Science, Lokavant  

Aaron Mackey, PhD, has held various tenure-track faculty research positions in academia, including the Center for Public Health Genomics at the University of Virginia and the University of Pennsylvania Genomics Institute. Additionally, Mackey has held various scientific and leadership roles at GlaxoSmithKline, Hemoshear Therapeutics, Covance/LabCorp, Valo Health, and Roivant Sciences. Most recently, he served as vice president of Data & AI/ML at Sonata Therapeutics. At Lokavant, Mackey leads the company’s AI and data science team and plays a critical role in the company’s product development. 

The Scope of Things podcast explores clinical research and its possibilities, promise, and pitfalls. Clinical Research News senior writer, Deborah Borfitz, welcomes guests who are visionaries closest to the topics, but who can still see past their piece of the puzzle. Focusing on game-changing trends and out-of-the-box operational approaches in the clinical research field, the Scope of Things podcast is your no-nonsense, insider’s look at clinical research today.