Following SCOPE 2025, there is much excitement about the future of clinical trial technology design and implementation. We’re energized by the discussions centered on optimizing patient engagement, harnessing AI to improve clinical trial operations, and finding better ways to handle efficient data collection and enhanced data accuracy using emerging digital health technologies.
As the only independent professional service provider 100% focused on digital health deployment, Studion is at the forefront of digital health innovation.
Here are some of our key takeaways from SCOPE 2025.
What Patient Engagement Really Means
At SCOPE, many discussions focused on best practices for improving patient participation and engagement in clinical trials. A common theme centered on systematically increasing trial representation, not only to address ethical considerations but also to meet patients’ needs. Clinical sites that value inclusivity can position themselves as industry leaders, especially when studies include patients from historically underrepresented groups.
Leading eClinical technology companies also highlighted the need to make patients feel more comfortable participating in clinical trials. Many patients are looking for hope, and developing more inclusive digital health tech designs can reach more patients, particularly those unfamiliar with technology.
There’s an opportunity for sponsors to leverage technology to reach more diverse patient communities. However, it all starts with creating awareness and trust within these communities by understanding their needs and tailoring tech development to those needs. For instance, simplified protocol designs can create more engaging and meaningful patient experiences, improving their participation in different studies.
AI for Clinical Trial Optimization
As expected, everyone’s talking about AI. Looking beyond the hype, some clinical trial sponsors described the value they are experiencing with AI algorithms. Many sites have observed higher patient recruitment rates and can identify low-enrolling sites quickly. AI has also proven valuable in automating pharmacovigilance by helping clinical trial sites detect patient safety signals early on while improving the overall efficiency of clinical trial operations.
We noticed that AI developments are helping clinical trial sponsors manage their compliance processes and streamline the escalation of adverse events. It will be interesting to see how the market and industry evolve with these ongoing developments.
Innovations in Digital Health Tools
As new instruments, diagnostics, personal devices, and eCOA solutions come to market, it is believed that the industry needs to standardize data and build better foundations for data gathering. As they collect data from multiple sources, clinical trial sponsors and eClinical tech providers will likely have to build more reliable processes to aggregate, automate, and standardize data before it can be analyzed.
There was talk about reducing the complexity of eClinical design, such that it’s easier to train site personnel, document processes, and handle incoming data. As new technologies are introduced to the market, it also becomes tricky for sponsors to choose those that work best for them among all the options available.
Training and onboarding site personnel to digital health technologies remains a barrier to adoption. Interestingly, some sponsors reported that collecting survey data from healthcare providers and patients helps guide tech design and implementation. An industry leader suggested optimizing tech implementation by improving onboarding and training, studying user behavior, and focusing on maintaining the tech at various stages of the study.
What’s Next For Digital Health in 2025?
The discussions at SCOPE Summit 2025 highlight the industry’s strong commitment to using technology and data to enhance clinical trials through better patient engagement, more efficient trials, and collecting more meaningful data. Conversations about integrating AI and digital health solutions are set to drive innovation, improve patient outcomes, and streamline trial processes in the years ahead. It’s a pleasure to meet with our digital health peers every year at SCOPE and we’re already looking forward to next year’s conference.
Looking for support in developing engaging digital health solutions for your sites and participants? Our team has over 15 years of experience working with multiple eClinical platforms across 1200+ clinical trials. Plus, our learning practice can support a wide range of customer and HCP training needs.
