Hello everyone, thank you for joining today’s vlog. Today’s vlog is a look back at eConsent in 2017 and predictions for eConsent in 2018. With me today I have Mika Lindroos. He is the Director of Product Management for TrialConsent. TrialConsent is CRF Health’s eConsent solution. TrialConsent promotes participant compliance through better comprehension. It’s the only solution that offers eCOA and eConsent on a single integrated device, and it can be deployed via TrialMax Slate or as a standalone web-based solution. So we’re really excited to have Mika here. We’re going to jump into some topics in a minute, but I just want to say welcome, thank you so much for joining us, Mika.
Hi Jackie, thank you for having me. Really excited to be here.
Great, well let’s dive right into these questions. I have a couple for you and I’m really excited to hear your thoughts. So as we take a look back at 2017 and we think about the year that was as we’re getting towards the end of this year and we’re looking forward to next year, 2018, what would you say that 2017 was like for the eConsent industry? How was the eConsent industry impacted, or progressed through with regards to eConsent?
Yeah I think it’s a good question. So yeah, if I think back a year from now, we just had the FDA Final Guidance on eConsent came out at end of last year, and that gave a really nice start for this year. And also in the beginning of the year CRF Health did the Survey on the State of eConsent, and that predicted really nice growth for the eConsent market, a lot of interest. And I think whereas the last year, 2016, was really like people getting really educated about eConsent, and this year has been really about piloting eConsent and practicing how it works, you know, what benefits it actually does bring for customers and sites and all the stakeholders in the industry. So I think this year we’ll be seeing those piloting ongoing, and then you know, just last month we had the Transcelerate Guideline came out, which provides a lot of practical information about how to get eConsent implemented. So I’m seeing this year to be really nice progress from getting the education into practical use. And I really found through the results of those surveys that we did in the beginning of the year, and the interactions that I’ve had with the customers. So yeah, it’s been a really nice year.
That’s great to hear. And that survey was very telling, that CRF Health 2017 State of eConsent Survey that you mentioned. That was a really great survey, and it predicted a lot of things, and it seemed like a lot of those goals and predictions really showed to impact the industry, from what we’re seeing. So that was really telling. And the eConsent guidance, the Transcelerate eConsent Guidance that you also mentioned, was also very informative and really I think did progress the industry as far as eConsent and how people are starting to understand it a lot more. So yeah, there was lots of really exciting things that happened in 2017, and it’s nice to hear you shed some light on those.
So as we shift from 2017 to 2018, where do you see eConsent headed next year, now that we’ve had some really great exciting initiatives happen this year? What do you think is going to happen? What do you predict is going to happen in 2018 for eConsent?
Yes, so definitely I think this year we’ve seen those pilots in small scale, a few sites, handful of patients and maybe a couple of languages, couple of countries. And clearly, all the big 20 pharma have an eConsent initiative in place, so basically I believe during next year we see eConsent moving into a global scale, a global reach, basically having studies with several tens of sites and hundreds of patients, and really kind of moving into the production-level studies with eConsent.
That’s really great. And I think it’s taking the step in the right direction, because you know, lots of process that were once done on paper are now moving towards an electronic format, if they haven’t already. So I think the industry is just taking that next step with eConsent now, and it’s exciting to see. So what are you most excited for in 2018? You know, I think this has been a really great discussion as far as 2017-2018, but what are you looking forward to most as we move into 2018?
I think personally, the main reason why I’m doing this, what I’m doing here at CRF Health, is to really see those bigger studies with eConsent and see those patients be better informed using eConsent. So that’s what I’m looking forward to and excited about.
That’s great. Yeah, I think we can all agree with that. Well thank you so much for joining us today. And for anyone who wants more information about eConsent, we have tons of resources on our resource hub. You can go to resources.crfhealth.com. There’s also going to be a link after this video that you can click on to learn more about electronic informed consent. And let me just wrap it up by saying thank you so much for joining us today, Mika. I really appreciate your time, and this was a really great discussion and I really look forward to seeing what happens in 2018 and connecting again when we’re preparing for 2019.
Thank you, Jackie. Thank you for having me, and have a nice rest of the day and rest of the year as well.
Thank you so much, you too. Bye bye.