The Scope of Things

In this episode of the Scope of Things, host Deborah Borfitz covers the latest news on an AI model for comparing drug effectiveness, adoption of minimal residual disease as an endpoint for multiple myeloma, using HIV treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, lack of diversity in Alzheimer’s trials, and more. Yvonne Rodriguez, founder and CEO of Egality Sciences, also joins the conversation to talk about...

In this episode of the Scope of Things, host Deborah Borfitz brings you the monthly breakdown on current events, such as tailoring medications to individual patients using digital twins, the use of a skin biopsy test to diagnose neurodegenerative diseases, and the launch of a European-wide platform promoting access to care for all. She also speaks with Michael Snyder, chair of the department of ge...

In this month’s episode of the Scope of Things, host Deborah Borfitz covers the latest news and emerging trends, including the launch of a company using single-solution software to connect a global network of clinical trial sites to study sponsors, a pharmacy-first program in the UK, a centralized staffing initiative at the National Cancer Institute, progress in getting patient-derived organoids i...

In this month’s episode of the Scope of Things , host Deborah Borfitz catches listeners up with the latest news of the clinical trials and research industry, starting with SCOPE 2024, where a record-breaking 4,000 attendees arrived to learn and discuss about new products, technology, and ideas. Other hot topics in this episode include convergence of clinical research and clinical care, patient cen...

In this episode of The Scope of Things , host Deborah Borfitz provides a rundown of the latest news in the clinical trials field: a massive health research initiative in the UK, widespread overdosing of trial participants, a cholesterol-lowering vaccine, the growing popularity of phage therapy, a novel scoring mechanism for de-risking trials for chronic diseases, a strategy for making staph vaccin...

New Year, new podcast format! In 2024’s first episode of the Scope of Things , host Deborah Borfitz gives you the latest news from the clinical trials industry, including AI’s role in the creation of digital twins, the obesity epidemic and the drugs intended to combat it, improving diversity in trial candidates, and more. We also have expert advice from Ward Lemaire, VP Head of Data Management and...

 Can clinical trials be a helpful treatment option for patients? In this episode of The Scope of Things, host Deborah Borfitz speaks with Colleen Purcell Tenan, MD, Medical Director at Javara, about providing clinical research as a care option for patients. Tenan talks about the benefits of receiving clinical research care from one’s own physician, Javara’s process of matching patients with the ri...

There are concerns surrounding the uses of AI in clinical trials, particularly on the regulations side. In this episode of the Scope of Things, host Deborah Borfitz discusses with Michael Ibara, Pharm. D., Chief Data Officer at Elligo, about the roadblocks and challenges obstructing AI’s potential in clinical trials. Ibara also talks about his perspective on the necessary changes to the clinical t...

Selecting a vendor to do business with can be a tricky, convoluted process. How do you know who is the right fit? In this episode of the Scope of Things podcast, host Deborah Borfitz speaks with Dennis Salotti, Executive Director & Head, Clinical Outsourcing & Innovation at Jazz Pharmaceuticals, who shares what he knows about the complex vendor qualification process and the various ways sp...

What can be done to improve clinical trials for patients with chronic wounds? In this new episode of the Scope of Things, host Deborah Borfitz speaks with Dr. Caroline Fife, world-renowned wound care physician and Chief Medical Officer at Intellicure, about the clinical realities of chronic wounds and wound treatment. Dr. Fife shares her thoughts on the “sorry state” of clinical trials for wound c...

What role do retail pharmacies have in research studies? In this episode of the Scope of Things, host Deborah Borfitz speaks with Ramita Tandon, Chief Clinical Trials Officer at Walgreens. Tandon discusses how retail pharmacies can play an important role in increasing access and retention in sponsor-lead drug development research. She also shares the specific approaches Walgreens is adopting in th...

In this episode of The Scope of Things , Deb Borfitz speaks with Murray Aitken, Executive Director of the IQVIA Institute, about diversity in clinical development, DEI methods that are and are not working, and the impact diversity has on clinical trials. Aitken also discusses FDA-issued policies to advance diversity and efforts to reduce disparities between subpopulations. He also talks about fact...

Years after serving in the Vietnam War, Virginia Byers Kraus’s father had his hip replaced—three different times. Each time, she said, outcomes were worse. Joint replacement is often the result of osteoarthritis, a degenerative joint disease commonly known as “wear and tear” arthritis. There are no disease-modifying drugs for osteoarthritis and early diagnosis is difficult. But even though the CDC...

When Seqster was first founded in 2016, co-founder Ardy Arianpour had a lot of experience in next-gen sequencing and a vision for how consumers could control their health information. Arianpour envisioned a place where anyone can bring all their health data together in one place and share it on their terms. Since then, Arianpour says he has found many parts of the business challenging. There have...

Dr. Su Golder, associate professor and senior research fellow in the Department of Health Sciences at the University of York, has dedicated a significant portion of her career to improving the reporting of adverse events in clinical research. In this episode, she speaks with host Deborah Borfitz about why adverse events are vital to address but often difficult to ascertain for any given therapeuti...

In 2020, retail pharmacy giant CVS launched CVS Health Clinical Trial Services in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. They aimed to increase patient recruitment and encourage equitable participation in clinical research to accelerate COVID trials. In this episode, Jill Pellegrino, vice president of recruitment and RWE at CVS Health Clinical Trial Services, speaks with host Deborah Borfitz about CVS...

Healthcare professionals are searching for new ways to fight bacterial infections as growing concerns around antibiotic resistance reach new heights. Though bacteriophages or phages—viruses that infect only bacteria—have long since captured scientists’ attention, they are quickly gaining popularity as a new and promising therapeutic tool. In this episode, Graham Hatfull, professor of biological sc...

A self-described “data hippie,” Christopher Boone, vice president and global head of health economics and outcomes research at AbbVie, knows a great deal about using real-world data and generating real-world evidence in clinical trials. Boone sits with host Deborah Borfitz to talk about the disruptive presence of real-world evidence within the clinical trial enterprise and how it encourages resear...

Dr. Loaiza-Bonilla details the importance of equity in increasing access to medical care, the reignition of the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Moonshot program, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s intention to standardize eligibility criteria. He also talks about the Massive Bio platform that could, one day, deliver medication via drones or offer at-home phlebotomy services to assist c...

Jason LaRoche, Director of Clinical Innovation at Janssen Pharmaceuticals, speaks with host Deborah Borfitz about the global efforts launched to shrink the carbon footprint in the clinical trial and healthcare spaces. “If the global healthcare sector were a country, it would be the fifth largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and clinical research is a contributor,” explains LaRoche.  In this episod...

Pregnant women have consistently been underrepresented in clinical trials. With pregnancy studies posing significant risks to the mother and fetus, requiring extensive follow-up procedures, and potentially jeopardizing market approvals, many pharmaceutical companies avoid this demographic almost entirely. As a result, healthcare providers often struggle to access data regarding drug safety in preg...

Pharmacists demonstrate tremendous expertise in drug counseling and dispensation, so it seems undeniable that they should play a prominent role in clinical research. Surprisingly, their skill sets are rarely used in clinical trials. That’s why Founder and CEO Gerald Finken created RxE2, a community-based decentralized trial technology company spearheaded by pharmacists, offering primary stakeholde...

Real-world data certainly plays a substantial role in understanding human health and disease. However, scientists find it increasingly difficult to extract research-specific data from massive unstructured and uncoded data sets. “What we are seeing now is a more proactive anticipatory mission to connect multiple repositories of health data and to enable a strongly de-identified, but fully anonymize...

ClinEco–a clinical trial ecosystem and market network designed to streamline the process of identifying and selecting clinical trial partners–is the first of its kind. Co-founders Dr. Marina Filshtinsky, SVP of Strategy and Product Development, and Micah Lieberman, VP of Community and Business Development, speak with Deborah Borfitz, Clinical Research News senior writer and podcast host, about the...

Jasmine Smith, CEO, and Dr. Deborah Duong, CTO, of Rejuve. AI help patients achieve a healthy and extended life expectancy regardless of economic standing. Rejuve is the world’s first decentralized AI longevity research network that provides equitable health and wellness solutions. The platform focuses on treatment accessibility, patient-centric research, data ownership, and fair labor. It also op...