The use of telemedicine in dermatology clinical trials was on a steady increase from 2013 to 2017, but faced turbulence ever since, according to GlobalData’s clinical trial database. It most recently peaked in 2020 with 60% of all decentralised dermatology trials using telemedicine, most likely due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Yet, it seems that telemedicine has not made massive strides in the past two years to win over the hearts of sponsors for them to use it in their dermatology clinical trials. The use of telemedicine in dermatology DCTs dropped to 43%, with a slight increase to 56% in 2022.
GlobalData is the parent company of this news service.
While there has been some willingness from sponsors to include telemedicine in secondary or exploratory endpoints, it still has been minimal, says Johnny Peppers, PhD, executive director of drug development services at ICON. Even then, the telemedicine approach is used to support primary efficacy assessments and not to replace them.
Regulators mostly accept endpoints that require in-person examination of the skin. As such, a hand on examination, which is one of the most common assessments in dermatology, is impossible to complete via telemedicine.
It is also not possible to assess certain primary endpoints such as body surface area or investigator/physician global assessments via telemedicine as they are highly subjective, says Peppers. “While there is potential in telemedicine to be used as secondary efficacy and safety exploration, at present there are no clinical trials seeking to obtain label-enabling data that utilise telemedicine to obtain [it],” he adds.