The Resonance Test 68: Matt O’Donnell of Microsoft

The healthcare industry discovered something critical during the pandemic—when clinical sites are shut down, it *is* possible to go remote. Successfully. This is one of the many important things Matt O’Donnell, an Industry Executive, Health and Life Sciences at Microsoft, tells our Jonathon Swersey on the latest episode of *The Resonance Test.* O’Donnell says that COVID “brought clinical trials into mainstream American and made it a common topic that people were discussing.” He explains how in recentralized clinical trials medications are directly shipped to customers instead of a site, “so that impacts the supply chain aspects of it.” Vaccines were temperature-controlled, “So you’re making sure that the vaccine is delivered within the appropriate ranges. And [considering] things like IoT, where Microsoft was involved, to verify that a vaccine was delivered end-to-end, and it would still be within the range that’s required.” There is, O’Donnell says, a silver lining in the shift to decentralized clinical trials: Now that we’re “allowing people to participate more remotely, [it] really opens up the world—to where more diverse participants can be a part of the trial itself.” He and Swersey talk about diversity and DCT, the role business objectives play, how artificial intelligence can help comb through research and match up patients and trials, and how the 21ST Century Cures Act factors in here. Listen to the episode on and you’ll conclude that the future clinical trials promise to be, for patients, physicians, and pharma, considerably less of a trial. Host: Kenji Ross Engineer: Kyp Pilalas Producer: Ken Gordon