Today, Vodafone, a provider of mobile communications, announced that it has signed an agreement with Exco InTouch, a provider of compliant, interactive mobile patient management solutions, to deliver a solution to improve patient compliance and data quality in clinical research.

The Vodafone Patient Reported Outcomes (Vodafone PRO) enables data to be gathered as trial participants report their experiences quickly and easily using their own mobile phone, the press release states.

The service, available globally, combines Vodafone’s mobile and consumer insight with Exco InTouch’s background in patient engagement.

Exco InTouch’s solutions provide simple, non-intrusive and compliant channels of communication, enabling sponsors and contract research organizations to find and retain the right patients, as well as solutions to collect high-quality patient data.

“With this collaboration, Vodafone is confident that we can offer our clients the most innovative and effective clinical research solutions available in the global market,” said Axel Nemetz, head of mHealth Solutions for Vodafone, in the press release. “Our involvement will enable sponsors to choose our services for entire therapeutic areas around the world.”

Vodafone PRO can be configured for different study protocols in all phases of clinical research to collect patient data, allowing large volumes of patient data to be securely transferred, validated and analyzed in clinical trials.

Rury R. Holman, FRCP believes there’s a need “for a systematic approach to assessing clinical trial data and improved reporting.” Chairing a European Association for the Study of Diabetes meeting in the UK late last year to discuss the lack of agreement on what constitutes “the burden of truth” required for drug licensing for clinical use or the withdrawal of a drug from the market due to safety concerns, Holman said there is a need for a systematic approach to assessing rapidly evolving data coming from different sources.

It’s hard to believe, but only 22 percent of trials that should have reported results had actually done so, in 2007, according to a story by Peggy Schaeffer. A possible reason why this occurred could be that patients had trouble reporting back to researchers. 

Sciencedaily.com also reports that many clinical trials in the U.S. are not providing their findings in a publicly available database, despite a recent law that compels them to do so, say researchers at The University of Nottingham.

Perhaps making it easier for patients to do so could help this problem.