Putting the Patient at the Center of Rare Disease Clinical Trials

The recruitment of patients for rare disease clinical trials can be challenging because of issues such as small patient populations and their geographic dispersity, but the failure to take a patient-centric approach in designing trial protocols can add to the difficulties sponsors face in conducting such studies. The Center for Rare Diseases at PRA Health Sciences recently issued a toolkit focused on patient-centric trial development for sponsors, participants, and advocates. We spoke to Scott Schliebner, senior vice president and head of the Center for Rare Diseases, about designing patient-centric clinical trials, why it matters, and what sponsors can do to stay focused on patients.