Medidata, Labcorp Collaborate to Boost Digital Biomarker Discovery

Medidata and Labcorp Drug Development recently entered into an agreement to expand decentralized clinical trial capabilities and digital biomarker discovery.

The companies will leverage Medidata Sensor Cloud. The platform processes medical-grade sensor data within drug, vaccine, and device clinical trials across Labcorp’s clinical trial portfolio, boosting the company’s decentralized trial offerings.

Sensor Cloud is used to manage a broad range of sensor and digital health technology data and establish interoperability with other clinical data sources.

The platform integrates with Medidata Clinical Cloud to support remote, continuous patient data collection from both Medidata and third-party, medical-grade sensors, a Medidata spokesperson explained.

Overall, the initiative provides a better view of the patient experience by transforming how patient data is collected, managed, analyzed, and leveraged.

“Sensor Cloud solves key technical, operational, and analytical challenges that have historically stifled the widespread usage of medical devices in clinical research,” Ben Schlatka, vice president of digital biomarker solutions at Medidata, said in the announcement.

“This technology is urgently needed, with device usage dramatically escalating as patients, sponsors and sites demand greater flexibility during clinical trials,” Schlatka continued.

Labcorp and Medidata will also use Sensor Cloud to co-develop digital biomarkers across a range of medical devices and therapeutic areas. The goal is to build digital biomarkers that researchers can use to advance therapeutic research and create new digital diagnostics.

Digital biomarkers are behavior data collected by digital devices used to explain, influence, or predict health-related outcomes. Sensor Cloud helps standardize data for researchers, patients, and clinicians in clinical research and development.

The first project under the collaboration will be an at-home version of the Six Minute Walk Test. The test is used in clinics to measure functional capacity in patients with heart failure, pulmonary conditions, physical function disorders, and rare diseases.

“High-quality, medical-grade sensors offer the potential to understand patient disease processes with objective digital precision in a real-world setting, replacing subjective assessments that have limited clinical value,” said Bill Hanlon, PhD, president of clinical therapeutic and regulatory sciences at Labcorp.