uMed Extends Role in HARMONIE RSV Study with Collection of Wheeze Data

uMed has announced its continued involvement in the HARMONIE infant RSV Study, contributing to the delivery of a study extension designed to support further regulatory submission.

The Company’s involvement in the HARMONIE extension project follows the successful enrollment of 735 infants into the HARMONIE Phase 3b study within just 5 months.

Supporting the extension project, uMed will collect wheeze data from the patients’ health records 24 months after their participation in the HARMONIE study

uMed’s ability to directly engage primary care practices and securely access and link health record data at speed, without the requirement to recontact participants will significantly reduce the burden on trial sites and expedite data collection. Where required, uMed will also collect secondary care data on behalf of the trial site.

Read more about uMed’s involvement in the HARMONIE Phase 3b study here

If you’d like to discuss how uMed can support data collection or patient recruitment for your study, please don’t hesitate to contact us. 

AccessCMD: Next-generation Cardiometabolic Cohort hits 2000 patient milestone in less than 4 months

Providing researchers with unparalleled opportunity to access novel endpoints

London, UK, July 10, 2024 – Healthcare evidence-generation and technology company uMed have announced the successful enrollment of over 2,000 participants into their AccessCMD Cardiometabolic Cohort less than 4 months after starting enrollment. 

The exponential growth of the cohort within this short time frame highlights the commitment of patients within this disease area to engage in research, and showcases the effectiveness of uMed’s unique model in providing research access that has previously been unavailable.

AccessCMD is a novel decentralised registry and integrated clinical research platform, ethics committee-approved under a master protocol framework. As with all uMed Cohorts, AccessCMD is powered by the Company’s ACCESS Research Platform which is partnered with a vast network of healthcare institutions in the UK and US. This enables rapid and targeted identification of patients via their health record data, and engagement via SMS, email, letter and phone, on behalf of their healthcare institution. Upon invitation to the cohort, patients provide their consent to be re-contacted for the collection of additional data or participate in additional research studies. 

Participants within AccessCMD actively contribute data from their Electronic Medical Records (EMR), genetic tests, wearable devices and patient-reported outcome surveys, offering an unparalleled opportunity for researchers within this disease area to access novel endpoints.

“From the rapid growth we have seen with AccessCMD it is clear that patients are willing and eager to participate in research, they just need to be provided the opportunity to do so, and at uMed we are empowering this unique access.

We achieve this through a combination of tailored communication on behalf of the patients’ trusted healthcare provider, offering research opportunities that are highly relevant to the individual’s health circumstances, and allowing patients to participate from the comfort of their own home” commented Anil Jina, MD. Chief Medical Officer at uMed.

With the rise in global obesity and related diseases, cardiometabolic research is capturing the attention of research groups as they work towards the development of new therapies and tools to address this health crisis. 

The potential for these therapies to benefit such a large proportion of the population is evident, however a challenge for researchers at all stages of the therapy lifecycle is the ability to access the required data points from large enough representative sub-cohorts.

Cardiometabolic disease describes numerous conditions, each interacting through intricate pathways and mechanisms that vary among individuals, many of which remain incompletely understood. Therefore researchers are often faced with the obstacles of finding a sufficient number of patients that meet their very specific study criteria, and obtaining the necessary endpoints needed to answer their research questions. Available databases and registries are static, preventing the easy collection of custom data, and site-based research is time consuming and expensive to set-up. 

“We’ve seen the huge impact of recent therapeutic developments within cardiometabolics, and for the many researchers now entering this field,   accessibility and speed are key.” commented Dr Matt Wilson, CEO & Founder of uMed.  “uMed is bridging the evidence gaps that currently exist between static databases and site-based studies, enabling the rapid collection of custom datasets without the requirement to start studies from scratch. AccessCMD presents researchers with a large cohort of pre-consented patients that researchers can rapidly re-contact to access additional custom endpoints to augment the expanding baseline dataset. ” 

“The rate of growth of AccessCMD is compelling and the potential for further growth is exciting.  Over a quarter of the population in the UK have risk factors, such high BMI, for serious cardiometabolic diseases. uMed’s integration with healthcare institutions across the UK is providing access to a large number of these patients. If we extrapolate the rate of growth we are seeing in AccessCMD to these wider population numbers, we expect to be able to improve access for patients to relevant research studies and to present researchers with important opportunities to extend their research to groups who have been historically underserved.” commented Dr Mark Toshner, Chief Investigator of AccessCMD

AccessCMD is currently recruiting patients across the UK via uMed’s healthcare network, with plans to launch the Cohort in the US by the end of 2024.

AccessPD: a valuable tool to address evidence gaps in device remote monitoring of Parkinson’s disease

Guidance released by NICE earlier this year considers how people living with Parkinson’s Disease and their carers could benefit from remote device technologies, and the clinical and cost effectiveness of the use of the technologies. Remote monitoring devices provide Parkinson’s Disease (PD) symptom data that enables clinicians to make better informed decisions about the care they provide, which in turn supports patients with improved symptom management and quality of life.

The guidance highlights the currently insufficient evidence surrounding the impact of using these devices in the NHS on quality of life of Parkinson’s patients and their carers, and a lack of clarity about how these devices affect NHS resources.  Therefore, NICE recommends that more evidence is generated whilst these technologies are being used in the NHS.

To support this, NICE has released an evidence generation plan which outlines the evidence gaps and what real-world data needs to be collected for a review of the technologies again in the future. 

uMed’s AccessPD Cohort is referred to in this document as a valuable resource for setting up research studies.

AccessPD: A Unique Approach to Evidence Generation

AccessPD is a novel decentralised registry and integrated clinical research platform that provides researchers with access to evidence that doesn’t exist in other databases.

NICE highlights AccessPD as a valuable data source to address the evidence gaps that exist with the use of these technologies in the NHS. 

Within the context of the outlined plan, AccessPD provides opportunities to immediately commence a longitudinal parallel cohort study, for the ongoing collection of data on the use of these technologies, from a pre-consented cohort of patients with a diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease.

AccessPD allows:

  • Data beyond that routinely available: Participants within AccessPD are actively contributing data from their Electronic Medical Records (EMR), genetic tests, wearable devices used at-home and patient-reported outcome surveys. This provides access to a rich source of regulatory grade data which can then be augmented with the collection of additional custom data as required to answer specific research questions.

  • Immediate data collection: The AccessPD master protocol is ethics approved, so researchers can begin collecting data immediately.

  • Population-wide patient access: AccessPD comprises nearly 1000 pre-consented participants with a diagnosis of Parksinson’s Disease. The cohort is powered by uMed’s ACCESS Research Platform which is embedded across a vast network of healthcare institutions across the UK. This enables rapid and targeted identification of patients via their health record data, and engagement on behalf of their healthcare institution.
  • Dedicated Patient support: For Parkinson’s Disease patients, communication and technology may be a barrier to participation. AccessPD provides a dedicated patient support team that can help participants and carers through the study process. This leads to improved participation, and representation of a wider patient population.
  • Pre-consented, research ready patients: Upon invitation to the cohort, patients provide their consent to be re-contacted for the collection of additional data or participate in additional research studies. This means we can rapidly contact patients to collect additional data, without having to restart the recruitment and/or consent process from scratch.
  • Alleviate pressure on study budget and staff resource: uMed facilitates device delivery and remote training, as well as data collection and aggregation, which would otherwise need to be factored into resource and study budgets.

If you’d like to discuss how uMed’s AccessPD can provide access to the evidence required for your research project please contact our team at hello@umed.io.

uMed partners with the Global Parkinson’s Genetics Program (GP2) to address emerging research demands in Parkinson’s Disease

  • Genetic samples remotely collected as part of uMed’s AccessPD Cohort to contribute to the international GP2 Program. 
  • Analyses of samples will be linked back to the AccessPD Core clinical dataset (combining electronic health record data and patient reported outcomes), providing PD researchers with comprehensive resources.
  • AccessPD supports GP2’s mission to expand sample collection from groups traditionally  under-represented in PD genetics studies.

Cambridge, MA, June 18 – Healthcare evidence-generation and technology company uMed today announced they have entered into a partnership with the Global Parkinson’s Genetics Program (GP2) to support expansion of the international genetic initiative. uMed will be providing access to genetic samples collected as part of their AccessPD Cohort Study. 

The Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP) initiative launched GP2 in 2019, building on previous funding efforts from The Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF).  ASAP is a coordinated research initiative to advance targeted basic research for Parkinson’s disease (PD). ASAP is devoted to accelerating the pace of discovery and informing the path to a cure for PD through collaboration, research-enabling resources, and data sharing.  

AccessPD is a unique Cohort Study of patients diagnosed with PD, that remotely collects data from pre-consented patients at home and links with EMR and clinical data to build a comprehensive regulatory grade dataset that can be further augmented with custom endpoints. 

Under the announced agreement, uMed will be contributing anonymized genetic samples, remotely collected from consented participants within AccessPD.

GP2 will perform genetic analyses of the samples to feed into the program, and results will also be linked back to additional endpoints within the AccessPD clinical dataset including ePROs, eClinROs, EHR and device data.  

The ongoing collection of genetic samples is part of the AccessPD protocol. uMed observes on average a 72% completion rate of the saliva-based genetic tests sent to patients within the cohort, highlighting the formidable engagement of participants, and the strength of uMed’s ACCESS Cohort model to build patient communities and encourage participation and retention.

Dr Matt Wilson, CEO & Founder at uMed commented “We’re delighted to be contributing to the GP2 program and excited about the impact that this partnership will have on AccessPD and the future of Parkinson’s research. AccessPD already provides researchers with a comprehensive picture of the patient, and this partnership with GP2 allows us to expedite the expansion of this rich dataset.  It’s programs like AccessPD and GP2 that will be game changing to research in the future, and we are proud to be part of the process!”

In alignment with GP2’s mission to expand global genetics studies to include populations underrepresented in research, AccessPD’s unique decentralized approach will maximise the involvement of these populations in the program.

AccessPD is underpinned by uMed’s ACCESS Research Platform which is embedded across an expansive network of healthcare institutions across the US and UK, and allows for engagement with patients on behalf of the healthcare provider.  Combined with the remote collection of data from patients at home, this approach provides access to large patient populations, including those that would normally face economic, geographical and disease-related barriers.

Press release on prweb.com

Find out more about AccessPD here, or chat to our team to discover how AccessPD can support your research goals.

uMed announces the enrollment of 1000 patients into their AccessCMD Cardiometabolic Patient Cohort

uMed have announced the successful enrollment of 1000 participants into their AccessCMD Cardiometabolic Disease Cohort, just 2 months after the study launched in the UK.

The growth of AccessCMD within this time frame highlights the capability of uMed’s unique approach of patient identification and tailored engagement to rapidly build a database of pre-consented patients within specific disease areas.

AccessCMD provides researchers access to custom data and insights based on specific research criteria.

Unlike traditional registries that are static and do not allow for the collection of customised data, AccessCMD combines routinely collected EMR with outcomes collected directly from patients at-home including genetic tests, wearable device data and clinically validated scales.

This provides researchers with a rich source of regulatory grade data that can be further augmented with the collection of custom endpoints. Furthermore, AccessCMD enables the running of standalone studies within the infrastructure of the existing cohort.

The alarming rise in global prevalence of cardiometabolic disease, and the resulting economic and healthcare burdens associated with managing these chronic conditions, has prompted a surge of research into developing effective preventative and therapeutic measures.

In particular, the effectiveness of the GLP-1 receptor agonists has been hitting the headlines, with recent research highlighting the benefits of these drugs to significantly lower the risk of cardiovascular events.[1]

With these cardiometabolic disorders affecting an increasingly large proportion of the global population, there is demand for wide-scale research with groups that are representative of the entire population, allowing for a true understanding of these diseases and the impact of therapies and treatments. The challenge for researchers is finding a large enough group of patients that meet the very specific criteria to conduct robust studies.

uMed’s ACCESS Research Platform and AccessCMD protocol is embedded across a vast network of healthcare providers across the UK, providing access to a wide patient population and allowing for rapid identification of those with a diagnosis of cardiometabolic disease. Patients are sent tailored engagements, on behalf of their trusted healthcare provider, inviting them to participate in the Cohort, and are asked for their consent to be recontacted for additional research opportunities.

This unique approach, combined with fully remote data collection, mitigates biases that often arise in research due to factors such as patient location, socioeconomic circumstances, race, gender, and age. The result is the development of a diverse cohort of patients that can be rapidly and repeatedly contacted to collect additional data points as required.

AccessCMD continues to be offered to patients via their healthcare providers in the UK, and aims to launch in the US in by the end of 2024.

[1] https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT03574597

uMed helps address critical evidence gaps in cardiometabolic disease research

  • uMed launches pioneering AccessCMD patient cohort facilitating access to custom data and insights to help accelerate cardiometabolic disease research
  • Cardiometabolic disease is now the leading cause of mortality globally and is placing a huge financial burden on healthcare systems and the economy
  • uMed have already recruited over 500 patients into the cohort, achieving over 15% consent rate from the first patient engagements sent, with significant potential for expansion across UK and US healthcare networks 

uMed has announced the successful enrollment of the first 500 UK participants into their groundbreaking AccessCMD cohort of patients with cardiometabolic disease.

AccessCMD will provide researchers with unique tools to access custom data and insights based on specific research criteria, to accelerate research and understanding across this group of conditions.

Cardiometabolic Disease encompasses a range of conditions including type 2 diabetes, stroke, hypertension, and congestive heart failure. It is now the number one cause of mortality across the globe, accounting for 31% of global deaths. [1] 

In the UK the NHS spends around £10 billion a year on type 2 diabetes, approximately 10% of its entire budget,[2] and it is estimated that £7.4 billion is being spent on healthcare related to CVD, with an annual cost to the wider economy of £15.8 billion.[3]

With the prevalence of cardiometabolic diseases on a sharp incline globally, research into this group of diseases is on the rise. 

Following the success of initial engagements sent to patients, which resulted in a 15% consent rate, uMed is now rolling out further engagements via their extensive UK healthcare provider network. 

uMed’s unique approach to patient identification, outreach, and consent, combined with fully decentralised data collection, mitigates biases that often arise in research due to factors such as patient location, socioeconomic circumstances, race, gender, and age.

‘The conversion rate we achieved from our first engagements is compelling; if we extrapolate this rate to the eligible patient population covered by our healthcare provider network in the UK, we’ll be able to offer thousands of patients the opportunity to participate in research and very quickly build a unique and rich source of information in Cardiometabolic Disease” commented Anil S. Jina, MD, Chief Medical Officer & President North America, at uMed.

Unlike traditional registries that are static and do not easily allow for the generation of custom data, AccessCMD enables re-engagement with patients that have already consented to participate in additional studies. This allows for the rapid collection of custom data that holds the answer to specific research questions, in the form of electronic health records, clinical outcomes, patient-reported outcomes and biosamples. 

Dr Mark Toshner, Consultant Respiratory Physician at the University of Cambridge, and AccesssPD Principal Investigator, commented “The potential that AccessCMD holds for research is extensive. The prevalence of these diseases has grown at a substantial rate over the past 20 years and the consequence is a huge burden on the populations’ health and our healthcare systems,  so there is much research to be done to understand the mechanisms contributing to these poor health outcomes.

“Conducting research at a large-scale with patient groups that represent the entire population is essential for developing a true understanding of the disease and underlying burden or unmet needs. The challenge for researchers is finding enough patients that meet the very specific criteria to conduct robust studies.’

“AccessCMD provides researchers with access to custom data to answer their key research questions, as and when required, and even enables the running of standalone studies within the infrastructure of the existing cohort. This will significantly expedite the development of understandings and treatments to reduce the burden of these diseases.”

The launch of AccessCMD follows the success of uMed’s inaugural AccessPD cohort study, which has so far recruited over 500 patients diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in the UK, 

Additionally, the company has recently begun the roll-out of engagements to patients with Interstitial Lung Disease, with nearly 100 patients in the UK now consented into their AccessILD cohort.

The swift succession of AccessCMD underscores the popularity of uMed’s Cohort Platform Studies amongst both patients and healthcare providers, highlighting the value for researchers within cardiometabolic disease and many more disease areas. 

Plans are underway to launch AccessPD, AccessILD and AccessCMD in the USA in 2024.

 

 

[1] https://www.roche.com/solutions/focus-areas/cardiometabolic

[2] https://www.england.nhs.uk/2022/03/nhs-prevention-programme-cuts-chances-of-type-2-diabetes-for-thousands/

[3] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-matters-preventing-cardiovascular-disease/health-matters-preventing-cardiovascular-disease#:~:text=Yearly%20healthcare%20costs%20in%20England,economy%20of%20%C2%A315.8%20billion.

Manuscript: AccessPD as a next generation registry to accelerate Parkinson’s disease research

We are excited to share our first manuscript from AccessPD, co-authored by Dr. Yun Hsuan Chang from uMed and Professor Alastair Noyce from Queen Mary University of London, now published in the Nature Journal – NPJ Parkinson’s Disease.

Access the full publication here.

AccessPD represents a ‘next generation’ registry in Parkinson’s Disease, leveraging uMed’s ACCESS Research Platform to merge clinical outcomes from electronic health records with patient-reported outcomes directly from those within the AccessPD cohort.

The authors have adeptly presented the most common diagnoses before and after a Parkinson’s Disease diagnosis, the most commonly prescribed medications among the cohort, and identified participants who could potentially benefit from device-aided therapies using consensus criteria.

uMed helps researchers move closer to understanding Parkinson’s risk factors

uMed helps Queen Mary University of London and University College London move closer to understanding Parkinson’s risk factors as first-of-its-kind study exceeds 10,000 participant milestone

  • PREDICT-PD a joint study between Queen Mary University of London and University College London (UCL), and funded by Parkinson’s UK, has met its goal of enrolling more than 10,000 participants.
  • The research project, which identifies and engages people aged between 60 and 80 years old who did not have Parkinson’s, aims to identify those at high risk of the disease before symptoms appear.
  • uMed enrolled over 7,000 eligible participants through its network of 500 primary care group providers in the UK, and increased monthly enrollment by 275%.
  • Over one in 10 patients invited by uMed consented to participate, compared to the industry average patient consent rate of 3% for clinical research.
  • uMed’s involvement also led to the enrollment of a larger population of patients from ethnic minority groups, increasing diversity from ~3% to ~10% of the study’s total cohort.

LONDON, 14 February 2024: PREDICT-PD a groundbreaking research project, which aims to identify people at higher risk of Parkinson’s disease or before the symptoms appear, has exceeded its milestone of 10,000 participants.

uMed, the health and research technology company that has supported PREDICT-PD since March 2020, played a crucial role in expanding the study’s participant base through its network of over 500 primary care provider groups representing five million patients in the UK. It achieved this by linking aggregated health record data to pre-screen eligible participants, meaning it was able to rapidly engage 36,269 patients via text message on behalf of the patients’ healthcare providers, without imposing any additional workload.

By making the study accessible to a wider population and engaging only suitable patients, uMed has recruited over 7,000 participants to PREDICT-PD, increasing monthly enrollment by a staggering 275%. Over one in 10 patients invited by uMed on behalf of their recognised healthcare provider consented to participate in the study, which is a significant achievement given that only 2% of the population in England participates in clinical trials each year, underscoring uMed’s ability to engage a larger portion of the UK population in vital clinical research.

Professor Alastair Noyce, Consultant Neurologist and Researcher at Queen Mary University of London’s Wolfson Institute of Population Health, comments: “Our study was one of the first to focus on the earliest phases of Parkinson’s, offering critical insights into this stage of the disease, and recruitment has progressed at a pace we never expected. We are another step closer to understanding who in the general population might be more likely to be diagnosed with Parkinson’s and expedite the discovery of improved treatments and, ultimately, a cure for this debilitating condition.

“The success of the PREDICT-PD study demonstrates the impact of leveraging technology and the use of health record data to accelerate research. uMed’s ability to rapidly identify large populations of eligible participants using EHR, combined with automated communication sent on behalf of the patient’s healthcare provider, has meant we’ve seen a significant increase and speed in enrollment each month since working with them.”

Dr Katherine Fletcher, Research Communications Lead at Parkinson’s UK, comments: “This is one of several ground-breaking studies Parkinson’s UK is proud to be funding and we are delighted that there’s been such a positive take-up in research participation for PREDICT-PD.”

“We know Parkinson’s doesn’t discriminate. It is vital that research is representative of the whole Parkinson’s community, something that currently is not the case. Having a wider pool of the UK population involved in clinical trials means we can ultimately learn more about the progression of Parkinson’s, speed up diagnosis and access to new and better treatments for all.”

Notably, uMed’s involvement has led to the enrollment of a large population of patients from ethnic minorities, increasing diversity of the study’s total cohort from 3% to 10%. Its technology enabled participating healthcare providers to move away from standardised patient outreach to individually tailor communications. By using Electronic Health Records (EHR) to segment cohorts into different subgroups, eligible patients could be targeted with bespoke messages or visuals, increasing participation of underrepresented groups.

Ethnic diversity is a vital issue in Parkinson’s research however people from minority backgrounds continue to be underrepresented. The large majority of UK participants are affluent, well-educated and white. This is currently reflected in research not only in the UK but across Europe and North America It means understanding the genetic basis, environmental risk factors, clinical manifestations and response to treatment is heavily biased, as described in Ethnic Variation in the Manifestation of Parkinson’s Disease, a paper co-authored by Professor Alastair Noyce.

Dr Matt Wilson, uMed’s founder and CEO, adds: “Despite a step change in awareness on the need for diverse participants, clinical trials in western health systems fail to reflect real world diversity. Particularly, there is limited evidence on the risk factors of Parkinson’s in Black, Asian and Hispanic populations but PREDICT-PD has clearly increased ethnic diversity and therefore the generalisability of its findings for the general UK population.

“The study team at Queen Mary University of London achieved this by targeting eligible participants, who identified as being from an ethnic minority, with images of ethnically diverse patients in study communications. Tailoring communications in this way resulted in a significant increase in the proportion of participants coming from a minority background.”

In addition to uMed’s collaboration with Professor Alastair Noyce on the PREDICT-PD study, he is also principal investigator on uMed’s ongoing observational study AccessPD, a next-generation patient registry supporting the development of better treatments for patients with Parkinson’s.

For more information about uMed and how the company is supporting Parkinson’s Disease research, please get in touch.

uMed Partners with The Michael J. Fox Foundation

uMed Partners with The Michael J. Fox Foundation to Support Wide-scale Study Exploring Link Between Smell Loss and Parkinson’s

  • uMed partners with The Michael J. Fox Foundation to run its smell test study in the UK as part of a global programme to explore the link between smell loss and Parkinson’s disease
  • uMed will enroll eligible patients from over 500 primary care group providers and facilitate the distribution of 15,000 scratch-and-sniff home tests
  • Its technology and network address challenges facing clinical trials, which include engaging large and inclusive patient cohorts as well as empowering over-stretched healthcare professionals to contribute to important research

LONDON, 20 September 2023: uMed, the health and research technology company, today announced The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) has selected its service to support the global expansion of its wide-scale study exploring the link between loss of smell and brain disease.

The smell test study, which is part of MJFF’s landmark brain health initiative, the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI), will utilise uMed’s network of more than 500 primary care provider groups in the UK to engage eligible participants. uMed will facilitate the distribution of 15,000 University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Tests (UPSIT), a scientifically validated scratch-and-sniff test of smell ability, to individuals aged 60 and older in the UK without Parkinson’s.

Current research into Parkinson’s indicates that 100% of major brain disorders are associated with smell loss and 96% of newly diagnosed Parkinson’s patients have lost some of this sense. In addition, the condition can precede diagnosis by years or even decades.

However, the challenge — as with many research studies — is in engaging large patient cohorts that represent a diverse population. While large academic centres and research sites are set up to support research, many struggle to enrol and retain large numbers of patients. Reuse of limited, local clinical populations can also affect the generalisability of findings to the wider population.

Across all research, 85% of clinical trials face delays and 30% never get off the ground due to a lack of volunteers. By leveraging technologies such as uMed, it’s possible to rapidly and efficiently reach more participants and enable the delivery of larger, more ambitious trials than ever before.

By partnering with uMed, The Michael J. Fox Foundation can access hundreds of primary care providers whose involvement in clinical studies is critical for the advancements in research. Without uMed, these non-traditional research sites often lack the financial and human capital or the technical tools required to regularly engage their patients while balancing care.

uMed will send an SMS invite to potential participants, aged over 60 and without a diagnosis of Parkinson’s, on behalf of the patient’s recognised care provider before taking them to a screening portal. The free and simple scratch-and-sniff tests will then be delivered to consenting participants who will upload their results online. Eligible volunteers will be contacted by a nurse and referred to a clinic site for additional follow-up. Volunteers who join PPMI at a site share critical information through clinical assessments, imaging scans and biological samples over at least five years.

“Advances toward better treatments and cures for Parkinson’s disease require partnership with a diverse, broad base of study participants,” says Maggie Kuhl, MJFF Vice President of Research Engagement. “More simple and efficient tools that can deliver participation opportunities will help us overcome barriers to engagement and connect with more potential volunteers. uMed’s network and service is a valuable tool in helping our PPMI study drive faster recruitment of representative populations, speeding breakthroughs for all.”

The study, which has started enrollment in the UK, has already seen increased engagement of potential volunteers wanting more information and consenting to receive smell tests at home. To date, a third of patients who have been sent an SMS invitation to the study are clicking through to the study website to find out more information. In addition, 11% have consented to receive a smell test kit at home.

Dr Matt Wilson, uMed’s founder and CEO, comments: “We are proud to play our part in accelerating significant advancements in Parkinson’s research. Our technology will help The Michael J. Fox Foundation to reach its goals of driving more than 100,000 UPSIT completions globally. Engaging with a patient cohort of this size is critical if we are to enhance our understanding of this progressive disease and develop advanced therapies to improve patient outcomes.”

Wilson adds, “That being said, we know how hard it is to get impactful research off the ground. Our technical infrastructure and consumer-based marketing techniques enable researchers to develop, manage and engage large-scale patient cohorts in research programs. What’s more, we are democratising access to research for non-traditional research sites and their patients who might otherwise lack the technical infrastructure and staff capacity required to engage tens of thousands of patients across multiple studies. The result is that many patients contacted by uMed have never been invited to participate in research before. In a separate Parkinson’s study supported by uMed, more than 80% of patients reported they had never been asked to participate in research before.”

The partnership between uMed and The Michael J. Fox Foundation follows uMed’s experience in successfully delivering other Parkinson’s studies including the Predict-PD study run by Queen Mary University of London (also a PPMI clinical site). uMed increased monthly patient enrolment by 275%, as well as successfully recruiting a large population of patients from ethnic minorities. It is also running an ongoing observational study AccessPD, a next-generation patient registry which is supporting the development of better treatments for patients with Parkinson’s.

– ENDS –

Our Future Health partners with uMed

Our Future Health partners with uMed to facilitate recruitment of volunteers across the South of the UK

uMed is delighted to announce it is now engaging volunteers for Our Future Health, the UK’s largest health research programme, designed to enable the discovery and testing of more effective approaches to prevention, earlier detection and treatment of diseases. uMed is automating the distribution of SMS invitations via its vast network of GP partners, to support the recruitment of volunteers from across the South of the UK.

Our Future Health is inviting millions of people from all backgrounds to take part and provide information about their health and lifestyles, to create an incredibly detailed picture that represents the whole of the UK. This will provide a world-leading resource for academic and commercial researchers to undertake discovery research on early indicators of disease.

uMed is a health technology company that partners with GP practices to connect patients with medical research studies relevant to their individual health circumstances. The uMed Recruit platform is used by practices across the UK to engage their patients for clinical studies, registries and population health initiatives at scale. uMed’s technology takes on the workload of identifying, screening and engaging patients, so that the GP practice can offer its patients highly relevant research opportunities whilst continuing to focus on patient care.

On behalf of the GPs in their provider network, uMed is facilitating automated outreach via SMS to eligible, consented patients across Poole, Bournemouth, Portsmouth and Southampton, inviting them to take part in Our Future Health.

Volunteers that consent to participate in the programme will be asked to fill in a questionnaire about their health and lifestyle, as well as provide a small sample of blood and physical measurements. Volunteers will also be asked for their consent to use information in their health records alongside the samples and data provided, to build a comprehensive picture of their health.

Our Future Health aims to collect and link these multiple sources of health and health-relevant information across a cohort of 5 million people. Through their rapidly expanding network of GP partners, uMed will be providing over 150,000 patients across the South of the UK with the opportunity to participate in the programme.

“At uMed our ultimate goal is to improve access to research and healthcare to transform lives on a global scale, so we are proud to support such a wide reaching research programme that’s impacting the way we detect and prevent disease. Working with our GP partners, we can reach groups within the population that might otherwise miss out on the opportunity to participate in health programmes like this. This has the potential to make a significant impact on the outcomes of the research; supporting the delivery of better health outcomes for all”

Comment from Dr. Matt Wilson, CEO at uMed.

A key focus of Our Future Health is to build a resource that truly reflects the UK population, ensuring representation from all backgrounds. Past health research programmes have lacked representation of some groups, including people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, as well as those with lower incomes. Prioritising diversity within the programme will support the discovery of treatments that benefit everyone. uMed’s partnership with GP practices enables access to a wide patient population that is inclusive of all backgrounds.

To find out more visit the Our Future Health website: www.ourfuturehealth.org.uk. If you are a GP, Practice Manager, or part of a practice research team, based in the South of the UK and would like to offer your patients the opportunity to take part in Our Future Health, contact us at practicesupport@umed.io.