f there’s any positive to come out of the COVID pandemic, it might be this: That more and more mainstream humans are aware of clinical research as a care option, that it does not have to be the last option,” suggests Lani Hashimoto (then Associate Director, Patient Engagement Management, Novartis) in this DIA 2024 interview with Deep6 AI CEO and Founder Wout Brusselaers. “A patient put that in perspective for me in a powerful way. She said: ‘My first trial was a registry. It was observational. Once I had a relationship with that physician and their staff, then I had confidence to participate in an interventional study.’

“In the rare disease community, it’s not ‘if’ I’ll ever be in a clinical trial, it’s ‘when.’ That’s a foregone conclusion, and that changes the whole perspective. That’s why I think of clinical research as a care option as being so imperative for more patients–not ALL patients, but MORE patients.”