DIA 2025 Global Annual Meeting

Component Type: Forum
Level: Intermediate

This session will share healthcare professionals' (HCP) perceptions about participating in clinical research as non-investigators. We will address the challenges and opportunities for HCP participation, aligned to the FDA guidance on DCTs as well as Point of Care Trials.

Learning Objectives

Analyze healthcare professionals' (HCPs) perceptions, both positive and negative, about participating in clinical research; Evaluate which routine care trial assessments HCPs might conduct as part of trials and assess study fit; Identify key strategies to engage HCPs in trial participation without requiring them to become investigators; Discuss resources to assist teams in navigating regulatory documentation.

Chair

Jane Myles, MSc

Speaker

Regulator Perspective
Timil Patel, MD

Industry Perspective
Shelly Barnes

Component Type: Session
Level: Intermediate

Poor study management, misconduct, and data falsification threaten regulatory decisions on product safety and efficacy. This session will cover regulatory guidelines and case studies of clinical trial electronic systems, risk assessment strategies.

Learning Objectives

Describe regulatory expectations for electronic systems in clinical trials, including electronic health records (EHRs); Examine criteria for evaluating whether these systems are suitable for trials; Discuss methods for identifying and mitigating fraud and misconduct risks in these systems; Identify case studies of fraud and mismanagement to emphasize the need for thorough risk assessments.

Chair

Junko Sato, PhD

Speaker

How to Combat Fraud?
Kentaro Ichinose

MHRA Perspective
Jason Wakelin-Smith

Component Type: Session
Level: Intermediate

Partnerships are crucial to overcoming the challenges clinical trials face in Africa. We will present the current landscape, provide key pointers on navigating it, and share case studies demonstrating the key importance of involving Africa in trials.

Learning Objectives

Recognize the importance of including Africa in clinical trials; Identify challenges of conducting clinical trials in Africa; Apply knowledge to successfully conduct global clinical trials in Africa.

Chair

Kwaku Marfo

Component Type: Forum
Level: Intermediate

This highlights the challenges of using real-world data (RWD) for patient referral in clinical trials, focusing on issues like data variability, lack of investigator training, and insufficient incentives. It proposes strategic solutions to overcome these barriers.

Learning Objectives

Identify innovative strategies for patient recruitment using RWD referrals that challenge existing practices; Propose new methods for integrating naïve sites into the clinical trial process to expand participation; Evaluate the potential impact of broader patient inclusion on clinical trial outcomes.

Chair

Sanghita Bhattacharya, PhD

Speaker

Patient Referral: Is It Hope or Hype?
Joan Chambers

Patient Referral: Is It Hope or Hype?
Barbara Isquith Arone, MS

Patient Referral: Is It Hope or Hype?
Karen Correa, PhD

Patient Referral: Is It Hope or Hype?
Irfan A. Khan, MD

Component Type: Forum
Level: Advanced

The session will describe informed consent in research participants with cognitive decline, discussing behavioral cues and consent/assent requirements for ethical practices when participants lose the ability to provide informed consent during a study

Learning Objectives

Recognize the ethical and operational challenges of engaging participants with cognitive impairment; Describe ethical options for retaining participants with cognitive impairment in clinical trials; Review best practices for informed consent/ caregiver consent/participant assent when the ability to give consent is lost during the course of a trial

Chair

Karla Childers, MS

Speaker

Sharing an IRB Perspective
Linda Reuter, MS

Component Type: Forum
Level: Basic

This panel will discuss whether flexible operational approaches like decentralization, embedding trials in clinical practice, and allowing setting adjustments will affect data quality. Real and perceived impediments to data quality will be explored.

Learning Objectives

Identify flexible trial approaches and their benefits and limitations; Assess when flexible trial approaches may impede data quality; Discuss solutions for maintaining data quality.

Chair

Lindsay Kehoe, MS

Speaker

Do Flexible Trial Approaches Impede Data Quality? Perception vs Reality
Catherine Gregor, MA, MBA

Do Flexible Trial Approaches Impede Data Quality? Perception vs Reality
Ken Wiley. Jr.

Component Type: Forum
Level: Intermediate

This forum will address the implementation of innovative clinical trial designs. Specific examples will be discussed and regulatory efforts to foster innovation will be examined to identify opportunities to increase stakeholder understanding.

Learning Objectives

Identify precedents and opportunities to adopt innovative trial designs in severe, chronic diseases; Describe and assess regulatory efforts to foster clinical trial innovation; Identify mechanisms to enhance public awareness regarding implementation of clinical trial innovation in drug development.

Chair

Samantha Roberts, PhD

Speaker

Industry Reflection
Rasika Kalamegham, PhD

Industry Reflection
Victoria A. Dohnal, RAC

Component Type: Session
Level: Intermediate

Hear directly from the regulators and industry about the challenges and opportunities in applying the ICH E17 guidelines. Some cases based on ICH E17 guidelines will be presented in the panel. Panelists will be asked to make comments for each case regarding points to consider in planning a study or evaluating results.

Learning Objectives

Explain how ICH E17 guidelines are being implemented in the conduct of multiregional clinical trials; Evaluate the limitations, gaps, and opportunities for applying the guideline globally.

Chair

Yoshiaki Uyama, PhD, MS, RPh

Speaker

Panelist
Armin Koch, DrSc

Panelist
Adriane Alves de Oliveira, MSc

Panelist
Hideki Hiraoka

Panelist
William Wang, PhD

Component Type: Session
Level: Intermediate

Japan's regulatory authorities have enacted various measures to strengthen drug R&D and accelerate clinical development, particularly for regenerative medicine, pediatric, and orphan drugs, offering great prospects for biopharma/ biotech companies.

Learning Objectives

Discuss PMDA's efforts to address Japan's drug lag and promote an accelerated clinical development environment; Describe the trial landscape and analyze the challenges in developing Regenerative Medicine, Orphan, and Pediatric drugs in Japan; Develop strategies for Japan to engage in multi-regional trials, considering the unique aspects of conducting clinical studies in the country.

Chair

Edward C. Ian, MBA

Speaker

Industry Perspective
Sumati Nambiar, DrMed, MPH

Panelist
Teppei KIUCHI, MD, PhD, MPH

Component Type: Session
Level: Intermediate

Industry leaders explore how biopharma is leveraging data foundations and technological advancements, including AI/ML, to improve access and representation in clinical trials, moving from DEI planning to tangible progress in clinical research.

Learning Objectives

Identify key areas where tech and analytics facilitate health equity advancement, focusing on achievable, tech-enabled outcomes; Illustrate concrete use cases where tech and data can support equitable clinical research, such as community outreach, recruitment, and measurement against diversity action plans; Discuss non-technical success factors needed to wholly support data-driven tech

Chair

Katrina Rice, MS

Component Type: Session
Level: Intermediate

This session will be based on a recent effort that examined lung cancer studies to determine how and whether exclusion criteria could hinder the participation of racial minority patients. The panel will feature experts from sponsors, research sites, and academia to discuss challenges and areas of opportunities for re-thinking how to make lung cancer protocols more inclusive, and will include perspectives from the clinical operations, regulatory, research sites, and academia.

Learning Objectives

Identify areas within a study protocol that can adversely exclude marginalized patient populations; Identify organizational challenges that may hinder redesign efforts, and the implications these challenges can have on the clinical operations and regulatory front; Discuss approaches, strategies, and lessons-learned to help simplify protocol design.

Chair

Jennifer Kim, PhD

Speaker

Perspectives from the Clinical Research Sites: Challenges Enrolling Racial Minority Participants
Julieta Argüelles, DrMed

Sponsor Perspective: Overcoming Re-Design Efforts of Study Protocols
Kim Ribeiro, MS

Application of Large Language Models (LLM) to Examine Lung Cancer Protocol Exclusion Criteria
Abigail Dirks, MS

Sponsor Perspective: Implications of Protocol Complexity on Regulatory Oncology
Laura Huggins

Component Type: Forum
Level: Advanced

Join us for an engaging discussion on an ongoing DIA study on enhancing the integration of tolerability patient experience data into immune-oncology clinical trials. This session will explore the study’s efforts to address regulatory requirements for the collection of core tolerability patient experience data and the need for a comprehensive, multidimensional approach to assessing tolerability in cancer treatments. With a multistakeholder focus, the study aims to define tolerability more holistically by incorporating treatment-related factors, convenience, and patient beliefs. Learn about the study’s progress, next steps, and its potential to align with regulatory needs while addressing real-world patient concerns.

Learning Objectives

Recognize the significance of advancing patient-centric tolerability measurement in immune-oncology trials to enhance patient outcomes; List insights into the ongoing study and future steps aimed at addressing the real-world needs of patients through a multistakeholder framework.

Chair

Maria Paula Bautista Acelas, MSc

Speaker

Moderator
Rohini Sen, PhD, MS

Unlocking Insights: Progress and Key Findings from the Tolerability Study
Ryan Murphy, PhD

Panelist
Catherine Coulouvrat, DrMed

Panelist
Lia Ridout

Component Type: Forum
Level: Intermediate

This forum on obesity drug development helps the audience understand the present landscape, participate in discussions on the prevention and treatment of comorbidities, and assess various strategies in enhancing clinical trial efficiency.

Learning Objectives

Discuss the present landscape, opportunities, and challenges of obesity drug development; Identify the prevention and treatment of comorbidities associated with obesity; Assess various considerations and strategies in enhancing the efficiency of obesity drug development.

Chair

Jingyu (Julia) Luan, PhD

Speaker

Panelist
Maria Vassileva, PhD

Panelist
John Sharretts

Panelist
Brad Jordan, PhD

Component Type: Forum
Level: Intermediate

This annual town hall provides a forum for senior FDA officials to reflect on key trends and discuss opportunities in rare disease drug development and review. Officials answer moderated and audience burning questions facing the work that they do.

Learning Objectives

Describe new FDA programs and initiatives intended to help facilitate development of drugs for rare diseases; Evaluate opportunities for sponsors and patient stakeholders to engage with regulators; Identify current trends in challenges and opportunities facing orphan drug development.

Chair

James Valentine, JD, MHS

Component Type: Session
Level: Advanced

In this session, we will provide a brief overview of the evolving ICH E20 effort with the goal to provide a transparent and harmonized set of principles for the design, conduct, analysis, and interpretation of adaptive clinical trials.

Learning Objectives

Discuss considerations specific to adaptive design using Bayesian methods; Recognize opportunities and challenges of using Bayesian methods in the regulatory setting.

Chair

Amy Xia, PhD

Speaker

E20 Updates
Amy Xia, PhD

FDA Bayesian updates
Mark Rothmann, PhD

Bayesian Trial Design Case Studies
John Zhong, PhD