Today’s fast-changing landscape for aesthetic medicine offers dramatic new possibilities through advanced technologies and treatments. Maximizing these possibilities, from development through patient experience, requires specialized, expert collaboration and oversight. DeNova Research in Chicago, IL offers state-of-the-art clinical trial facilities focused on these exciting aesthetic developments.
What Are Clinical Trial Facilities?
The research site is a controlled environment where clinical research, development and testing can take place safely with appropriate oversight. In these settings, patients take part in supervised clinical trials and other research activities. Expert clinicians oversee these clinical trial facilities, and outside medical or scientific experts are sometimes called in for additional participation.
Because the scope of today’s medical possibilities is so broad, particularly in aesthetic medicine, the successful introduction of novel therapies requires more than just better science. Market intelligence is also key, as is a deep understanding of the prospective patient for aesthetic medicine. The clinical trial facility provides consulting expertise in developing these possibilities.
Why Are Clinical Trial Facilities Needed?
In addition to understanding — and proving — what is safe and effective through the production of clinical-grade data, it is important for treatment developers to be able to teach their advancements to the physicians and technicians that will administer them.
In addition to providing the physical facilities to accommodate patient groupings and clinical reviewers, the clinical trial facility gathers the necessary medical and digital expertise to verify claims, understand best practices and guide patients and practitioners to the best possible outcomes.
Types of Services
The introduction of a novel treatment, or the refinement of an existing one in aesthetic medicine is a multi-phase process. The experienced research site will be able to assist at any phase of development. While each trial is different and encompasses its own assumptions and protocols, there are three key time stages in a treatment or device’s life cycle where the research site can be the ideal collaborator:
Pre-Clinical Phase
Even at this earliest stage of a medical advancement, the developer needs to know if the treatment is going to work as advertised. In order to test the assumptions, the research facility helps develop a plan to create study guidelines and create the protocol that will demonstrate the treatment in action with patients, and move the study toward results.
Preliminary research at the pre-clinical level can be a game-changer for parties bringing new aesthetic treatments to market. What is learned from these early exposures to professionals and prospective customers can literally drive product development. Some research facilities can even help developers or principal investigators write grant applications that can fund the study in the short or long term.
The Clinical Phase
This phase of clinical validation encompasses a true clinical trial including human subjects. The clinical research facility will help identify and select appropriate participants for the trial and assign the appropriate supervisory medical staff to oversee the trial and its outcome data.
Key to any trial is proof of medical effectiveness. Does the treatment deliver the benefits that it set out in its claims? Have the patients responded well to the treatment and are they satisfied with the results? Most importantly, is there objective, verifiable evidence that shows success? A well-equipped aesthetic clinical trial facility will offer professional-quality photographic proof of outcome and clinical-quality data from both subjects and professionals.
Post-Clinical Phase
Having a new and better product or treatment for aesthetic medicine is never a guarantee of success. Once the treatment has been proven effective, it must be explained to the market, effectively taught to the technicians that will administer it, and promoted to the public so that it can gather a customer base. The clinical trial facility can be the perfect post-clinical partner.
The research site not only has the advantage of having been familiarly involved throughout the earlier test phases, but it also offers the communication experience to convey demonstrated benefits when they’re ready for the market. In addition to creating white papers, scientific presentations and medical marketing materials, the research site provides the all-important outcome data – the validating proof that everyone is looking for.
The Human Element
Aesthetic medicine is one of the few clinical disciplines where the ideal outcome is actually subjective rather than just a matter of data. Successful devices and treatments are measured by patient satisfaction with the entire experience, not just the end results. A clinical research site that’s focused on aesthetic medicine will understand this dimension of the innovation equation.
Finding the Right Research Site
The market for aesthetic medicine solutions is exploding. New treatments are not only delivering previously unattainable cosmetic benefits but also becoming accessible to a much broader population than has ever been possible before. In this burgeoning landscape of opportunity, a clinical research site that is focused on these aesthetic advancements is not only a medical necessity but also a substantial business advantage.
Proof of claims and satisfying patient outcomes are only the top of the pyramid in the highly competitive field of aesthetic medicine. Expert supervision, powerful validation goals and effective strategic messaging make the end results of the study or trial loudly heard as well as clearly proven. If you or your company are developing solutions for aesthetic medicine, plastic surgery or dermatology, contact DeNova Research, in Chicago, IL to see how their specialized expertise can guide your success.
