New ARPA-H Initiative to Benefit ACR Clinical Trials Programs

The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) has launched the Advancing Clinical Trial Readiness (ACTR) Initiative to make it easier for people to take part in clinical trials.

The ACTR initiative targets the development of tools and methodology which can streamline clinical trials, lower the burden for ACR members to participate in clinical trials, and promote equitable participation by patients throughout the US.

The ACR Center for Research and Innovation™ (CRI), a longtime leader in medical imaging and radiation oncology clinical trials management, applauds the intent of this initiative and hopes to participate in ACTR.

The ACTR initiative is led by American College of Radiology® (ACR®) Chief Research Officer (CRO) Etta D. Pisano, MD, FACR, who is charged with building the agency’s trials portfolio as ACTR’s Portfolio Lead.

In its recent announcement, ARPA-H, via its Customer Experience Hub, stated that:

“The core focus of this effort is to create the tools, network, and infrastructure necessary for decentralized and on-demand clinical trials that would enable 90% of eligible Americans to participate in clinical trials within 30 minutes of their home.”

ACTR also announced it is seeking participating organizations as well as proposals across three technical areas:

1. Tools for automatic trial data collection and standardization.
2. Trial participant identification and engagement.
3. Decentralized data curation and auditing.